News from the Washington file

usinfo.state.gov 15 January 2003 State Department Noon Briefing Transcript

QUESTION: President Chavez said today that he's not particularly interested in having the US be a part of the -- of any Friends of Venezuela group. So now you've got him saying that and the Venezuelan opposition saying they don't want Brazil to be in it. So what are your thoughts on this sticky wicket?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, as you know, the goal of this group is to - I am sorry?

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on the archaism --

MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to comment on the bombast -- or the sticky wicket, either. (Laughter).

The goal of putting together some kind of 'friends group' has been to support the Secretary General and his efforts to have people on the ground that can help him. The United States has been very active, both with the government and the opposition and, indeed, civil society in general in Venezuela, to try to encourage people to reach a settlement, to reach a political solution. We would expect to continue to do that and therefore do believe that we should continue to do that with any grouping that is formed. The issue of support for the Secretary General is one I think that members of the OAS and any other interested parties would consider and decide amongst themselves.

QUESTION: So it sounds to me that if you're saying that the United States would insist on being part of such a grouping?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we would expect to be part of it, and others would expect us to be part of it.

QUESTION: Right. Okay. And would you also expect Brazil to be a part of it.

MR. BOUCHER: Again, with that -- I do not want to start today what I did yesterday; not start naming specific countries to be members.

QUESTION: Except for your own?

MR. BOUCHER: I suppose everybody could -- who wants to be on it -- could say that they want to be on it if they wish, yes.

QUESTION: Yes, but you do realize you carry a great deal of weight, the United States does in these kinds of things.

MR. BOUCHER: Yes?

QUESTION: So one would think that if the United States --

MR. BOUCHER: We would expect to be there to carry our weight.

QUESTION: -- support of Brazil, that they would be in.

MR. BOUCHER: That is why I have not started naming any particular country or not naming any particular other country.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: Terri?

QUESTION: On the matter of clubs, can you tell us whether you made any progress on keeping Libya off the human rights -- from heading the Human Rights Commission? Anything new on it?

MR. BOUCHER: There is really nothing new on that today. There is a I think the matter gets voted on next week of January 20th, so we have had our embassies approach people and we have made clear our view that there needs to be a vote, that people should vote their conscience and we would say not vote for a chairmanship by country that is a human rights violator and that is under UN sanctions.

QUESTION: But you were not very optimistic that people were going to view it that way. Have you heard anything about.

MR. BOUCHER: I try not to gauge our chances. Just say it is something we are working on and we have asked our embassies to follow up. As we have said, we think it is important for each country to consider carefully how it might vote and whether it can, in good conscience, vote for a human rights violator and a country under UN sanctions to be chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee.

QUESTION: On Venezuela. Does the need for this group called the Friends of Venezuela, does that imply that the OAS has failed?

MR. BOUCHER: No. It implies that the OAS needs and deserves every possible support it can get from the countries of the hemisphere, all of whom are pledged to support democracy, all except one who are pledged to support democracy. The members of the OAS, I think, do want to do what they can. There was an OAS meeting specifically on the subject where all the nations expressed their strong support for Secretary General Gaviria's efforts and this is another way that we think we can put people on the ground and work with the Secretary General to really support him in every possible way.

QUESTION: Will you welcome European countries to be part of this group?

MR. BOUCHER: I am not naming any regions or countries at this point. We will see what emerges from the discussions that we are having with others.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:45 p.m.)

(end transcript)

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