Remarks with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy After Their Meeting

(12:45 p.m. EDT)

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased to have had a meeting and a good conversation with my Bulgarian colleague, Solomon Passy, a good friend. We've done much together over the years and I extended to the Minister again our sincere thanks from the President and the American people, and I think I can speak for the Iraqi people at this moment as well, for the steadfast support that Bulgaria has provided to the liberation of Iraq and in securing the freedom that the Iraqi people deserve and securing the peace that they deserve and helping with the security effort.

We were deeply saddened that two Bulgarians were recently kidnapped, one of whom we know was cruelly murdered, dismembered; the other we're still waiting to ascertain the fate of the individual.

What so impresses us is that in the presence of this kind of terrible tragedy and this kind of activity, this kidnapping, the Bulgarian Government, the Bulgarian people, have stood fast. They would not be intimidated by kidnappers, they would not be intimidated by terrorists. They did not walk away from the challenge that they are helping us meet. I hope this is an example to all of the nations of the world, and especially the nations within the coalition, that this kind of activity cannot be found acceptable and cannot be negotiated with, and when you negotiate in this manner, all you do is encourage it. And we once again have a difficult situation with more kidnappings and I just want to thank the Bulgarian Government, the Minister and the Bulgarian people for their clear understanding of how you have to deal with this kind of situation and for their strong support.

We discussed a number of other issues having to do with visas, having to do with OSCE activities, having to do with where we are going in Iraq. We also had a discussion of the Secretary of Defense's Global Posture Review and how the Department of Defense is reviewing potential changes in our force posture around the world, but especially in Europe. And we know that Bulgaria has been in close touch with Secretary Rumsfeld and his people and expressed a desire to participate in this effort and shown a willingness to offer up facilities, training areas and other items that might be useful for U.S. forces as we look at our global footprint, especially in that part of Europe.

The Minister mentioned to me that the Bulgarian people would welcome us and 35 mayors, I believe you said, have already expressed an interest in hosting any kind of presence that we might be considering for Bulgaria. No decisions have been made, of course, and the Pentagon is looking at all possibilities.

Mr. Minister, it's a great pleasure to have you here again and I thank you once again for your strong support and I invite you to say a word or two.

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY: Thank you very much, Secretary Powell. Thank you very much for the support which your government and your people offered to Bulgaria in this difficult moment with the two Bulgarian hostages. We know that only the international cooperation, strong international cooperation, might succeed in this case; no country will succeed alone. And in this case, we, of course, had the choice. Bulgaria is a small nation of 8 million people and we had the choice whether to have two hostages or 8 million and two hostages, and we know that in this difficult choice, we accepted our principles and our values and we shall not open the door to anybody to blackmail our principles and values.

SECRETARY POWELL: I just also might mention that the Minister and I spoke about the medical personnel who are in Libya and we will continue to assist in every way we can until that problem is resolved as well.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the 9/11 Commission apparently says there was some cooperation pre-9/11 between Iran and al-Qaida. Do you have any observations on that?

SECRETARY POWELL: Iran and al-Qaida?

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY POWELL: I really don't. I haven't had a chance to read the report, which came out this morning, and I've only caught snippets of the presentation by the commission on television. But I will read it with great interest. We are pleased that such a thorough report was done and we assure that the report will benefit our work in the future as we try to continue to make improvements in the way in which we protect the nation. And the President has expressed his pleasure at the work of the commission.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Bulgarian television. Thank you.

SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: How would you comment the increasing hostage situation taking in Iraq? And in this respect, how do you -- what you do think about the idea of Minister Passy for a code of conduct for the reaction? And how do you comment the reaction of the Philippines who withdraw their forces because of their hostage?

SECRETARY POWELL: We talked about the idea of code of conduct, whether the coalition forces, the leaders of the coalition forces or larger organizations -- NATO, maybe the UN -- should speak out clearly on this subject, because it affects not just what's happening in Iraq, it affects the entire civilized world.

Can kidnapping be rewarded? Can kidnappers be dealt with? Or is the correct response from the civilized world is that we will not reward kidnappers because it can only be seen as a reward that might well lead to future kidnappings? It incentivizes kidnappings.

And so, I, once again, compliment Bulgaria for standing fast and we were very disappointed in the actions of the Philippine Government. I'm pleased that the Filipino gentleman was returned home safely, but I think a very high price was paid for the policy position that the Filipino Government took.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, do you feel that the situation in the Palestinian territories is sliding so dangerously towards violence that it perhaps warrants intervention by you, sir, or high-level American intervention?

Thank you.

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know where it might be heading. But right now, there is a debate going on within the Palestinian community about the role of Chairman Arafat, the role of the Prime Minister, the organization of the security forces. And this is a problem that can only be solved by the Palestinians. It is not for any outsider to go tell the Palestinian people how they should be governed or what actions their leadership should or should not be taking.

And what we are seeing is that there is disagreement within the community, the Palestinian community, and disappointment in some of the actions that their leaders have been taking. And so we will follow it very closely. We always stand by ready to be of assistance, but at the moment, as we look at it, this is a matter that the Palestinian people and their leaders have to resolve.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on Darfur, what does the early reporting that you're getting from your teams there now tell you, particularly, about the issue of genocide? And how might the UN draft resolution that the United States drafted be strengthened to put more pressure on Khartoum?

SECRETARY POWELL: The initial reporting that I have received is very disturbing as to the actions of the Jingaweit and how the Jingaweit were supported by the Government of Sudan. And we'll be studying these reports with great care. We're verifying them. We're listening to other agencies.

And I will present the preliminary results I have to Secretary General Annan this afternoon, when I go to New York to meet with the Secretary General. And we will also talk about what additional action the Security Council might take in the form of a resolution, either the one we were shopping last week or some different resolution, but this will all be subject of discussion this afternoon.

Andrea, welcome back.

QUESTION: Thank you. I was actually -- I wanted to follow up on your point about there is a very high price to pay for the Philippines. Are you implying, Mr. Secretary, that this has damaged the U.S.-Philippine relationship in any way? And if so, how?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm implying that it is a serious disappointment to us that the Philippine Government felt that it had to take this action because, in effect, the kidnappers were rewarded for kidnapping. They were paid off. They made a demand, a political demand against the Philippine Government, which the Philippine Government, a sovereign government, decided that it had to meet. And when you start meeting the demands of kidnappers, I think you're going down a very bad and slippery slope which incentivizes kidnappings. And the Philippine nation, the Philippine people, are allies of the United States, friends of the United States, and we have been for many, many years, but friends can have disagreements and those disagreements have to be worked out eventually.

Thank you.
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