Bill Clinton: “We discussed the former, but not the latter, expressly. The Prime Minister did say, and he's absolutely right, that the…”

“We discussed the former, but not the latter, expressly. The Prime Minister did say, and he's absolutely right, that the ultimate purpose of our presence in Somalia is to restore normal conditions of life and to try to help to build the nation there so that people can engage in self-government. Because of the intervention of the United Nations, people were saved from starving, medicine was provided, schools were reopened, the conditions of normal life have returned for most people. The present tension, occasioned by the action of General Aideed and then our reaction to that, is really the sort of thing people assumed would happen at the beginning of the United Nations intervention. But in the end, as the Prime Minister said, we have to try to have a political resolution of this. Now, with regard to the fact that the major elements there in terms of military forces are Italian, Pakistani, and American--of course, there is unified United Nations Command under General Bir, something that we supported. How all the forces relate to General Bir is ultimately a matter for the United Nations Command to resolve. But I thought that the Prime Minister raised some serious questions and some legitimate issues, and I pledged to discuss those with our defense people and to get back to him and also to discuss it with the U.N. people. We didn't resolve it, and I can't say the United States has a position now, because this is the first opportunity I've had to discuss it. But he made a very important case that every nation with a substantial military presence there should at least have its views heard in some organized way. Perhaps he would like to comment, but I think that's a fair statement of where we were. Prime Minister Ciampi. I've little to add. It's very clear what I said, and it's very clear what President Clinton said. Japanese Elections”