Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
55031757
label
Foreign
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
55031757
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Foreign
citationUrl
collections
Records of the First Lady's Office (Clinton Administration)
Melanne Verveer's Subject Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
55031757
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
otherTitles
2068127-20130534S-095-007-2022
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
68d9c9ae84cfac0c
ocrText
file
THE WHITE HOUSE
September 10, 1997
Mrs. Eduard Shevardnadze
Tblisi
Dear Mrs. Shevardnadze:
Thank you for your very thoughtful letter and gifts
following our visit which was so beautifully described in your
article. You were most generous to me and to our country.
It was a pleasure meeting you and your granddaughter
and to learn more about the challenges you are facing in
Georgia Chelsea and I appreciate greatly the lovely pins you
gave to us and the sentiment you attached to them.
With warm regards to you and President Shevardnadze, I
remain
Sincerely yours,
Hillary Hillary Rodham Rodban Clinton Clinton
bce: amb. Country
wse Melanue Verven
Marsha Buy
gift unit
Nanuli Shebardnadze
July 17, 1997
Dear Mrs Clinton,
Please allow me to express my warmest greetings
and affection.
I will always remember every minute of our last
meeting which had such a great impact on me - please be
assured of my sincerity. For me, you are the epitome of
intellect and charm. These impressions inspired me to
write a article which I immediatly published in the
newspaper of which I am Editor-in-Chief.
Please accept an English translation of this article
with my compliments. Unexpectedly, I was not able to
locate a copy of the publication - I suspect that because of
the article about you, every copy was sold!
There was not a photograph published along with
the article, but the one of us together in the White House
was included belatedly in the next issue. This way many
people in my small country could become a little bit more
acquainted with you. I leave the estimation of the article
to you.
I am sending you a small present, a token of my
abiding respect. Please accept my wishes that your life
would be as light and beautiful as the form of the
butterfly, along with the legendary Caucasian longevity. I
also enclose a small gift for your lovely daughter. Please
accept these as tokens of my humble affection and sincere
regard.
Yours ever,
N Shevardnadre
Nanuli Shevardnadze
(Trasnlator's note: Kalbatoni means literally "lady" in the Georgian
language, but is also used as though a title (i.e.Lady Diana in
English) in everyday speech. The actual word "lady", borrowed
from English, is normally used when referring to a U.S. First
Lady)
A Little Account of a Big Event
As Guest of the First Kalbatoni of the United States
By Nanuli Shevardnadze
Yes, Kalbatoni. Kalbatoni is the word I prefer to "lady". "Lady"
sounds fine in English, while in Georgian Perhaps many will
disagree, but Kalbatoni is the proper address in the Georgian
language.
Much has been reported about my trip to the United States, so there
is no need to repeat the purpose and significance of this visit.
While in Atlanta, Georgia (slightly familiar, isn't it?), I received a call
from our embassy informing me that Hilary Clinton wanted to meet
and talk with me. Of course I was delighted, since such a meeting
had not been on my initial itinerary. Not because I did not wish for
one, but because I did not want to impose upon Mrs. Clinton. What if
she could not find time? You understand, it would have been
embarrassing. Believe me, not because I am overly sensitive about
such things personally, but I would have been hurt on behalf of my
country. And in this case, an entirely different type of sensitivity
would have been triggered in me Indeed "skhva Sakartvelo sad
aris?" (lit. "another Georgia, where is there?") I have been running
on, but now let me tell you my story.
Together with my granddaughter who was to serve as my interpreter,
I flew to Washington.
I left gloomy weather behind in Atlanta, and had been warned that
the same awaited me in Washington. From the ramp I looked at the
sky in amazement. The sun was at its zenith and it was quite warm.
After about two hours, we headed to the White House escorted by a
Secret Service vehicle.
When we arrived, the usual crowd of visitors was milling about the
green expanse of lawn
How often have I been here. I count four times altogether.
Whenever I see this magnificent building, I am inevitably
overwhelmed with emotion. I cannot even describe it. Reverence
perhaps? amazement? what?
My hostess, who had been waiting on the porch tripped lightly down
the steps and greeted us in the garden. Her clear bright eyes shone
with tact and the genuine welcome of a desired guest. She took our
hands and smiling, said "What fine weather you've brought with you."
On other occasions, this would have seemed a rather banal politesse.
But having been jaded by days of poor weather, her comment rang of
sincerity.
"I am pleased to hear it - I will try to see that it gets left behind when
I go." We both laughed outright.
We ascended the sunlit, pristine stairway. My journalist's eye could
not resist the urge to give a quick sideways glance to take in her
appearance. I found her charming, fair complected, handsome featured
and of elegant figure and carriage. The fabric and exquisite line of her
outfit bespoke of taste.
"Let's take the elevator," she suggested. I noticed that the
arrangement of things was somewhat different. As a rule every new
mistress of the White House makes her personal imprint on its decor.
She politely showed us into the parlor where she offered us tea, coffee
and a variety of confections. But when we began to talk, the
refreshments went virtually unnoticed.
She is possessed of a striking wit and intelligence -a fact acknowledged
by even her most ardent critics in America, and which bothers some of
them who enviously fabricate stories about her. What can one do?
Such is the fate of First Ladies everywhere and may the critics be
forgiven. But I am running on
What should have been a twenty minute visit ended up being an hour.
I confess that it was my fault. When asked about my country's
problems, I launched into an unremitting tale of Abkhazia,
Samachablo, civil conflict, and economic tribulation I tried to
condense it all, mindful of the time constraints, even more so since she
surprisingly asked question after question, making comments
throughout.
Indeed, a very intelligent kalbatoni. I tried several times to steer the
conversation to our women's organization, but she persistently kept
returning to the painful problems of Georgia.
Once or twice I glanced at my watch. "I think I have exceeded out
time," I said. "Never mind, this is extremely interesting," she replied.
This is what I had hoped for. I was aware that my emotions were
difficult to control by then, although usually I am able to (not meaning
to boast).
America has extended a helping hand to Georgia. You have
significantly contributed to the very survival of my country. We have
received half a billion dollars of aid so far, including cash. Her eyes
sparkled, as anyone's would by words of well deserved gratitude.
At the end, she inscribed some books for my granddaughter and me.
"Enough is enough, we have already abused your hospitality," I said,
starting to rise. This time, she permitted to take our leave. "You know,
my husband is leaving for Egypt today," as if she needed to apologize.
We walked down the stairs, side by side, into the garden. The
photographer met us, clicking away. I hope that, as is the custom of
the Americans, she sends us copies of the photographs.
Once more she looked up, savoring the sunlight, and bid us a warm
farewell.
But as it happens I could not keep my promise, for the next day, I am
told, it rained in Washington.
file foreign
THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1999
YNE
A29
Foreign Affairs
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Social Safety Net
Estimates are that by 2005 one bil-
will connect as many micro-banks as
lion portable Internet connections will
possible SO they can share solutions.
be deployed around the world - be it
Second, we will help those that are
through cell phones, pagers or Palm
not online get online, as we did in
Pilots. And by 2010 there'll be about
Benin. Third, we are creating a sys-
three billion - so many in fact that
tem, like Moody's, that will rate mi-
100 million toasters should be online
cro-banks according to their ethics,
by then. Why not? Finland is already
how well they serve the poor and
putting phones in Coke machines -
financial efficiency. Fourth, we are
you can charge your drink to your
setting up a university online to
home number - and the company
teach best practices to micro-banks,
DigiScents plans to deliver smells
and an online marketplace for micro-
over the Internet by sending data to a
loan recipients to sell their crafts.
"Snortal" attached to your PC, which
Finally, we are creating PlaNet
would on command mix different
Bank, which will extend lines of cred-
chemicals to recreate various scents.
it to micro-banks and will enable
Look around: anything with electrici-
anyone to come to our Web site,
ty is being reinvented to carry soft-
donate money to selected projects
ware and become networked. That's
the future. Even for your toaster.
I picked up such futurology not at
an Internet trade show but at an
Soon, online micro-
Aspen Institute seminar on poverty,
headed by Nelson Mandela and Jim-
loans for the poor.
my Carter. The question participants
were asking was this: Can any of this
whiz-bang Internet technology be
used for alleviating poverty?
offered by the best micro-banks, and
The answer is yes. "The Internet
then track whom that money went to
scales like no other technology," ar-
and how it is used."
gues Allen Hammond, the senior sci-
If PlaNet can really rate and link
entist at the World Resources Insti-
all the micro-banks, it could help
tute. "One education Web site trans-
them lower their biggest cost -
lated into Hindi, Mandarin, Swahili
tracking and processing all these lit-
and Spanish would have a potential
tle loans. The idea is that a single
user base of two billion people. It can
micro-banker, armed with the sort of
help even the poorest people invent
information device that FedEx uses
their way out of poverty."
to track your packages, could keep
How so? Consider the Web site
track of hundreds of loans and pay-
www.PlaNetfinance.org. The brain-
ments at a time. If the processing and
child of a French banker, Jacques
transaction costs of these micro-loans
Attali, PlaNet Finance works like
can be reduced, they can be bundled
this: Roughly 1.3 billion people live on
together and sold on a commercial
a dollar a day. One thing we know is
basis to the Citibanks of the world.
that one of the most effective tools for
Micro-banks usually charge 4 to 5
combating their poverty is micro-
percent interest a month, so this mar-
lending. Micro-loans range from $10
ket would appeal to big banks - if the
to $1,000. They go mostly to women
processing costs were cut. And that
and are given without any collateral.
would change everything, because
Micro-loan recipients use them to buy
right now there is great demand for
everything from sewing machines to
micro-loans, but their cash pool is
a cell phone the whole village can use,
limited to donations. With $20 billion
to beauty supplies to start a salon in a
in commercial loans from big banks
Bangladeshi slum. These people have
you could provide micro-loans to 100
the will to better themselves, they just
million people living on $1 a day.
don't have the basic cash, and that's
That's how you change the world
what micro-loans provide.
- get the big market players to do
While people who need micro-
the right thing for the wrong reasons.
loans are not online today, many of
"There's an old saying: 'Feed a
the micro-banks and aid organiza-
man a fish and you've fed him for a
tions that work with the poor do have
day. Teach a man to fish and you've
computers and can get online. What
fed him for a lifetime," says Mr.
PlaNet Finance is doing is wiring
Attali. "Well, we have millions of
these 7,000 micro-finance groups
poor people who know how to fish.
around the world into a network that
They just don't have a pole. Through
holds huge possibilities.
PlaNet we might be able to get poles
"First," says Mr. Attali, "PlaNet
for a lot more of them."
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
United States Department of State
4
Art in Embassies Program
United States Department of State
ART IN
EMBASSIES
PROGRAM
United States Department of State
Art in Embassies Program
Room B-258
Washington, D.C. 20520
Cover: Ellsworth Kelly; Green Curve; 1994; oil on canvas; 86 x 72 inches.
Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
United States Department of State
4
Art in Embassies Program
United States Department of State
ART IN
EMBASSIES
PROGRAM
United States Department of State
Art in Embassies Program
Room B-258
Washington, D.C. 20520
Cover: Ellsworth Kelly; Green Curve; 1994; oil on canvas; 86 x 72 inches.
Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
United States Department of State
4
Art in Embassies Program
United States Department of State
ART IN
EMBASSIES
PROGRAM
United States Department of State
Art in Embassies Program
Room B-258
Washington, D.C. 20520
Cover: Ellsworth Kelly; Green Curve; 1994; oil on canvas; 86 x 72 inches.
Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
file Joreign
FINCA®
INTERNATIONAL, INC.
1101 14th Street, N.W.
11th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202-682-1510
FAX 202-682-1535
EMAIL:[email protected]
8 November 1999
Dear Mrs. Clinton,
It seems at FINCA that we can never stop thanking you
enough for the countless times you have intervened on behalf
of our clients and the microfinance movement.
Your calling key Democrats on the Senate Foreign Affairs
Committee provided an extraordinary boost in our efforts to
pass S.1463, the Microenterprise Self-Reliance Act.
Unfortunately, Senator Helms sees S.1463 as so popular that
he may now attempt to attach it to his own unpopular foreign
assistance bill. Early next year, we are hoping to secure
enough bi-partisan support to assure the passage of S.1463 as a
stand-alone bill.
In the next few months, we will also work with your office to
identify ways that the Clinton Administration can assure the
continuity of its microenterprise program for years to come.
I am enclosing FINCA's new public service announcement
and a copy of a New York Times opinion piece. The piece
cites ideas which FINCA is developing in partnership with
Allen Hammond, the futurist, for extending the Internet
Revolution to microentrepreneurs.
Finally, I want to thank you for your greeting and gift that Neel
Lattimore kindly delivered to me on my birthday. It was a
great moment for me! I look forward to seeing you in Amman.
With warm wishes,
James
Foundation for international Community Assistance
Banking 781 the Pear -
NOV-05-99 06:20 PM
P. 01
file foreign
Date
V
11/4/99
FINCA International, Inc.
I
Number of pages including cover sheet 3
TO:
Katy Button
FROM:
Ceil Bartreau, Exec. Asst.
Office of the First Lady
Policy and Research
FINCA International, Inc.
1101 14th Street, 11th floor
FAX:
456-6244
Washington DC 20005
TEL:
456-7264
Phone
202 682-1510
Fax
202 682-1535
email
[email protected]
Hi Katy: Here is some info Lawrence is sending.
NOV-05-99 06:20 PM
P.02
LA Times: USC study questions micro-credit effectiveness
Wednesday, November 3, 1999
Study Contests Micro-Lenders' Effectiveness
By MARLA DICKERSON, LEE ROMNEY, Times Staff Writers
Micro lending programs reach a"tiny" number of the low-income entreprencurs
they target and are burdened by operational inefficiencies, a three-year
USC research project has found. A report on the findings, titled
"Microcredit Programs in the U.S.: The Challenges of Outreach and
Sustainability, "will bc presented at a public policy conference in
Washington on Friday and published in this month's issue of the Harvard
Business Review.
Micro lending programs have quadrupled in number over the last eight years
and gained popularity among policymakers as community development tools.
Programs lend between $500 and $25,000 to spur small business development.
They generally target low-income individuals with the notion that
entropreneurship is a path out of poverty.
The USC study stresses that some micro credit programs are indeed
effective, but it aims a harsh critique at them overall. Programs examined
by researchers made an average of just 25 loans per year--implying that
only 10,000 borrowers are served yearly nationwide--and most programs had
difficulty finding credit worthy applicants. Many borrowers were not living
below the poverty line and so did not demonstrate the greatcst need, the
study found.
Furthermore, more than 30% of programs that were lending in 1996 had gone
out. of business two years later, and the "vast majority" were dependent on
external subsidies. Recruiting by many programs was weak, they were slow to
disburse funds, and criteria to detormine credit-worthiness were too
conventional, the study found.
"We need to be cautious about advocating more loan programs--something that
the development community and policymakers have fallen in love with," said
Nitin Bhatt, executive director of USC's Business Expansion Network and the
study's lead author. "The money is [alrcady] there. We have to tigure out.
why the money is not being used."
Bhatt, public policy assistant professor Gary Painter and public policy
associate professor Shui-Yan Tang examined 16 California micro-credit
programs, interviewed 300 Los Angeles-area micro-entreprencurs and reviewed
national studies highlighting the industry's successes.
The U.S. industry was modeled 15 years ago on the Grameen Bank of
Bangladesh. That Third World program, along with Accion International in
Latin America and BRI Unit Desas in Indonesia, has seen near-perfoct
repayment rates by poor residents, who are traditionally considered
terrible credit risks. But many early micro-credit programs here failed to
take into account competitive pressures, higher costs, the need for
business training and other complexities of the U.S. economy.
The study called for financial sponsors to support only those programs with
track records. It. urges micro-credit programs to offer technical assistance
to borrowers and to consider alternative evidence of credit-worthiness such
as landlord references and car payments. Programs also should adopt more
stringent operational standards to become more self-sustaining, it said.
NOV-05-99 06:21 PM
P.03
"Micro-credit still is a potent intervention for low-income communities
if the intervention is delivered in the proper fashion," Bhatt said.
Responses to the study were mixed. The industry clearly faces
self-sufficiency issues, said Mark Pinsky, executive of the
Philadelphia-bascd National Community Capital Assn. But he added that
research by his organization, which represents 44 community development
loan tunds, has found that money is getting into the hands of the needicst
people. Pinsky questioned whether California micro-lending organizations
are representative of those of the nation as a whole.
The industry is already evolving to include technical assistance and
financial literacy training for micro-entrepreneurs instead of focusing
merely on lending, said Catherine Marshall, executive director of the
Oakland-based California Assn. for Microenterprise Opportunity, which
represents 125 organizations, about 30 of them with micro-loan funds.
"We certainly encourage micro-enterprisc organizations to use micro-lending
as a tool, but when you just look al micro-credit organizations themselves,
and there's no tochnical assistance involved, then usually you do have
problems," she said.
Added Roberto Barragan, acting executive director of the Valley Economic
Development Center in Van Nuys, which operates five micro-loan funds: "I
think there's been a shakcout in the industry, and those micro lenders that
remain are working."
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times
FAIR USE: This re-post of copyrighted
material is for limited personal or
educational purposes. The original
copyright citation, it any, is included.
sellllo>
<*///><
></11/0>
></111">
></11/0>
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20504
foreign
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE FIRST LADY
SUBJECT:
Summary of press coverage of your trip to Egypt,
Tunisia and Morocco
Attached is a collection of articles on your recent trip to
North Africa.
Coverage of the trip was very positive from beginning to end.
Nearly all of your visits to historical and religious sites,
health clinics, micro-enterprises and schools received coverage.
Reporters consistently framed these activities in the context of
your long-standing efforts to promote religious tolerance,
women's rights, development, education and cultural
preservation. Your major speeches in each country were quoted
in detail and further reinforced these themes in the press.
Criticism of any kind was remarkably infrequent. One reporter
faulted you for an unwillingness to address openly the issue of
limited political freedom in Egypt. The vast majority of
articles, however, praised as diplomatic your skill in
aggressively promoting the causes you value while not offending
your government hosts.
Articles also drew attention to the connection you made with
people at a personal level, emphasizing the interest and
excitement with which you were received both by the people and
the leaders of the countries you visited. Coverage of Islamic
Cairo, for instance, included highly complimentary quotes from
everyday Cairenes that witnessed your visit. While your gentle
encouragement of a shy schoolgirl in Aoufous revealed personal
warmth, the roundtable with Moroccan women showed that you were
engaging in a substantive exchange of views on issues of
importance in the lives of local citizens. On the whole, the
conclusion in the press was that your trip realized its goal of
strengthening ties with the people of the Arab world and
contributing to the breaking down of negative stereotypes.
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a tabbed divider. Given our
digitization capabilities, we are sometimes unable to adequately
scan such dividers. The title from the original document is
indicated below.
OVERVIEW
Divider Title:
THE WASHINGTON POST
WORLD NEWS
THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1999 A17
In Morocco, Hillary Clinton Discards Politics for Diplomacy
By PETER BAKER
haran Africa and the former Soviet republics.
mind," she told reporters as she prepared to
that helps women start businesses with small
Clinton had planned to visit Israel and
Washington Post Staff Writer
But the sight of the first lady back on the
return to Washington Thursday. "Tve really
loans, met with nongovernmental organiza-
Jordan, but scratched them from her itinerary
world stage where she feels so sure-footed
tried to put it out of my mind the last 10 days
tions advocating human rights, announced
in light of the Israeli elections and the recent
MARRAKESH, Morocco, March 31-For-
brought into sharp focus the peculiar trade-
so I will start thinking about that again
modest U.S. financial help and convened a
death of Jordan's King Hussein. Yet the
get the Senate. Over the last 12 days, Hillary
offs facing her as she decides whether to run
once I return home."
round-table discussion of local women to talk
politics of the Middle East followed her in
Rodham Clinton has looked and sounded
next year for the seat of retiring Sen. Daniel
But she added that she would hardly forget
about their status in society.
Arab countries that recall-and heartily ap-
more like a candidate for secretary of state.
Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.): How does a
the issues she has made her mantra around
The pattern is so familiar that embassies
plaud-her statement last year essentially
There she was in Egypt, gently urging
woman who eagerly told an audience this
the world, including women's rights, educa-
notified in advance no longer need much
supporting Palestinian statehood as part of
tolerance for the minority Coptic Christians.
morning about education and economics in
tion and religious tolerance. "These issues
guidance in arranging for her visits. "In the
the long-term solution to the region's ten-
There she was in Tunisia, lashing out at
Guatemala and Uganda turn her attention to
should be a priority no matter what I do," she
beginning, people didn't know quite what to
sions.
Islamic radicals in other countries who op-
the pork-and-potholes issues that arise in
said. "I don't believe that my one voice is in
expect," said Margaret A. Williams, her
Mindful of the dust storm that comment
press women. And here she was in Morocco,
places like Utica and Ithaca? How does a
any way sufficient to speak out on some of
former chief of staff, who came to Morocco to
created-and perhaps of sensitivities about
speaking out on everything from the Middle
woman whose international profile is so high
these issues. But I will continue to add it no
help with the visit. "Now people know to start
the topic in New York-Clinton did not
East peace process to the NATO airstrikes in
that bystanders in Africa two years ago
matter what decision I make about my
putting together the lists of all the women in
repeat it here. Asked about the issue today,
Yugoslavia.
referred to her as "the queen of the world"
future."
town."
she took a decidedly more neutral tack, to the
It has hardly been a new role for the most
adjust to becoming a low-ranking member of
She added it in her own trademark manner
By this point, embassies know to identify
point of implicitly urging Palestinian leaders
traveled first lady in American history. In-
the seniority-conscious Senate?
in North Africa. She stuck to themes and
some of the most exotic sightseeing for the
not to declare statehood on their own at this
deed, Clinton's trek through the deserts of
These are the questions that some advisers
tones that would not offend her hosts, while
first lady and her daughter, Chelsea, 19, who
point.
North Africa has closely followed the political
leery of her Senate flirtation have been asking
pushing her causes with carefully chosen
joined her while on break from Stanford
Less likely to cause problems in New York
and diplomatic road map she has used
her. If she has come up with any answers, she
words and pictures.
University. In Egypt they toured the ancient
were her attacks on Yugoslav President
through six years of globe-trotting to such
was not letting on today.
As she does on most of her overseas trips,
Luxor Temple and in Morocco they rode
Slobodan Milosevic for his campaign to
out-of-the-way locales as South Asia, Sub-Se-
"Tm still weighing all this in my own
Clinton visited a microenterprise program
camels in the Dunes of Merzouga.
empty Kosovo of ethnic Albanians.
PAGE A6 MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1999 *
The Washington Times
NATION
Hillary's image rides high
in jaunt across North Africa
Her act plays well
in Morocco, but
what will be next?
By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Hillary Rodham Clinton has
spent the past week in North Af-
rica doing what she does best: pol-
ishing her multifaceted public per-
sona.
And they loved her as diplomat,
humanitarian and feminist in
Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, just
as they did in India, which she vis-
ited a year ago with daughter Chel-
sea.
But will her global appeal play
where it counts the most, at home?
Immersed in a 12-day goodwill
tour of North Africa, Mrs. Clinton
has been far from the narrow, often
frenetic world of insider politics.
She has toured health clinics,
lunched with high-profile femin-
ists, dined with other first ladies
and toured the sites with Chelsea.
When an Egyptian tour guide
suggested she might like to be an
archaeologist, Mrs. Clinton re-
sponded with aplomb. "Well, I am
looking for a new career," she said.
The first lady has been kissed on
the cheek by a female admirer,
pestered by reporters and ap-
plauded by crowds of veiled wom-
en. She has spoken about waste
water, women's rights, education
and Kosovo.
Mrs. Clinton complimented a
Tunisian women's clinic for its pol-
icy of encouraging men to have
vasectomies rather than counting
on female birth control.
"I agree with that," Mrs. Clinton
said. You are the first health clinic
I've visited anywhere in the world
Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to dismount yesterday after an early
that has recognized that. I'm very
morning ride in Morocco on which she watched sunrise on the Sahara.
impressed."
Mrs. Clinton is in her element on
the broader international stage.
Mrs. Clinton is in her element on the broader
She is at ease here - impeccably
turned out, telegenic and even-
international stage. She is at ease here -
tempered under relentless media
scrutiny.
impeccably turned out, telegenic and
She began the North Africa trip
with a bang, reaffirming both her
even-tempered under relentless media scrutiny.
interest in a run for the Senate and
keeping a public presence after
her husband leaves office.
istan
once again in the misused
Her international credentials
In Cairo, she told reporters that
name of religion."
notwithstanding, the Senate does-
she had made "lots of calls" and
In Morocco, Mrs. Clinton and
n't look like a sure thing.
would "continue speaking out" on
Chelsea retreated to the desert
A Marist College poll released
issues that have fascinated her for
Saturday as their Muslim hosts
Friday found 45 percent of regis-
decades.
slaughtered lambs in celebration
When bombs fell over Kosovo,
of their religion's most holy event,
tered New York voters surveyed
who said Mrs. Clinton should run
Mrs. Clinton switched immedi-
Eid el-Adha, or "Feast of the Sac-
ately to classic first lady mode,
rifice."
for office, down from 56 percent a
supporting American will - and
After an evening of feasting and
few weeks ago. Another 49 percent
said she should not run at all - up
her husband.
entertainment, the Clintons arose
from 37 percent in February.
"As my husband the president
early, mounted their camels and
explained last night to the Amer-
Indeed, life in this hemisphere
rode a few hundred yards over
has not always been kind to Mrs.
ican people, the United States and
dunes of red sand to a point from
Clinton.
its NATO allies have acted to stop
which they watched the sun rise
the brutal killings of people in
over the Sahara.
A few weeks ago, gleeful reports
Kosovo and avert a broader hu-
Mrs. Clinton returns home
of a snarling first lady made the
manitarian crisis," she said Thurs-
Thursday, and according to her
media rounds. The Fox News
day and added she was praying for
spokeswoman, does not have pub-
Channel broke a story March 10
the American military.
lic activities planned until the
detailing a hair-raising row be-
On Friday, Mrs. Clinton spoke
White House Easter Egg roll on
tween Bill and Hillary Clinton dur-
up for women's rights, condemn-
April 5.
ing a family vacation.
ing violence against women in
Her more distant future still fas-
"I don't want to be in the same
some Islamic countries.
cinates many. Inquiring minds ask:
room with him, let alone the same
"It is time for the violence to
Will she be appointed U.N. ambas-
bed," Fox quoted her as saying. She
end, so that Algerians can once
sador, leave her husband, move to
also refused to accompany her
again be free to work in peace and
Manhattan, take a lucrative spot in
husband on his Central American
in safety," she said. "We also must
a corporation - or even run for
trip because she could not get her
speak up for the women of Afghan-
Senate?
own bedroom.
Page 2
LEVEL 1 - 7 OF 99 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 31, 1999, Wednesday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 724 words
HEADLINE: First lady finds North Africa tour welcome respite
BYLINE: SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MARRAKECH, Morocco
BODY:
Greeted with reverence and adulation, Hillary Rodham Clinton proclaimed her
tour of North Africa a welcome escape and a success for U.S.-Arab relations.
"I always like getting away from Washington," the first lady said Wednesday
as she and her daughter Chelsea wrapped up their 12-day tour - part sightseeing,
part U.S. diplomacy - through Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
"I hope for our country this has also been a trip that has helped to move the
agenda forward as to how we relate to people in this region of the world, the
first lady said in a brief news conference.
Particularly, she said she hoped her tours helped to erase the "stereotypes
and negative images" that some Arabs and Americans harbor toward one another.
Preparing to depart Thursday for Washington, Mrs. Clinton sounded reluctant
to face decisions about whether to seek the Democratic nomination for Senate in
New York in 2000.
"I've really tried to put it out of my mind the last 10 days," she said.
She focused instead on the headlines at hand, joining Western leaders in
condemning Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the Serbs' treatment of
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
But her husband did not mind musing on what the responsibilities of a husband
of a senator might be.
"I don't know, but I am willing to fulfill them," Clinton said with a laugh
during an interview with CBS anchor Dan Rather that focused largely on the
crisis in Kosovo. "You know, I would fill in at dinners, make speeches when she
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 3
The Associated Press, March 31, 1999
had to vote. I'd be the main caseworker at the New York state office. I'd do
whatever I was asked to."
The first lady said she's been "horrified" by the news she has seen on TV
from Kosovo and the "propaganda" from the Serbs. She accused Milosevic of "a
kind of perverted political decision-making."
Mrs. Clinton nodded at a reporter's suggestion that her forcefulness on such
a national security crisis was unusual for a first lady.
"It was important for me to speak out and, of course, I made clear that my
husband knew that I was going to do that," Mrs. Clinton said.
Almost daily telephone calls from President Clinton have allowed the first
lady to keep abreast of world developments while she was encountering adoring
villagers, flattering foreign leaders and ancient wonders.
While protesters outside the White House accused the president of starting
World War III in Kosovo and new polls showed New Yorkers cooling to the idea of
the first lady as one of their senators, in North Africa she found only
enthusiastic receptions.
"May God repay you for this. May God glorify you," an elderly Moroccan woman
repeated over and over as Mrs. Clinton toured the run-down squatter community of
Koudia.
From King Hassan came this word, according to U.S. Ambassador to Morocco
Edward Gariel: "We will not only treat her as a head of state, but as a member
of my family."
For example, the king dispatched to Mrs. Clinton's five-star hotel a pile of
silk robes and invited her to his dynasty's mausoleum at Rissani. Never before
had the mausoleum been opened to a non-Islamic visitor.
Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali turned the first lady's 15-minute
courtesy call into an hourlong summit on tough issues, including his country's
"shortcomings" on human rights.
"That really is going to be her greatest legacy - calling attention to human
rights, violations against women," historian Carl Anthony said.
On this trip, coming at the close of her husband's sex-and-impeachment
scandal, the first lady showed a certain exuberance - laughs shared with
diplomats and tour guides, the bounce of her hips as she clapped and flailed her
arms to the beat of a Berber drummer.
She also endeavored to normalize relations with reporters, many of whom
covered her husband's impeachment. She held two small news conferences, included
the press in her "let-her-hair-down" desert sleepover, and had two
off-the-record dinners with reporters.
Still, she offered few clues about her plans, political or otherwise.
Clearly, though, she welcomes the chance to give her views on certain issues,
such as the rights and health of women and children around the globe.
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 4
The Associated Press, March 31, 1999
"I don't believe that my one voice is in any way sufficient to speak out on
some of these issues, but I will continue to add it no matter what decision I
make about my own future."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 31, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0184177
FM: Reuters
a2546
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-TRIP
Hillary Clinton shows stateswoman mode in N.Africa
By Randall Mikkelsen
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - First lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton returns home Thursday after a tour that has taken her
from Egypt to Morocco in a bid to improve American relations
with the Islamic world.
The 12-day trip across North Africa has given Clinton a
chance to promote her policies on an international stage as she
weighs up whether to run for the U.S. Senate next year -- a
decision she said she would resume working on when she gets back
to Washington.
"There are strategic and human interests both that I hope
have been advanced by this trip," Clinton said Wednesday during
a brief meeting with reporters accompanying her. "I hope that I
have done something to increase the understanding between these
countries and the people who live here, and our country and
Americans."
She said that during her trip she had made little progress
in her deliberations on whether to run for a New York Senate
seat. Among other options she is considering is an international
career after President Clinton leaves the White House at the end
of his second and final four-year term.
"I'm still weighing all this in my own mind, and I've
really tried to put it out of my mind," she said. ``I've wanted
to be fully in this experience."
On Tuesday, one of the two women members of Morocco's
parliament cautioned Clinton about the difficulties of elective
politics.
``Undoubtedly the political arena is one of the most
hazardous arenas for women to practice (in)," said parliament
member Badia Skalli during a meeting between the first lady and
women leaders.
Aides to Clinton said she has given as little indication in
private as she has in public about which way she was leaning.
"I think she is still very conflicted," said one aide.
But the aide said she hoped speculation would ease now that
the Kosovo crisis has dominated government and media agendas.
Clinton during her trip toured ancient and holy sites of
Islam, Judaism and Coptic Christianity. She spoke out for
religious tolerance, women's rights and education for girls, and
discussed human rights concerns privately in meetings with the
leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
She saw numerous examples of people working to solve basic
development problems, such as providing money to start a
business or clean water.
In addition, she responded to the launching of NATO's air
offensive against Yugoslavia with a condemnation of Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic that was unusually strong for a
president's spouse addressing a major developing crisis.
On Wednesday she explained that her horror over Serbian
ethnic cleansing in Kosovo outweighed the traditional reserve of
U.S. first ladies.
"I'm just horrified by what I have seen, but I am
particularly horrified by the use of propaganda and the
manipulation of the truth and the revision of history that the
Serbian government is engaged in right now," she said.
``It was important for me to speak out, and of course I made
clear that my husband knew that I was going to do that," she
said. She had pointed out Tuesday that most of Kosovo's ethnic
Albanians are Muslims.
Clinton was welcomed by Muslims throughout her trip, many of
whom had been thrilled by her May 1998 statement endorsing the
idea of Palestinian statehood. Although the White House quickly
said she was expressing her own opinion and not U.S. policy, and
she has not reiterated the idea since, she was received as a
friend of the cause.
"This is a struggle you have taken on to assert the rights
of the Islamic and Arab people. Let me pay tribute to your
support to the Palestinian people," said Mohammed El Yazghi,
Morocco's minister of regional planning, environment, urban
development and housing, in introducing her Tuesday.
Clinton leaves for Washington Thursday evening, after
spending the day in Fez visiting a hospital, meeting with a
group of nonprofit organizations and paying a call on Prime
Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/31/99 14:43:00
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a tabbed divider. Given our
digitization capabilities, we are sometimes unable to adequately
scan such dividers. The title from the original document is
indicated below.
EGYPT
Divider Title:
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0110971
FM: Reuters
a4140
^BC-EGYPT-HILLARY
^Mrs Clinton to visit Egypt's Valley of the Kings
By Randall Mikkelsen
LUXOR, Egypt, March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton, who cited the spiritual beliefs of the pharaohs
in appealing for religious tolerance, sets out on Wednesday to
view glories of the ancient Egyptian kings.
She flew up the Nile River to Luxor after delivering a
speech in Cairo on Tuesday aimed at bridging the gulf between
Islam and the West in a changing world.
She will spend Wednesday touring King Tutankhamen's tomb and
other ancient sites in the royal burial valleys in the mountains
west of Luxor, and visit Egyptian scholars to learn more about
modern research into the dawn of civilisation.
She also will visit Hatshepsut Temple, site of the November
1997 massacre of 58 foreign tourists by Egypt's biggest Islamic
militant group. She decried such violence in her speech at
American University in Cairo, saying societies gripped by
religious and ethnic hatred cannot progress.
The first lady is on a 12-day tour of North Africa that
began on Sunday.
Mrs Clinton and daughter Chelsea got an introduction to
Luxor's monuments on Tuesday afternoon when they strolled among
the towering columns, monumental statuary and epic hieroglyphics
of the 3,500 year-old Luxor Temple.
``It marks the site where civilisation was born, the big
bang," Ray Johnson, field director of Chicago House, a
University of Chicago-affiliated Egyptology project in Luxor,
said as he showed Mrs Clinton the temple's ``rejuvenation
room."
She watched with detachment as Johnson stood before an
ancient carving explicitly depicting the creation of the world
as a man in sexual climax.
In her Cairo speech, Mrs. Clinton cited the ancient Egyptian
practice of filling pharaoahs' tombs with supplies for the
afterlife, and said values such as religious tolerance were now
essential items worth preserving.
``Think if you will about the values you would take to the
next world," she said.
``We have to bring forward those lessons in tolerance and
understanding that truly do stand the test of time and we have
to reject the calls to violence and prejudice and
discrimination," she said.
She also referred to Christian, Jewish and Islamic holy
places she saw in Cairo. "These three great monotheistic
religions have so much to give one another and people
everywhere. That can only happen if we respect, we listen and we
care about the traditions and values that each of us hold
dear," she said.
World leaders were more challenged than ever to prevent
dissemination of prejudice because of new methods of
communication, including the Internet, she added.
"We now have new tools of communication that can stir up
divisions in the blink of an eye. Someone can go in the Internet
and put out a message of hate that with a press of a button can
be everywhere in the world," she said.
RB-- 03/23/99 20:00:00
Page 21
LEVEL 1 - 97 OF 99 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 20, 1999, Saturday, AM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 707 words
HEADLINE: First lady, Chelsea foster U.S. Arab ties on North Africa trip
BYLINE: By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton set off this weekend on an "Arabian Nights"
spring-break tour of camel rides across Saharan dunes and visits to the wonders
of North Africa - both ancient and modern.
In advance of her Saturday departure, the first lady said she intended her
12-day travels through Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, whose populations total
almost half of all the Arabs, to dispel distrust that has strained relations
with some Arab states since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
"For too long, our close ties with the Arab world have been compromised by
negative stereotyping on both sides. It is my hope that this trip will help
strengthen the bonds of friendship among our nations,' Mrs. Clinton said.
Aides said she would make no announcement on her political future or the
Senate candidacy in New York some Democrats are pressing her to pursue.
Mrs. Clinton planned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Tunisia's remarkable record of educating women
and girls and Morocco's experiment with political pluralism and religious
tolerance.
To many Americans, Arabs are "all bandits, bombers and billionaires," said
Wallace Sanders, development director for the National Council on U.S.-Arab
Relations. He said he is counting on Mrs. Clinton to "disseminate the truth. "
This trip, her 19th overseas journey without President Clinton, was to have
included stops in Israel and Jordan, partly to balance Arab interests with
attention to the special U.S.-Israeli relationship. But diplomatic sensitivities
to the upcoming Israeli elections and mourning over Jordan's King Hussein forced
postponement of both visits until later this year, Mrs. Clinton said.
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 22
The Associated Press, March 20, 1999
Aides and administration officials were careful to underscore that Mrs.
Clinton's meetings with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Morocco's King
Hassan II and Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi were courtesy calls, "not
to negotiate Middle East peace."
Officials from the White House National Security Council, State Department,
three U.S. embassies and three foreign governments were marshaled in service to
the mother-daughter tradition of making Chelsea's spring break from school (she
is a sophomore at Stanford University) an exotic adventure combined with U.S.
foreign policy.
As tents befitting an Ottoman sultan went up half a world away for the
first lady's overnight stay deep in the Moroccan desert, her staff in Washington
worked with the State Department on daily schedules tying Mrs. Clinton's
sightseeing to themes of her official appearances:
-An address on peace and religious tolerance will follow two days of touring
the alabaster mosque of Muhammad Ali within the walls of Islamic Cairo's
citadel; viewing Old Testament scrolls in Ben-Ezra Synagogue, Egypt's oldest;
and visiting the nearby Coptic Museum and other sites of Egypt's minority
Christian community.
-A women's rights speech at Tunisia's parliament building, where women hold 7
percent of the seats, is tucked among stops at the half-ruined El Djem coliseum,
where women in the Roman era watched the gladiators from segregated seating, and
at a modern family-planning clinic.
In 1995, the Clintons' mother-daughter crusade to boost the status of women
and children swept through southeast Asia. When Chelsea, now 19, was on spring
break the next year, they dropped in on U.S. troops in Germany, Bosnia, Italy,
Turkey and Greece. In 1997, the pair dazzled sub-Saharan Africans with a
six-nation swing laying ground for the president's own trip to the continent
last year.
The first lady's twin themes are human rights and the vitality of U.S.
foreign aid despite its political unpopularity in Congress. As Brian Atwood,
director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told Mrs. Clinton
last week: "More than anyone, you have helped us tell our story."
During her husband's six years in the White House, Mrs. Clinton has visited
75 nations, venturing to corners as far-flung as Katmandu, Nepal, and Ulan
Bator, Mongolia.
"In Mrs. Clinton, women all over the world have a friend and role model,"
said Edith Grace Ssempala, Uganda's ambassador to the United States. "This
first lady has eloquently spoken to the needs of every human being."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 20, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0089271
FM: Reuters
a2002
^BC-EGYPT-HILLARY 3RDLD
^Mrs. Clinton tours monuments, mosques and mummies
(adds more details on tour of mosques and monuments)
By Randall Mikkelsen
CAIRO, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton toured mosques and monuments and had a close encounter
with a mummy on Sunday to open her 12-day North Africa trip
billed as a bridge-building visit to the Islamic world.
"We are delighted to start our visit here in Egypt, and
here in the heart of old Cairo," said Mrs Clinton as she
visited Islamic antiquities with her daughter Chelsea, who is on
break from her studies at Stanford University in California.
Asked by a reporter how it felt to be abroad, Mrs. Clinton
said: ``It feels wonderful." Aides have said Mrs. Clinton would
take a break during her trip from consideration of a run for a
U.S. Senate seat in 2000, the object of intense speculation in
America.
Starting a 12-day tour of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, Mrs.
Clinton was aiming on her first day to highlight Islamic
contributions to culture as a way to help dispel suspicions
between East and West.
She was to visit the Coptic Christian area of Cairo on
Monday to call attention to Egypt's tradition of religious
diversity, ahead of a speech the following day urging religious
tolerance.
As Mrs. Clinton arrived at the Citadel, which has towered
over Islamic Cairo since 1176, she apologised for running late
because her plane was delayed by engine trouble in Washington
and by poor weather in Ireland, from where her plane was forced
to divert to England to refuel.
The two Clinton women donned headscarves as a mark of
respect and visited the Mohammed Ali mosque, a many-domed,
alabaster-walled splendour which was built at the Citadel by
Mohammed Ali, the 19th century founder of modern Egypt. They
were guided by the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of
Antiquities, Gaballah Ali Gaballah.
Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea emerged from the mosque to gaze
over the minarets and other buildings of the city through a
dusty haze that dulled a heavy late-afternoon sun.
At the al-Sahlih Tala'i mosque, built in 1160, she dedicated
a painstakingly restored, 700-year-old "minbar," or high
pulpit of intricately tooled wood. She also strolled under the
11th century Bab Zuweila gate, once used as an execution site.
U.S. assistance is helping to restore such sites of historical
importance.
Mrs. Clinton got an after-hours tour of the world-renowned
Egyptian Museum. There, she saw the solid-gold coffin and
headdress of King Tutankhaman, and walked through the museum's
mummy collection. One of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs,
Ramses II, lay at rest in a wooden coffin, his leathery toes and
fingers poking through a linen burial wrapping, and his arms
crossed peacefully over his chest.
Clinton spokeswoman Marsha Berry said Sunday's visits also
underscored the importance of preserving cultural treasures, one
of Mrs. Clinton's favourite causes.
Mrs. Clinton is also expected to use her North African tour
to promote the rights of women and children, call for religious
tolerance and encourage democratic advances.
On Monday, she is to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
and visit the New Horizons programme for young women, which
deals with issues such as reproductive health and female genital
mutilation. Although such ritual mutilation is officially
discouraged, it is widespread in Egypt.
Mrs. Clinton also will discuss ``microcredit" lending to
small businesses in a Cairo marketplace.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/21/99 17:48:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: A0091585
FM: AP/East
a0454
^PM-Mrs Clinton, 550<
First lady, daughter begin tour at preservation site<
^Eds: Lead prospects uncertain<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) First, the Stars and Stripes. Now, the
Mosque of Salah Talai.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for historic preservation
swept across 5,800 miles Sunday to the heart of Old Islamic Cairo,
where she and her wide-eyed daughter, Chelsea, visited treasures
the United States is helping to restore.
The American first lady, beginning a 12-day tour of North
Africa, added a foreign flavor to the drive she began last year at
home with the restoration of the original Star-Spangled Banner: to
rally public and private funds for the preservation of historic
landmarks and artifacts.
"I am here on behalf of my husband and of the American people
to strengthen the bonds of friendship and partnership between our
two countries, deepen our dialogue and see firsthand how Egyptians
are moving toward the future while preserving their extraordinary
culture and heritage," Mrs. Clinton said in a statement
distributed as she and Chelsea, 19, disembarked from their 13-hour
flight from Washington.
Struggling against the wind to tame a gauzy beige scarf over her
hair, Mrs. Clinton indulged Egyptian news photographers clamoring
for a pose at the hilltop Citadel and then entered the Mosque of
Muhammad Ali in her stocking feet, as is required by Islamic
tradition.
The Ottoman mosque, with alabaster walls and cylindrical minaret
was built and named for the founder of modern Egypt. It is one of
dozens of restoration projects under way by the Egyptian Supreme
Council of Antiquities and the U.S. Agency for International
Development.
USAID, whose cause Mrs. Clinton is here to champion, has at
least $15 million invested in Egyptian antiquities' preservation,
with an additional $771 million dedicated to helping Cairo
eliminate sewage flooding into homes, mosques and other historical
sites.
At the Mosque of Salah Talai, Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea were
given to use "as paperweights or coasters," their tour guide
offered samples of the intricately carved balsam pieces of a 1290
minbar, Egypt's second-oldest surviving pulpit, from which a Muslim
imam preaches at Friday prayers.
"You know all about conservation. I'm preaching to the
converted," Gaballa Ali Gaballa, head of Egypt's antiquities
council, told Mrs. Clinton.
Across a narrow street and through the Bab Zuweila Gate, another
restoration project and the spot where defeated sultans in the
1500s were nailed to the doors, the American visitors poked through
the stone and wood cubbyhole where cupsful of water were once
distributed through bronze grilles to passers-by.
Mrs. Clinton suggested to Dr. Gaballa that the antiquities
council sell "books and other souvenirs for tourists" to raise
additional restoration funds.
The Clinton women, who were traveling during Chelsea's spring
break from Stanford University while President Clinton remained in
Washington, had a full day of appointments today.
They were calling on President Hosni Mubarak, saluting small
businesswomen at the Khan al Khalili marketplace, discussing
education at a youth center in Cairo's Telal Zeinhom neighborhood,
touring the Ben-Ezra Synagogue and visiting the Coptic quarter of
the minority Christian community.
APE- 03/22/99 01:08:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0098830
FM: Reuters
a3394
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-EGYPT 2NDLD
^Mrs Clinton dodges Senate issue in Egypt
(Recasts, adds further events in day's program)
By Randall Mikkelsen
CAIRO (Reuters) - With Egypt's bazaars buzzing with talk
about her possible bid for the U.S. Senate, First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton finally discussed the issue Monday but left
nobody any wiser about her plans.
Answering questions publicly on the issue for the first
time, she told reporters: "I do know that I want to continue
speaking out on behalf of the issues that I've spent more than
25 years working on.
"But the form that will take I really can't predict at this
time," Mrs Clinton said after a speech at a women's health
center in Cairo.
She announced at the center a $24.5 million U.S. donation
for family planning and maternal health programs in Egypt, on
the second day of a 12-day tour through North Africa to promote
social issues and closer relations with the Islamic world.
Also Monday, she toured a synagogue and a 5th century Coptic
Christian church in Cairo, expressed what aides said was concern
in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about Islamic
militants' attacks on minority Copts, and discussed with a group
of women a videotape project they were involved in to spread
awareness of women's issues.
In addition, she traipsed along a narrow alleyway of the
Khan El-Khalili tourist bazaar area of Cairo to visit
shopkeepers, some of whom were aware of her Senate deliberations
and said they were eager for her to run.
"I will nominate her for sure," artisan Mona Abdel-Mageed
told reporters as she readied a strand of ceramic beads to give
the first lady.
At the health center, Mrs Clinton took the rare step of
answering questions from reporters about her Senate plans.
``I've talked to a lot of people in the last month and I
will continue that when I return home, but right now I want to
focus on the issues that are really at the base of this very
important partnership and friendship between the United States
and Egypt," the first lady said.
Her comments on her political future were her first since
she acknowledged in a written statement in February that she was
considering a run for a New York Senate seat in 2000. She has
consulted busily with political advisers in weighing a race.
But President Bill Clinton said in a news conference on
Friday "I literally don't have a clue" whether she would run.
That didn't stop some Egyptians from forming an opinion.
Wahiba El-Sayed, standing in her shop as she awaited a visit
from Mrs Clinton, called her "a very strong woman" and said
she should run for the Senate seat.
``If she wants to do something she can do it," El-Sayed
said.
The first lady visited shops to highlight a U.S.-supported
``microcredit" lending program that has helped small business
operators, many of them women, to get started.
"I've seen programs like this all over the world. They're
very successful and people take it seriously," Mrs Clinton said
as she toured the shops. "I'm so proud of the women
borrowers."
She told reporters she was focusing on issues like
``improving the lives of children, and giving more opportunities
to people, particularly women, and improving relations around
the world among democracies, and making it clear that we have a
lot to learn and give one another in the world."
Abdel-Mageed and other shopkeepers declined to discuss their
views of the Clintons' relationship in the wake of the
president's sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky.
But veteran columnist Anis Mansour, in a commentary printed
Monday in the English-language Egyptian Gazette, declared that
"their relationship is completely over."
"The divorce proceedings will go very smoothly because the
judge will not have to summon witnesses. Almost all the globe's
population are witnesses on Clinton's infidelity," he wrote.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/22/99 17:47:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: WASHINGTON DATELINE DOCID: R0079864
FM: Reuters
a3722
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-TRIP 2NDLD
^Mrs. Clinton to tour sands, souks of North Africa
(Updates with Clinton comments, paras 6-8)
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
leaves Saturday for the sands and souks of North Africa, where
she will take a break from speculation on her political plans
and pursue a broad international agenda.
During a 12-day visit to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, Mrs.
Clinton will promote the rights of women and children, education
and an expansion of democracy, while seeking to bridge suspicion
between the Islamic world and the West.
As she takes in a sunrise from a desert encampment and the
sunsets of Marrakesh, the first lady will relegate to the back
of her mind her deliberations on whether to run for a New York
Senate seat, aides said. Those deliberations have prompted
intense interest among the American public.
"She's going to be concentrating on this trip There's a
lot of issues that she's got to focus on," said Mrs. Clinton's
spokeswoman, Marsha Berry. "Whether she will muse (about her
Senate possibilities), one never knows."
Friends of Mrs. Clinton have said that long before she began
entertaining the idea of a Senate run, she had an interest in
serving in an international capacity, such as United Nations
ambassador, after President Clinton leaves office in 2001.
President Clinton said Friday he had no idea if his wife
would run for the Senate, but told a news conference the couple
had discussed moving to New York after he leaves office in
January 2001.
"I literally don't have a clue," Clinton said, adding:
"She told me over a year ago that she thought we should
move to New York when I left the White House."
As for the state of their marriage in the face of rumors of
marital tumult after his affair with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton
said that "we're working hard" to strengthen their union.
Mrs Clinton has taken some 20 foreign trips solo as first
lady, in addition to her travels with the president. She
canceled plans to travel to Central America with the president
last week, fueling speculation about the state of their marriage
after his impeachment trial. But aides said she needed to nurse
a bad back ahead of her North Africa trip.
The Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, will accompany her mother
to North Africa.
In a speech Tuesday in Washington, Mrs. Clinton said she
hoped to bring America and the Arab world closer together.
``For too long, our close ties with the Arab world have been
compromised by negative stereotyping on both sides," she said.
``With populations that total almost one-half of the Arab
world, these countries represent a diversity of cultures, ethnic
groups, and histories, and provide us an opportunity to learn
more about what they are doing, about their history, and to
become closer friends and partners in building a better
future," she said.
To this end, she will tour historic Islamic areas of Cairo
and Egypt's ancient Valley of the Kings, visit a mosque and
Roman ruins in Tunisia and explore the casbahs of Morocco. She
will camp out in the Moroccan desert and visit rural villages.
The first lady will also deliver speeches promoting her
international goals, as well as meet privately with leaders of
the countries she visits, U.S. officials said.
On Tuesday in Cairo, she will talk about her experience with
Islam in calling for religious tolerance, after a stop to
highlight Egypt's minority Coptic Christians, who have faced
attacks from Islamic fundamentalists.
In Tunisia next Friday, she is expected to cite the advanced
status of women's' rights in the country. She also is likely to
subtly nudge Tunisia toward allowing greater political
expression, aides said.
And in Morocco on March 29, she is to speak about the
country's opening political system and religious tolerance.
Mrs. Clinton will also use stops at schools, health clinics
and U.S. aid projects to highlight the importance of expanding
education, particularly for girls, and of creating economic
opportunities for women.
She will touch only gingerly on the Middle East peace
process, mostly by commemorating the 20th anniversary of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. In May, Mrs. Clinton stunned many
in the Israeli government and inspired Palestinians by endorsing
the idea of an eventual Palestinian state.
A State Department official said Mrs. Clinton would not
revisit the subject on her trip, and that she agreed with
Clinton administration policy that the issue is to be decided
in ``final status" talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
During her stay in Morocco, Mrs. Clinton will have a chance
to indulge in a travel fantasy she and the president have long
shared. "The first lady and the president have always wanted to
see the sunset in Marrakesh, so she'll get a chance to do
that," a U.S. official said.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/19/99 20:16:00
THE WASHINGTON POST
NATIONAL NEWS Politics
M1 TUESDAY, MARCH 23. 1999 A7
First Lady Confirms Talks on N.Y. Senate Bid
By HOWARD SCHNEIDER
Clinton said she intends to find
of the issues that I've spent more
Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republi-
Washington Post Foreign Service
some way to continue working on
than 25 years working on," Clin-
can.
the issues she is most interested
ton said. "The form that will take
She agreed to the rare ques-
CAIRO, March 22-First lady
in after leaving the White House
I really can't predict at this time."
tion-and-answer session follow-
Hillary Rodham Clinton con-
in January 2001.
"Tve talked to a lot of people in
ing her tour of a Cairo health
firmed today that she is consult-
Whether that means delving
the last month, and I will contin-
center, apparently in an effort to
(ing friends and advisers about a
into electoral politics or some-
ue that when I return home," she
dispense with the issue while she
possible run for the Senate in
thing else remains to be seen. But
said of her consultations with
is traveling and turn the spotlight
New York, saying that is just one
the first lady indicated she is
advisers and friends.
to the issues of religious toler-
option she is exploring to stay
serious about exploring a run for
The comments marked the
ance and historic conservation
involved in public life when Presi-
the seat held by Sen. Daniel Pat-
first time Clinton has responded
that are the centerpieces of her
ident Clinton's second term ends.
rick Moynihan (D-N,Y.), who is
directly to questions raised by
North Africa trip.
Talking to reporters on the
retiring.
her strong showing in polls pit-
"Right now I want to focus on
second day of a trip to Egypt,
"I do know that I want to
ting her in a hypothetical Senate
the issues that are really at the
Tunisia and Morocco, Hillary
continue speaking out on behalf
race against New York Mayor
base of this very important part-
nership and friendship between
public works projects critical to
the United States and Egypt," she
maintaining some of Cairo's most
told the audience of reporters,
important architecture.
doctors and hospital staff.
On Sunday, for example, she
Touring here with her daugh-
visited the Salih Talai Mosque in
ter Chelsea during Chelsea's
one of Cairo's oldest Islamic neigh-
spring break from Stanford Uni-
borhoods, an elegant, open-air
versity, the first lady has divided
building that until a few months ago
her time among Cairo's ample
was surrounded by pools of open
mix of Muslim, Christian and
water that threatened to erode the
ancient historic sites, weaving
foundation.
together an effort to reach out to
That problem has been fixed,
the Islamic world with her per-
and, in conjunction with Egyptian
sonal interest in historic preser-
authorities, a 700-year-old, intri-
vation.
cately carved beechwood minbar
She is also trying to call attention
has been restored.
to the money being invested here
The minbar is a pulpit-like plat-
by the U.S. Agency for Internation-
form at the top of a short staircase
al Development in sewer and other
for the mosque's prayer leader
Page 14
LEVEL 1 - 55 OF 99 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 23, 1999, Tuesday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 715 words
HEADLINE: Mrs. Clinton treads carefully with talk of religious tolerance
BYLINE: SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: CAIRO, Egypt
BODY:
Hillary Rodham Clinton visited some of Egypt's most important Muslim,
Christian and Jewish sites Tuesday, then exhorted the people of the Middle East
to "reject the calls to violence and prejudice and discrimination."
The American first lady's appeal for tolerance came in a country where Islam
is the state religion, but the largely secular government has been under fire
for years from Muslim militants.
Mrs. Clinton said before she left on a 12-day trip through Egypt, Morocco
and Tunisia that she was counting on news coverage to spread her message beyond
North Africa's borders. Her touring in Cairo generated news photos of Egypt's
religiously diverse history.
With daughter Chelsea at her side, the first lady marveled at the air shaft
of a pulpit used to keep the Muslim imam cool as he preaches in a 700-year-old
mosque. She stepped into the cellar of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Egypt's oldest,
whose foundations were laid in the 11th century on the site where, tradition
holds, baby Moses was discovered among bulrushes. And she peered into the
mildewed crypt of St. Sargius Church, where Mary and Joseph were said to have
sheltered the Baby Jesus as they fled into Egypt from King Herod's soldiers.
In her address at the American University in Cairo, Mrs. Clinton seemed
careful not to offend diplomatic sensitivities. Several times in her 40-minute
speech, she noted that the United States is "not perfect" and that church
burnings and hate crimes back home give evidence of intolerance.
"We have to reject the calls to violence and prejudice and discrimination,"
Mrs. Clinton said. "In every religion, there are those who would drape
themselves in the mantle of belief and faith, only to distort its most sacred
teachings - preaching intolerance and resorting to violence against believers of
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 15
The Associated Press, March 23, 1999
other faiths."
Egyptian Christians, known as Copts, were frequent targets of the insurgent
Muslims at the height of their violent unrest in the late 1980s and early
1990s. The government contends its strong and often-violent tactics have
succeeded in quelling the domestic terror.
At St. Sargius Church, with its unmarked, basement-level entrance off an
alley in Cairo's Old Coptic Quarter, Bishop Yohanna cast the best light on the
situation for his American visitors.
"We feel that we are brothers and friends," he said. "We are one unit and one
country. We love them, and they love us."
Troublemakers, he said, are "just a few religious fanatics."
From Cairo, Mrs. Clinton flew south to Luxor, another trove of ancient
treasures on the Nile. She and Chelsea spent more than an hour poking through
massive Luxor Temple, then posing for tourists and news photographers alike at
the feet of a colossus of Ramses III.
On Wednesday, the women planned to tour the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in the
Valley of the Kings, where in November 1997 a band of militant Muslims killed 58
foreign tourists.
In her Cairo address, Mrs. Clinton also celebrated the U.S. mediated
Israeli-Egyptian peace accord, reached in 1978, that led the next year to the
first treaty between Israel and an Arab country. But the first lady shied away
from the complicated issues that have hampered the peace process since.
Last year, in a satellite hookup with a youth conference in Switzerland, Mrs.
Clinton caused an international stir with her comment: "I think it will be in
the long-term interests of the Middle East for Palestine to be a state." She
called the goal "very important for the Palestinian people" and for the "broader
goal of peace in the Middle East." U.S. policy holds that the Palestinians must
negotiate their future with the Israelis.
Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton said only, "We will never and must never give up on the
dream of peace that was really ignited by the Camp David accord."
Tom Farkas, coordinator of the Cairo American University's English language
program, called Mrs. Clinton's soft approach predictable. But he said: "She's
quite well-known here for her comment on Palestine, so I was hoping for a little
more, something definitive."
In a meeting Monday with President Hosni Mubarak, which was scheduled as a
15-minute courtesy call but stretched to an hour, Mrs. Clinton voiced concern
about the treatment of Egypt's 6 million to 10 million Coptic Christians.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 23, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0104736
FM: Reuters
a1496
^BC-EGYPT-HILLARY 1STLD (PICTURE) (RPT)
^Hillary Clinton urges religious tolerance
(Adds speech at American University in Cairo)
By Christine Hauser
CAIRO, March 23 (Reuters) - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton drew on two days of touring Christian, Moslem and Jewish
holy sites in Egypt to call on Tuesday for religious tolerance.
"These three great monotheistic religions have so much to
give one another and people everywhere," she said at the
American University in Cairo.
Students, professors and other invited guests stood and
applauded Mrs Clinton at the start and end of her 45-minute
speech, billed as one of her major policy addresses during her
12-day trip to North Africa which began on Sunday.
Mrs Clinton called for religious tolerance and a democratic
society, stressing the importance of solid education and health
care opportunities for all, especially women and girls.
She did not mention her own political aspirations, nor say
whether she will run for the United States Congress.
At a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on
Monday, Mrs Clinton expressed concern about attacks on Coptic
Christians. She and daughter Chelsea visited the 5th century
Coptic Church of St Sergius and toured Ben Ezra Synagogue.
During her speech, she described visiting the church and
nearby synagogue against the backdrop of the city's many
mosques, some of which she toured on Sunday.
``It gave me a vivid sense of the diversity that exists in
this great country," she said. "Now that (diversity) can
either be a source of division or a blessing. That is certainly
how I view it in my own country."
Mrs Clinton said even in the United States it had been
necessary to fight intolerance shown in burnings of churches and
racial discrimination. "Democracy is never perfected," she
said.
Mrs Clinton later left Cairo for Luxor for a three-day visit
to the Valleys of the Kings and Queens and the Hatshepsut
Temple, site of the November 1997 massacre of 58 foreign
tourists by Egypt's biggest Islamic militant group.
Mrs Clinton's spokeswoman said her speech was aimed at Egypt
and the Arab region in general, citing Egypt's tradition of
religious tolerance and alluding to more recent concerns, such
as violence by Islamic militants against minority Coptic
Christians and foreigners.
Mrs Clinton emphasised how a country's ethnic or religious
diversity can either work for or against it, citing examples of
how neighbours turned against neighbours in Bosnia.
She said ensuring freedom of religion and other basic rights
and recognising the ``diversity of humanity" was a "daily
struggle" in a democracy.
World leaders were more challenged than ever to prevent
dissemination of prejudice because of new methods of
communication, including the Internet, she added.
Mrs Clinton said the White House now marked Islam's holy
fasting month of Ramadan, just as the first family recognised
Christmas and Hanukkah with trees and a menorah.
RB-- 03/23/99 09:28:00
HE WASHINGTON POST
WORLD NEWS
M2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24. 1999 A19
First Lady Treads Carefully Through Egypt's Politics
By HOWARD SCHNEIDER
organizations. Instead, she praised the government
the background during her trip to North Africa
Washington Post Foreign Service
for expanding opportunities for nongovernmental
with her daughter, Chelsea, who is on her spring
organizations involved with health care and wom-
break from Stanford University.
CAIRO, March 23-In a country that has
en's rights. She said she was looking forward to
Capping a three-day visit to the Arab world's
banned some political parties, arrested human
visiting a "democracy school" in Luxor that teaches
largest city, Clinton shied away from controversial
rights workers and detained thousands of suspect-
people about citizenship, and that reductions in the
themes.
ed Islamic radicals without trial, first lady Hillary
rates of population growth and infant mortality
Rather, she asked her audience to imagine-
Rodham Clinton surveyed Egypt's progress to-
showed progress is being made.
they were ancient Egyptians assembling cargo for
ward democracy and civil society in a speech today
An aide told the Associated Press that Clinton
their journey to the afterworld-what they will
and decided it was doing pretty well.
did express concern to Egyptian President Hosni
need on the journey to a new life in the 21st
In a carefully worded, half-hour address, Clinton
Mubarak about the treatment of the country's
century.
avoided even implicit criticism of an important
Coptic Christian minority-an issue Egyptian
It was a metaphor that let her stick to such safely
U.S. ally where security concerns are paramount
officials say has been greatly distorted by Western
neutral themes as religious tolerance and educa-
and the government historically has been hesitant
politicians and journalists.
tion-appropriate to a trip that has been light on
to turn any operations over to businesses or other
But such worries largely have been consigned to
substance and heavy on sightseeing.
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: U0096970
FM: UPI
a0634
(UPI Focus)<
Hillary undecided on future role<
By ELIZABETH BRYANT=
CAIRO, Egypt, March 22 (UPI) As she tours Egypt's hospitals, youth
programs and training centers for women, First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton is glimpsing a culture of profound contrasts, where the minority
of women who hold positions of authority is overshadowed by the vast
majority who do not.
Family planning methods have yet to make a sizeable dent on birth
rates, even as Egypt's 62 million people are severely straining the
country's resources. Less than half Egyptian girls finish high school,
development experts say, and women continue to go without basic health
and family planning services.
Moreover, Egyptian women are often ignorant of the rights they do
have, according to Julie Hanson Swanson, director of the Centre for
Development and Population Activities, a U.S. group working with
Egyptian teenage girls.
``Oftentimes, women don't know their rights, don't know that they're
entitled to have a birth certificate, that they're entitled to have a
voting card," Hanson Swanson said. "And also their legal rights, as
far as marriage and divorce is concerned. Ignorance in the sense of
not knowing their rights is a major problem in Egypt."
Although the Egyptian government includes two women ministers and
several female members of parliament, few women hold powerful jobs.
Lawyer Fatima Lashin has battled for 10 years to become a judge. Rights
granted to women by law such as alimony and child support are a
struggle to obtain in practice. And Egyptian women must still ask
permission from their husbands to leave the country.
Perhaps most troubling for many development workers here is the
painful and highly controversial practice of female circumcision. A 1995
Egyptian government survey still considered the most authoritative
source today found more than 95 percent of all married women had been
circumcized, although some experts say that number has likely dropped.
The fallout reaches doctors like Dr. Nadia el Afifi, who has been
offering health and family planning advice to poor women in Cairo and
rural southern Egypt for the past 25 years.
"For some of women, they insist on circumsizing their daughters,"
said AlAfifi, an internist, who does not circumcize women, and is
strongly against the practice.`` They say it is a tradition, it's part
of their marriage. But I argue their points one by one."
But experts are also quick to point out recent success stories. Since
Egypt hosted a I994 United Nations population conference, female
circumcision is no longer a taboo subject. An array of Muslim and Coptic
Christian clergy have publicly come out against it, saying it is not
espoused by either religion.
One small town, Der el Barsha, in southern Egypt, has stopped the
practice altogether, after a campaign led by religious leaders in this
Coptic Christian community.
Hanson Swanson points to another success story. In another southern
village, Beni Suef, fathers are pushing their daughters to go to school.
"The girls that are becoming educated are now, in fact, more
marriageable," Hanson Swanson said. ``Men want to marry educated women.
Men want to marry women that take care of their families."
Y
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
Y,
V
UPI- 03/22/99 14:40:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0122034
FM: Reuters
a3919
^BC-EGYPT-HILLARY 2NDLD
^Mrs. Clinton hears woes of Egyptian queen
(adding planned announcement on water initiative, paras 18-22)
By Randall Mikkelsen
LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
reflected on the political struggles of the only female pharaoh
to rule ancient Egypt and mused over her post-White House career
while touring tombs and temples Wednesday.
Late in the day, Mrs Clinton learned of NATO air strikes
against Yugoslavia while at an Egyptian government dinner in the
3,500 year-old Luxor temple. Her spokeswoman Marsha Berry said
the first lady had no plans to alter her 12-day goodwill journey
to North Africa, which continues Thursday with her traveling to
Tunisia.
During the fourth day of her trip Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton
and her daughter Chelsea inspected the massive Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut, nestled in the golden desert cliffs where members of
Egypt's royalty were buried above the river Nile.
The temple honoring Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt 1,500 years
before the birth of Jesus and was the only female pharaoh during
the glory years of ancient Egypt's Old, Middle and New Kingdoms,
was the site of a 1997 massacre of 58 foreign tourists by
Egypt's biggest Islamic militant group.
The first lady was told of the queen's rivalry with a
stepson who tried to erase all depictions of her from the temple
after she died.
"Why the animosity?" asked Mrs. Clinton, who in the past
has blamed President Clinton's political scandals on the
animosity of his opponents.
One of her guides said the ill will was ``not out of spite,
but politics."
Mrs. Clinton was heard responding ``sometimes it looks the
same."
Although security in the area had been increased sharply
since the 1997 attack, sentinels standing high on the cliffs
above the Valley of the Kings gave evidence of even greater
security for the first lady's visit.
As well as touring the temple, she stepped down into the
tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings and was
given a rare look at the many-chambered tomb of pharaoh Seti I,
normally closed while experts study how to preserve it, but
opened to a visitor for the first time in 10 years.
She also visited the vividly decorated tomb of Queen
Nefertari in the nearby Valley of the Queens.
Mrs. Clinton has said she would take a break during the trip
from her deliberations on whether to run for a Senate seat in
New York, but the issue was clearly on her mind.
In the Hatshepsut temple, she was complimented by her tour
host, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Gaballah
Ali Gaballah, on her observations regarding a ceiling painting.
``Perhaps you should be one of us, an archeologist," he
said.
``Well, I am looking for a new career," she said.
She also waxed philosophical about a ceiling painted with a
deep blue sky and stars and another depiction of Hatshepsut
adopting a man's form to enhance her authority.
"It's probably a contradiction, like all things -- men,
women, night, day," she said.
Mrs. Clinton will announce new U.S. aid to help fight water
pollution and preserve ancient monuments in Egypt before
traveling to Tunisia.
Mrs. Clinton's office said the first lady will announce a
$45 million aid package to improve the sewage-treatment system
of Luxor, which will have a side benefit of limiting destruction
of some of ancient Egypt's great monuments caused by rising
water tables.
Throughout her travels in Egypt since Sunday, Mrs. Clinton
has witnessed damage to ancient sites caused by leaching of
salts from groundwater into building stone.
Experts said the completion in 1970 of the Aswan High Dam on
the upper Nile river, because it ended the Nile's annual
flooding that washed away built-up salts, has greatly
accelerated the problem.
A spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton said the improved sewage
system in Luxor, home of the imposing Luxor and Karnak temples,
will help fight the problem by removing minerals from the waste
water before it is discharged.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/24/99 18:58:00
Page 2
LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 1 STORY
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 24, 1999, Wednesday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 528 words
HEADLINE: REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Mrs. Clinton, tourist - or guide
BYLINE: SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: LUXOR, Egypt
BODY:
In the Valley of the Queens, Hillary Rodham Clinton may have found her
calling.
"Well, I AM looking for another career," she quipped.
The first lady and her daughter, Chelsea, were touring the 3,400-year-old
temple of Queen Hatshepsut on Wednesday with archeologists and conservationists
in tow.
"Look," she instructed in the innermost chamber, where the ceiling was
painted blue with stars. A combination, she concluded, of day and night. "Like
all things - - men, women, night, day."
"You should be one of us," said Gaballa Ali Gaballa, head of Egypt's
antiquities council.
Mrs. Clinton, ever more willing to muse aloud about her own future after her
husband's presidency is over, chuckled when she spoke of shopping for a new
career.
While she's not yet sure about a run for the Senate in 2000, to walk among
the queens on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton wore her running shoes.
---
The ancient political turmoil of Hatshepsut rang familiar to Mrs. Clinton.
Shown one of the temple's few remaining reliefs of the queen, most of whose
images were defaced or erased by stepson Thutmose III, Mrs. Clinton marveled:
"Why the enmity?"
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
Q
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Q
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Q
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 3
The Associated Press, March 24, 1999
"It was not out of spite, but politics," explained restorationist Ray
Johnson.
"Sometimes they look the same, " Mrs. Clinton reflected.
Sounds like President Clinton is feeling left out.
"My husband is a little jealous," Mrs. Clinton reported to Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak after a call from Washington on her first morning.
Day Two, the president also checked in by phone.
"When I spoke to the president this morning, he reminded me that he had yet
to even see the pyramids except through the window of an airplane,' Mrs. Clinton
told an audience at the American University in Cairo.
She had a suggestion for her husband come Jan. 20, 2001:
"I assured him he could return perhaps when he no longer travels with 800 or
900 people and see the city and the sights and meet the people for longer than a
day."
Public whispering about the Clintons' marriage is not only an American
tabloid preoccupation.
One day before Mrs. Clinton's arrival in Cairo, Al-Ahram, Egypt's largest
daily newspaper, editorialized that she should divorce the president.
But before every audience she's addressed in Egypt Mrs. Clinton has left
little doubt that the two remain very much connected.
At a Cairo maternal health clinic: "I mentioned that to the president in my
meeting with him this morning.
=
At a youth center: "As I mentioned to the president this morning. "
Opening her university address: "When I spoke to the president this morning.
"
And, what do the two of them talk about in these daily chats?
"Just catching up on things," she said. "I know it's raining back in
Washington."
Security agents in black with high-tech weapons perched atop the ancient
cliffs around the valley.
But the obviously tight security for Mrs. Clinton's tour was the only
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
Page 4
The Associated Press, March 24, 1999
suggestion of any concern.
In November 1997, a band of Muslim militants stormed the Temple of Hatshepsut
and killed 58 foreign tourists there. As Mrs. Clinton and her daughter
wandered the site Wednesday, no mention was made of that attack.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 24, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS® NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 10
LEVEL 1 - 33 OF 99 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 25, 1999, Thursday, PM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 319 words
HEADLINE: Mrs. Clinton announcing U.S. grant to Egypt for wastewater system
BYLINE: By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: LUXOR, Egypt
BODY:
Water is turning Egypt's ancient wonders and modern tourist attractions -
the great pylon gateways of Karnak Temple, the colossi of Ramses II - from stone
to sand.
The United States, represented here this week by Hillary Rodham Clinton, is
giving Egypt $ 45 million for a wastewater system in Luxor. Archeologists hope
the improved treatment of wastewater will not only improve the health and safety
of today's people but also retard damage to yesterday's treasures.
The first lady, traveling with her daughter Chelsea, was announcing the grant
at a school here this morning before going on to Tunisia.
Water damage has been a recurrent theme at each of Mrs. Clinton's stops since
she arrived in Egypt on Sunday - from the rotted foundation of a 10th-century
church in Cairo's Coptic quarter, to the salt residue threatening the brilliant
colors of King Tut's tomb.
"You do have a lot of problems with groundwater that I didn't really
understand until I was preparing for this trip," Mrs. Clinton told
conservationists in Cairo at the start of her 12-day tour.
Archeologists say Egyptian tombs and temples that have survived for thousands
of years are actually very fragile because of a rising water table. The problem
was exacerbated in 1970 by the construction of the new High Dam on the Nile
south of Luxor.
Higher groundwater is constantly absorbed into the sandstone walls of the
temples, trapping salts in the stone that crystallize and gradually slough away
the outer layer of the structures.
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
Page 11
The Associated Press, March 25, 1999
"Before, dryness preserved everything," said Ray Johnson, an American
preservation expert working here. "Today, Egypt is getting wetter, there are
more people, more irrigation, and saltwater eventually turns stone to sand."
Over the past 20 years, the United States, through the Agency for
International Development, has provided nearly $ 3 billion for the water and
wastewater systems of Egypt.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 25, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: U0130214
FM: UPI
u9206
(UPI Focus)<
Hillary calls for peace in Kosovo<
LUXOR, Egypt, March 25 (UPI) Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a
swift end to the airstrikes over Yugoslavia, and said she was praying
for those conducting them.
"As my husband the president explained last night to the American
people, the U.S. and its NATO allies have acted to stop the brutal
killing in Kosovo, and avert a broader humanitarian crisis," she said,
during a stop at a health clinic in southern Egypt.
``My prayers and the prayers of peace loving people around the world
are with these brave men and women and their families," she added of
the NATO troops that began pummeling the Serb-ruled Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia Wednesday. Clinton's remarks came as she wound up the first
leg of a North African trip that aims to promote democracy, women's
rights and religious tolerance in Tunisia, Morocco as well as Egypt.
At a Luxor primary school, this morning, the first lady announced a
$45 million grant from the United States Agency for International
Development to improve waste water treatment in this tourist town, where
flooding has caused health problems and damaged the area's world-renown
pharaonic monuments. The money is in addition to $34 million in new
assistance the first lady earlier announced for family planning and
mother and child-care programs in Egypt.
Clinton praised the Association of Upper Egypt for Education and
Development, a Coptic Christian-run school in Luxor, where Muslim and
Christian students elect student leaders and write letters demanding
service from the area's elected officials. "That is what creating a
healthy environment really means," she said.
Keeping in line with earlier remarks during her trip, Clinton
refrained to comment directly on religious tension in southern Egypt,
where hundreds of Coptic Christians have been killed by Islamist
extremists in recent years.
But Shaheen Abo Shanab, whose two twins are among the Muslims
students attending the school, denied there was any tension between
Copts and Muslims in Egypt. "Any Copt or Muslim that makes problems
does so because he doesn't understand religion 100 percent," he said,
adding his friends and work colleagues were primarily Copts. Besides the
school, the first lady also visited a family planning clinic today. Both
sites receive development assistance from USAID. She left Luxor for
Tunis midday.
i
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
i
<
UPI- 03/25/99 13:02:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0134573
FM: Reuters
a4110
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-TRIP 1STLD
^Hillary Clinton defends NATO attacks
(recasts, edits throughout)
By Randall Mikkelsen
TUNIS (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,
preparing on Thursday for the second leg of her goodwill trip to
North Africa, defended NATO military strikes against Yugoslavia.
"The United States and its NATO allies have acted to stop
the brutal killing of people in Kosovo and avert a broader
humanitarian crisis," she said at a women's clinic in Luxor,
Egypt before flying to Tunisia.
``We are hoping and praying that the brave men and women in
the military action who have undertaken this mission will be
able to carry it out safely and will bring it to as swift an end
as possible."
Drawing a contrast between the work of the clinic and the
armed confrontation over Yugoslavian President Slobodan
Milosevic's refusal to accept a peace deal for Kosovo, she said:
"Today we are in a place that is celebrating life."
On the fifth day of her 12-day North African goodwill
journey Thursday, Mrs. Clinton emphasized women's rights, after
advocating religious tolerance and closer ties with the Islamic
world during a stay in Egypt which began Sunday.
At the clinic in Luxor, she said women needed to have
choices over birth control and other health issues, and hailed
an Egyptian government effort to involve clinics in other
activities such as literacy programs.
In Tunisia, she toured a small business lending program that
targets women. She then talked with nine prominent women,
including an opposition member of parliament and a human rights
activist.
In a speech on Friday, Mrs. Clinton is expected to call
attention to the advanced state of women's rights in Tunisia
since the country's 1957 independence, which the United States
believes can serve as an example to other Islamic countries. "I
am impressed by the progress that women have made in Tunisia,"
she said.
The United States regards Tunisia, an Islamic country, as
having advanced women's rights, but U.S. officials say political
expression in general there is sharply restricted.
"No matter where we as women live we have many of the same
interests and concerns," Mrs. Clinton said. "So to create a
dialogue around the world about women's roles and rights and
responsibilities is one way of us learning more from each
other."
^REUTERS
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a tabbed divider. Given our
digitization capabilities, we are sometimes unable to adequately
scan such dividers. The title from the original document is
indicated below.
TUNISIA
Divider Title:
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: A0137266
FM: AP/East
a0465
^PM-Mrs Clinton,38
^Mrs. Clinton praises Tunisia's achievements on women's rights<
^Eds: Speech scheduled for 5 a.m. EST; lead planned<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told
Tunisians she came ``to learn more about (their) extraordinary
achievements" on women's rights. She also got a lesson on this
authoritarian nation's clamp on political expression.
Preparing for today's address on women's rights at the
Congressional Palace in the Tunisian capital, Mrs. Clinton sat down
Thursday with a dozen of this nation's prominent female activists,
including a film director, a human rights advocate and an
opposition-party member of Parliament.
But the ladies' discussion at the clifftop residence of U.S.
Ambassador Robin Raphel, overlooking Carthage and the Gulf of
Tunis, was hastily closed to reporters after participants said they
feared having their views broadcast in the media.
Tunisia, a sliver slightly smaller than Missouri wedged between
the volatile Libya and Algeria, keeps a tight rein on political
opposition.
It has no practical rights of freedom of speech or political
expression, said one U.S. official.
But the first lady, holding to the nonconfrontational style of
her 12-day North Africa tour to date, said she was here mostly to
celebrate the country's record of investments in women and
children.
"I am delighted to be in Tunisia, one of the United States'
oldest allies and a trailblazer in the fight for women's rights,"
the first lady said in a statement released at the Tunis airport.
There, she and her daughter Chelsea were greeted by a
saber-wielding honor guard of elaborately cloaked military
officers. The first lady's plane, getting in a bit early, was asked
to circle the verdant coastline a half-dozen times while the
red-carpet greeting was assembled.
The Tunisian government spends 20 percent of its annual budget
implementing a program of health, education and employment rights
for females.
Ninety-nine percent of Tunisian girls old enough for the first
grade are in school, and 45 percent of college students here are
women.
Family-planning services are widely available and abortion is
legal. Tunisia, a predominantly middle-class nation, is the only
Arab state to outlaw polygamy.
APE- 03/26/99 02:18:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0139653
FM: Reuters
a1394
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-TUNISIA (PICTURE)
^Hillary Clinton speaks up for women rights
By Randall Mikkelsen
TUNIS, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton, in Tunisia on Friday on the second leg of her goodwill
trip to North Africa, spoke up for women rights in the world and
decried violence against them in Algeria and Afghanistan.
"We must use our voices to speak up for women around the
world who are still suffering in silence," she said in an
address to hundreds of women and representatives of women's
organisations in Tunis in presence of Tunisian first lady Leila
Ben Ali.
"Seven years are enough It is time for the political
classes (in Algeria) to include all who oppose the use of
violence and it is time for the violence to end, so that
Algerians can once again be free to work in peace and in safety
in their homes, their streets and their country," she said.
Algerian woman have not been spared in the violence gripping
Algeria in the past seven years. Thousands of them have been
reported killed, many having had their throats cut or been
burned to death by Moslem rebels trying to topple the largely
secular army-backed government and impose a puritanical state.
"We also must speak up for the women of Afghanistan who are
being brutalised by the Talebans, once again in the misused
name of religion," Clinton said.
``There had been advances. We have seen the circle of human
dignity expand in the (North Africa) region and through the
world," she said. But she added that there was always a risk
that women would lose rights they had gained.
On the sixth day of her 12-day North African goodwill
journey on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton called attention to the
advanced state of women's rights in Tunisia since the country's
1956 independence, which the United States believes can serve as
an example to other Islamic countries.
"I am impressed by the progress that women have made in
Tunisia," she said.
"We must speak out when women are stopped from organising
non-governmental organisations, from freely expressing their
views or participating in the political process," she added.
U.S. officials said that that portion of the speech was a
reference to the Tunisian government's low tolerance for
political expression.
RB-- 03/26/99 09:18:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: A0145162
FM: AP/East
a0748
^AM-Mrs Clinton, 1st Ld-Writethru, a0679,440<
First lady condemns Islamic radicals in Algeria, Afghanistan<
^Eds: SUBS 2nd graf to CORRECT day to Friday, sted Thursday<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) Girls whose legs are burned with acid
because ankles peek from beneath their skirts. Teen-agers raped and
pressed into slavery. Trained professional women denied jobs and
forced to beg for food.
Hillary Rodham Clinton decried such snapshots from Algeria and
Afghanistan on Friday, and condemned Islamic fundamentalists there
who brutalize women in the name of religion.
"Those who perpetrate these hateful deeds pervert the great
religion in whose name they claim to act," the first lady said at
a women's rights conference in the Tunisian capital, less than a
three-hour's drive from the Algerian border.
The tens of thousands of Algerians killed by Islamic radicals
over seven years of fighting ``were victims of a war that is civil
in name only," Mrs. Clinton said, noting that she spoke on behalf
of her husband and the American people.
She exhorted her audience of about 1,000 mostly professional
Tunisian women, who enjoy a progressive variety of rights, also to
speak out against Afghanistan, where women "are being brutalized
by the Taliban once again in the name the misused name of
religion."
In keeping with the non-confrontational style she's adopted
toward her host governments on this 12-day North African tour, now
at its midpoint, Mrs. Clinton made only a thickly veiled reference
to Tunisia's tight clamp on political freedoms.
The government in this tiny country wedged between volatile
Libya and Algeria maintains stability by imprisoning its critics
and restricting the creation of political parties and
nongovernmental organizations.
"We must speak out when women are stopped from starting NGO's,
from freely expressing their views, or participating in the
political process," Mrs. Clinton said.
From Tunis, the first lady and her entourage ventured 100 miles
south to the old Muslim holy city of Kairouan. She toured one of
the nation's 23 family-planning and abortion clinics.
Contraceptives and abortions are provided free to Tunisian
women.
unisia's far-sighted and successful family planning policies
have played an important role in advancing the status of women,"
Mrs. Clinton said.
Inside the spotless clinic, she smiled and nodded when
gynecologist Rached Nagra said he encourages men to consider
vasectomies instead of looking to women to take care of
contraception.
``| agree with that," Mrs. Clinton said. "You are the first
health clinic I've visited anywhere in the world that has
recognized that. I'm very impressed."
APE- 03/26/99 19:20:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: FINANCIAL DOCID: R0145114
FM: Reuters
a3528
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-DESERT
^Mrs Clinton to take a break in the desert
By Randall Mikkelsen
TUNIS, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton will take a weekend break to go camping and camel-riding
in the Sahara desert before resuming more official tasks during
her 12-day North African journey.
The first lady is to travel on Saturday to a desert
encampment at the massive Merzouga dunes in south central
Morocco.
She will make the last leg of the trip over a sandy track
and ride camels up a sand dune on Sunday to watch the sun rise.
Resuming her official schedule in Morocco, Mrs Clinton is
expected to emphasise education for girls.
Before she leaves Tunisia, Mrs Clinton will on Saturday meet
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who since 1987 has presided
over a period of economic liberalisation and advances in women's
rights, while maintaining a low tolerance for political dissent
and free expression.
A U.S. official said what is perhaps an ``overstated" fear
of Islamic political fundamentalism is in part behind the tight
hold the government keeps over political groups and the press.
"The government doesn't like to encourage associations or
groups that they know are getting together for the purpose of
being critical of Tunisia," the official said.
"It's a peculiar kind of censorship that both the
government and much of the population subscribe to."
"They've taken a zero-tolerance approach toward Islamists
(fundamentalists)," she said.
Ben Ali was reelected with 99.9 percent of the vote in 1994.
On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton praised Tunisia's advances in
women's rights, which the United States believes can serve as a
model for the Islamic world.
Later in the day, she highlighted this with a visit to a
women's health centre in the town of Kairouan on the Tunisian
steppeland, which provides mobile medical service to remote
areas and dispenses free contraceptives and abortions to women.
But she also gave what her aides said was a gentle nudge to
Tunisia that reflected U.S. disappointment over its government's
low tolerance for political expression.
"We must speak out when women are stopped from freely
expressing their views or participating in the political
process," she said in a speech to about 1000 women at a
regional conference in Tunis.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/26/99 19:10:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: WASHINGTON DATELINE DOCID: A0149214
FM: AP/East
a0535
^AM-Mrs Clinton-Tunisia.250<
^Tunisian president admits human rights shortcomings'<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton met for more than
an hour Saturday with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,
who assured the first lady human rights problems "will be properly
addressed," an administration official said.
In what was to have been a 15-minute courtesy call at the
presidential palace at the close of Mrs. Clinton's two days here,
the president and Mrs. Clinton talked privately. According to a
U.S. official present, Ben Ali acknowledged "shortcomings" in his
government's record on political freedoms but said a tight rein on
dissidents in Tunisia helps keep Islamic extremists from making
inroads from neighboring Algeria and Libya.
"The greatest bulwark against them is a strong citizenry," the
official quoted Ben Ali as saying.
The Tunisian president expressed concern about the latest State
Department report on human rights, which faulted Tunisia for
restricting political expression. The U.S. official said Ben Ali
invited the United States through its ambassador in Tunis or
members of Congress to bring human rights allegations directly to
the president, and "he will personally ensure that they get
properly addressed."
From Tunis, Mrs. Clinton headed to Morocco, where she visited a
school in rural Er Rachidia and announced a $1.6 million U.S. grant
to help Moroccan schools educate girls.
APE- 03/27/99 11:57:00
Page 5
LEVEL 1 - 25 OF 99 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 27, 1999, Saturday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 708 words
HEADLINE: Mother and daughter: A dynamic of devotion and inspiration
BYLINE: SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: TUNIS, Tunisia
BODY:
Hillary Rodham Clinton told the story of a Tunisian widow with six daughters
who shocked her neighbors by leaving the "women's work" in olive groves to start
a carpet business and put her girls through college.
"She persevered, withstanding taunts and scorn, working hard and inspiring
her daughters to do the same," the first lady recounted with admiration to a
women's rights convention.
The story of a mother-daughter dynamic of devotion and inspiration finds a
reflection in the relationship that Mrs. Clinton appears to share with her
daughter.
After an excruciating and embarrassing year of scandal in the White House - a
year in which Mrs. Clinton held her head up and her family together - Chelsea
Clinton, 19, emerged during a 12-day trip with her mother through Northern
Africa as poised, polite, curious and open as ever.
A shy but indulgent smile was her reward to Egyptian photographers in Cairo's
walled Coptic quarter who clucked their tongues and called out "Girlie! Girlie!"
to get her to turn their way.
One of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's security agents, who were at the
Clintons' service last week, said Chelsea, after poking around the tombs at
Luxor's Valley of the Kings with her mother, was "so enthralled with the
pharaohs" that she asked to return on her own - if the Egyptian agents wouldn't
mind.
At the El-Djem Coliseum in Kairouan, Tunisia, Chelsea ducked behind walls to
study the Roman structure and knelt to peek into the pit where wild ostriches,
antelope and leopards once waited to do battle with gladiators.
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier pk group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 6
The Associated Press, March 27, 1999
She was apologetic to photographers who asked her to stand still and pose
beside her mother. "I was just wandering around," she said.
The Stanford University sophomore's spring break offers the most lingering
glimpse in more than a year of the Clintons' much-sheltered only child.
But only a glimpse.
While Chelsea herself seems not to have withered at all during her father's
scandal, the protective layers around her have thickened.
In her best-selling "It Takes a Village," Mrs. Clinton likened the sheltering
of Chelsea to the successively larger dolls that cradle the smallest in a set of
Russian folk-art nesting dolls.
It is a metaphor borne out in practice.
At least one member of Mrs. Clinton's staff is almost always at Chelsea's
side.
And the staff, on orders from the first lady, instructed eight reporters
traveling with the Clintons that Chelsea's casual remarks - even her gestures -
are strictly "off the record" unless she appears purposefully before news
cameras, as at El-Djem.
Press secretary Marsha Berry explained: "She is not a public figure.
The
fact that she is on this trip is not news."
A People magazine cover story on Chelsea this year, on top of gossipy tabloid
articles last fall, appear to have strengthened Mrs. Clinton's determination to
shelter her daughter.
Chelsea is traveling in a spare seat on Mom's Air Force jet and bunking with
her mother at hotels. None of her expenses are being paid by taxpayers, Berry
said.
On earlier spring-break tours to Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the first lady
often held up her companionship with Chelsea as evidence of how families should
treasure daughters. And in a youth discussion in Tanzania, Mrs. Clinton even
turned the microphone over to her daughter while TV cameras rolled.
Not on this trip.
In a half-dozen public remarks, many focusing on girls' self-esteem,
mother-daughter relationships or the empowerment of young women, Mrs. Clinton
has, almost pointedly, made no reference to Chelsea.
At the trip's final stop, in Morocco, Mrs. Clinton made an exception from
that practice Saturday, singling out her daughter in order to put at ease a shy
sixth-grade girl made silent by the spectacle of news cameras and security
agents.
As Naima Nuari struggled to say she wanted to be a doctor when she grows up,
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS-NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
Page 7
The Associated Press, March 27, 1999
Mrs. Clinton leaned forward, put her hands on the little girl's arms and smiled.
"You just have to ignore all these problems and all these lights," she said.
Then, gesturing to Chelsea in a far corner of the classroom, Mrs. Clinton said,
"I have a daughter, she is here with me over there."
Chelsea also leaned forward expectantly and gave the girl an encouraging
smile.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 27, 1999
TM
TM
TM
LEXIS-NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
LEXIS·NEXIS®
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
R
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0148257
FM: Reuters
a4453
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY 1STLD
^Mrs Clinton remembers World War Two U.S. soldiers
(Adds meeting with Ben Ali and departure, 7th para)
By Randall Mikkelsen
TUNIS, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton paid a sombre visit to a military cemetery in Tunis on
Saturday to remember fallen American soldiers from the World War
Two North African campaign.
At the memorial in a northern suburb of Tunis, Mrs Clinton
laid a bouquet of yellow roses at the Star of David-topped
marker of the grave of woman Army Corps Private Celia Goldberg,
the only enlisted woman killed in the campaign.
A U.S. Navy bugler played taps. Mrs Clinton paused several
moments at the grave marker, one of 2,833 at the cemetery, then
stood up and slowly walked away with a saddened expression on
her face.
The North African campaign in 1942-1943 represented
America's entry into fighting against German and Italian Axis
forces.
About 6,000 Americans were killed in the North Africa
campaign and 2,000 were missing, a U.S. military official said.
The liberation of Tunis represented the Allied victory in
North Africa with the surrender of more than a quarter of a
million of Axis troops and allowed the Allies to enter Europe
through Italy.
Later on Saturday Mrs Clinton met Tunisian President Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali before setting out for a desert encampment at
the massive Merzouga dunes in south-central Morocco for a
camping and camel-riding break in the Sahara desert.
She will make the last leg of the trip over a sandy track
and ride camels up a sand dune on Sunday to watch the sun rise.
A note to the White House staff on the delegation advised
that the walls of the tents would be thin, and to "keep the
noise down to a minimum so that people and camels can get the
rest. Camels are known to be ornery and we would like them to
get the rest they need."
Mrs Clinton is on a 12-day North African journey. Resuming
her official schedule in Morocco, she is expected to emphasise
education for girls.
^REUTERS
RB-- 03/27/99 06:28:00
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a tabbed divider. Given our
digitization capabilities, we are sometimes unable to adequately
scan such dividers. The title from the original document is
indicated below.
MOROCCO
Divider Title:
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0154205
FM: Reuters
a7851
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-SENATE
^Hillary Clinton's choice U.S. or world stage
By Randall Mikkelsen
MARRAKESH, Morocco, March 29 (Reuters) - - First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton emerged from a desert encampment on Sunday with a
vivid illustration of the difficulty she faces in deciding
whether to run for a U.S. Senate seat.
The first lady spent Saturday night at the Merzouga dunes in
the Sahara desert, where she was treated to a rousing evening of
feasting and high-energy Berber entertainment as a guest of the
Moroccan government.
She arose early on Sunday for a camel trek with daughter
Chelsea to watch a brilliant, multi-hued sun rise from the sand
dunes.
An exotic adventure, and one of many highlights of her 12-day
goodwill tour across North Africa, the desert stay made clear
the attractions for Clinton of a career in international
relations.
Associates of the first lady say she has long considered such
a calling after President Bill Clinton leaves the White House.
Possible ambitions include serving as U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, a notion that predated her recent consideration
of a run for the Senate in New York in 2000. Former first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, who Clinton has often cited as an
inspiration, was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the United
Nations.
"That's the dilemma she finds herself in," Clinton's
spokeswoman, Marsha Berry, said. "There are a whole series of
options that are available to her and she's going though the
process of weighing all that."
Asked if her North Africa trip was having an influence on her
deliberations, Berry said. "You can't help but think what the
possibilities are."
With the start of the NATO air offensive in Yugoslavia,
Clinton is unlikely to face the same intense media speculation
over her Senate decision once she returns to the United States
late on Thursday that she did before she left.
Clinton has pressed on with her trip despite the offensive,
and shown herself to be comfortable in her role as a
stateswoman, goodwill ambassador and tourist.
She has promoted closer ties with the Islamic world, pressed
leaders she has met on issues including human rights and
religious tolerance, and held ``round-table" discussions with
members of the elite as well as poor villagers on issues such as
education and women's rights.
RB-- 03/28/99 12:58:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0164341
FM: Reuters
a2814
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-MOROCCO
^Hillary Clinton receives peace wish in Morocco
By Randall Mikkelsen
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Hillary Rodham Clinton
brought gifts of health and progress in a visit to an oasis
village Monday, and received a wish for world peace from a
leader of Morocco's dwindling Jewish community.
But the escalating crisis in Kosovo and NATO air strikes
against the Serbian province were not mentioned, in keeping with
most of the first lady's goodwill trip to North Africa.
Jacky Kadosh, president of the Jewish community of
Marrakesh, presented Mrs Clinton with a ceremonial ``shofar" or
ram's horn along with a message of peace for her and U.S.
President Bill Clinton. He did not mention Kosovo.
``We can wish that it will come a day so the shofar would be
blown for the for wide peace in the world," Kadosh said as he
and Mrs Clinton made a sunset visit to his father's tomb in the
old Jewish cemetery of Marrakesh.
Kadosh said he wished to recognize President Clinton for
"the way he's taking care of peace."
Mrs Clinton accepted the shofar, also leaving Kosovo
unmentioned, saying "that's a wonderful gift, and something we
all hope for." She came to the ceremony as part of her aim to
emphasize historical good relations between Jews and Muslims in
Morocco, although most Jews have emigrated since Israel was
founded.
The NATO offensive against Yugoslavia and the growing
humanitarian crisis has had little impact on the first lady's
tour through North Africa, during which she has promoted women's
rights and closer ties with the Islamic world.
In her only comments on the crisis, Thursday, Mrs Clinton
defended the attack and offered prayers for the safety of allied
soldiers.
At a desert encampment Saturday night and Sunday, staff
members and journalists covering Mrs Clinton tried to keep up
with developments in the downing of a NATO jet via satellite
television links in camping vans brought in to serve as mobile
bathrooms.
Also Monday, Mrs Clinton visited the riverine oasis village
of Tasselmante, in the shadow of a 400-year-old mud-walled
fortress, where residents have been working with a group of aid
agencies to improve their standard of living through education,
conservation and small commercial development.
She announced a $2 million U.S. program to establish a
provincial small business lending center in the region, and a
grant of $100,000 to fight the blindness-causing disease
trachoma.
^REUTERS
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: A0158034
FM: AP/East
a0438
^PM-Clintons' Desert Jamboree,660
^Clinton women feted in `Arabian Nights' soiree<
^Eds: Also moved for AMs<
^AP Photos AMOR101, AMOR102, AMOR103 of March 28<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
THE DUNES OF MERZOUGA, Morocco (AP) In the dark chill, Hillary
and Chelsea Clinton mounted camels and plodded a snaking trail
toward the Saharan sunrise a hushed finale to a clanging Berber
jamboree of song, dance, fire and beasts.
The first lady and her daughter retreated to the desert Saturday
and Sunday as the Muslim hosts of this week's Moroccan leg of a
North African odyssey slaughtered lambs for one of the religion's
most holy events, Eid el-Adha, ``Feast of the Sacrifice."
King Hassan lavished extravagances on the Clinton women and
their entourage of 50, erecting specially for them a modern
``Arabian Nights" set in the crook of the shifting red dunes.
Claps, chants and drumbeats of Berber tribal troupes from the
Middle Atlas Mountains and Ouarzazate province in the south greeted
the party and kept up a clamor for more than four hours, from
sunset to bonfire.
In a giddy, predinner rite reminiscent of a gaggle of
bridesmaids before the wedding, tribal women wrapped the Americans
in traditional Berber costume.
Mrs. Clinton wore that of an honored lady: the "ahrouy," a
silvered white, elaborately wrapped robe, and ``tahrouyt," a black
silk headscarf and shawl decorated with bangles.
Chelsea, 19, opted for a shepherd's azure robe and head wrap.
In green-and-white striped tents, staffed by white-robed
servants wearing the traditional maroon fez, course after course
came on gold-edged Bavarian dinner china and French silver.
Whole quartered lambs, curried chickens, prune-stewed beef,
rice, fresh fruit, hot green tea, sweet wine and, finally,
champagne.
Throughout Saturday night's dinner, Mrs. Clinton held court at a
center table. Under her laughing watch, almost everyone in the
party took a turn on the sand with the Ahidous and Ahouach troupes,
whose flailing arms and hopping feet followed neither rules nor
rhythm.
Women sat cross-legged on the red Berber carpets to have their
palms, wrists and ankles elaborately dyed with henna. By midnight,
the fortunetellers arrived.
Eight reporters covering the first lady's 12-day tour of North
Africa were among the party, on condition that the more personal
details of Mrs. Clinton's and Chelsea's recreation be kept ``off
the record."
Spokeswoman Marsha Berry said they just wanted to relax and
enjoy the night.
Aides who worked with the Moroccan government to plan the
extravaganza said they had to restrain the king's largesse or else
ruin the rustic ``camp-out" feel that Mrs. Clinton wanted.
They failed.
Hassan, who remained at his palace 260 miles away to observe
Eid, ordered electricity and cell phone service installed for the
encampment.
Refrigerated Coke machines supplied the sleeping tents and a
half-dozen heated RV's each with a television broadcasting CNN
offered toilets and showers.
Hassan even bulldozed something of a dirt road to ease the
Clintons' caravan of more than 40 Land Rovers across 15 miles of
rutted sand, rocks and dirt.
Newly painted and planted pistachio-green posts marked the way.
An American diplomat estimated the spread's cost in the ``upper
six figures."
Just a handful of miles from the open Algerian border, the
encampment was widely circled by uniformed sentries from the
Moroccan military. A lone man stood here and there, ramrod straight
in the sun, watching an empty horizon that stretched for miles.
Past midnight, quiet fell too on the camp, as the party awaited
a 5 a.m. wake-up shout for Sunday's sunrise camel rides.
Read a memo to the first lady's staff:
"Try to keep the noise down to a minimum so that people and
camels can get their rest. Camels are known to be ornery, and we
would like them to get all the rest they need."
APE- 03/29/99 01:21:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0150451
FM: Reuters
a5773
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY 3RDLD (PICTURE)
^FOCUS-Mrs. Clinton, Chelsea camp in Sahara desert
(releads, updates with First Lady arriving at desert camp)
By Randall Mikkelsen
MERZOUGA DUNES, MOROCCO,, March 27 (Reuters) - First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton travelled deep into the Sahara desert on
Saturday to spend the night amid towering sand dunes after a
traditional Moroccan feast.
The First Lady, on a 12-day North African safari, arrived
here in a motorcade of four-wheel-drive vehicles that kicked up
plumes of dust as it sped along a dirt track across barren
plains to the edge of a range of towering dunes.
The air was filled with the sounds of drums and horns as
Mrs. Clinton arrived at her desert encampment. The music
continued into the evening.
Mrs. Clinton's party strolled out onto the dunes as the sun
set, then returned to the compound. Ground rules for
accompanying reporters specified that the First Lady's
non-working activities could not be reported in detail.
Two dozen canvas tents with wool carpet floors were pitched
on the desert for Mrs. Clinton's party. There were some modern
conveniences, too, including Coca-Cola machines interspersed
among the tents. Camping vans parked behind the encampment had
flush toilets and cellular phone service for callers to reach
the outside world.
Mrs. Clinton arrived here after stopping at a Peace Corps
project in the town of Siffa, where she thanked American
volunteers who displayed for her their henna-dyed hands
decorated in a local custom for the Moslem holiday of Aid al
Adha.
She visited a school in the town of Aoufous, where she
worked hard to coax a painfully shy young woman into sharing her
dream of growing up to be a doctor. Mrs. Clinton leaned over,
put her hand on the knee of the girl, and offered encouragement.
"Most young people are shy, but you know I have a daughter.
She's here with me over there," Mrs. Clinton said, pointing at
Chelsea. At that, the girl broke the ice and in answer to a
question from Mrs. Clinton, said she had been in school for six
years.
Mrs. Clinton acknowledged the girl's fear of speaking in
public in front of television cameras and dignitaries. "When I
was your age, I would never have been able to do that," she
said.
Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea laid a wreath at the tomb of Moulay
Ali Cherif, founder of the birthplace of the Alaouiti dynasty of
Morocco's King Hassan II that has lasted four centuries.
Mrs. Clinton arrived in Morocco from Tunisia, where she held
a lengthy meeting earlier on Saturday with President Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali to discuss the North African country's human
rights situation.
Ben Ali acknowledged a need to improve Tunisia's record but
also said the perception of his country's intolerance had been
too harsh, a U.S. official said.
Mrs Clinton also visited a military cemetery in Tunisia to
honour fallen U.S. soldiers from the World War Two North African
campaign.
At the memorial in a northern suburb of Tunis, Mrs Clinton
laid a bouquet of yellow roses at the Star of David-topped
marker of the grave of woman Army Corps Private Celia Goldberg,
the only enlisted woman killed in the campaign.
A U.S. Navy bugler played taps as Mrs Clinton paused several
moments at the grave marker, one of 2,833 in the cemetery.
During her stay in Morocco, Mrs Clinton is expected to
emphasise education for girls in a country where the rate of
illiteracy among women is around 70 percent.
Before starting her official schedule, she set out for a
desert encampment at the Merzouga dunes in the south-central
Moroccan province of Errachidia for a camping and camel-riding
break in the Sahara.
Besides Morocco and Tunisia, Mrs Clinton's North African
journey has already taken her to Egypt.
RB-- 03/27/99 15:58:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: A0174394
FM: AP/East
a0663
^AM-Mrs Clinton-Kosovo,590<
First lady says Milosevic driven by ego to wage war, kill kids<
^By SANDRA SOBIERAJ=
^Associated Press Writer=
MARRAKECH Morocco (AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton castigated
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday for what she cast
as an ego-driven agenda to fuel war and execute Albanian boys ``in
cold blood."
Delivering in measured tones a carefully scripted lecture on
tolerance, Mrs. Clinton forcefully defended NATO's bombing of
Yugoslavia and said Milosevic has been plotting the crisis over the
last decade in order to prop up his power.
Earlier Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton ducked a volatile issue of Middle
East peace one her critics have used to try and complicate her
Senate prospects in New York when she ignored a Moroccan
official's tribute to her as an advocate for Palestinian statehood.
Her remarks on tolerance, to an Arab audience in the ruins of
the 17th-century El Badi Palace, framed Mrs. Clinton's first
expansive defense of the NATO bombing that is consuming her
husband's attention back home.
The first lady charged that Milosevic was never interested in
peace with the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo province, not even as
Serb representatives sat down to negotiate a Kosovo peace this
month in Rambouillet, France.
"While the Kosovar representatives were saying yes to peace,
the Serbians were planning a campaign of massive and systematic
destruction," Mrs. Clinton said.
She sketched a methodic ethnic-cleansing drive by Serb military
and police forces, "burning homes and destroying entire villages,
separating men and boys from their families and executing them in
cold blood."
Mrs. Clinton said Milosevic started 10 years ago ``fanning the
flames of ethnic and religious division.
"He did it for his own personal political advantage.
Exploiting the consequences of division, waging war on his
neighbors and his people is what he thought was in his own personal
interest."
Mrs. Clinton is nearing the end of a 12-day tour of Egypt,
unisia and Morocco that she intended to strengthen U.S.-Arab
friendship.
It has been apparent that some Arabs here view that friendship
in especially personal terms with the first lady because of her
offhanded remark last year that ``it will be in the long-term
interests of the Middle East for Palestine to be a state."
In a squatter community along the road to Casablanca, Arabs
newly earning titles to their homes cheered Tuesday as Mohamed
el-Yazghi, Morocco's minister for regional planning, introduced
Mrs. Clinton as a champion for Palestinian statehood.
"This is a struggle you have taken on: To assert the rights of
the Islamic and Arab people to dignity," el-Yazghi said.
"Let me pay tribute to your support to the Palestinian
people in terms of self-determination and building an independent
state on their land."
Taking the lectern next, Mrs. Clinton ignored the tribute and
went ahead with her announcement that the United States would
guarantee $7.8 million in housing loans for Morocco.
Mrs. Clinton's spokeswoman, Marsha Berry, told a reporter off
stage that the first lady takes no position on Palestinian
statehood.
"She's supported the peace process and thinks the parties
involved should be the ones to decide that," Berry said.
As Mrs. Clinton mulls whether to run for a Senate seat from New
York in 2000, her Republican opponents have tried to stir Jewish
opposition by reviving the Palestinian comment she made last year.
APE- 03/30/99 15:48:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0172670
FM: Reuters
a2131
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-WOMEN
^Mrs. Clinton says US women face obstacles to power
By Randall Mikkelsen
MARRAKESH, Morocco, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton, considering a run for the Senate, said
on Tuesday that American women have more difficulty reaching
the top rungs of power than those in parliamentary democracies.
``It is more difficult, I think, for a woman to advance to
the very top position in our country than perhaps it would be in
a parliamentary system," Mrs. Clinton said.
She had been asked about the issue of women in politics, with
a reference to her own future, during a discussion with a group
of Moroccan women leaders as part of her 12-day North African
journey that ends on Thursday.
Despite the difficulties, she said, "The opportunities for
women in the American political system are opening up and
broadening so that you will see many more women involved in
American politics."
During the discussion, Badia Skalli, one of two women members
of the Moroccan parliament, told Mrs. Clinton "the political
arena is one of the most hazardous for women to practice (in)."
Mrs. Clinton said a woman in a parliamentary system has only
to convince a "small group, primarily of men," that she is
capable of leading. "In our system, or in any presidential
system, but particularly in the United States, a woman has to
persuade the entire society that she can be a leader," she
said.
During her meeting, Mrs. Clinton also suggested that the
Moroccan government consider an ``affirmative action" programme
of female-run boarding schools so that girls could get the
education many in Morocco are deprived of out of social fears
about mixing of sexes.
And she offered her support for continuing a U.S.-backed
programme to distribute condoms to fight AIDS, winning the
appreciation of the women.
"Thank you very much for the condoms," said Hakima Himmich,
a member of the International AIDS society and other medical
groups.
During a discussion on the impact of Islamic strictures on
Moroccan family law, Mrs. Clinton heard a complaint about the
unequal treatment between men and women who slay adulterous
spouses. There was no mention made of President Bill Clinton's
highly publicised infidelities.
"There is a provision that does not provide for leniency
should (a woman) find her husband in a full state of adultery,
whereas special circumstances, aggravated circumstances, are
granted to men should they kill their women after adultery,"
said attorney Nezha Alaoui.
Mrs. Clinton also spoke of the crisis in Kosovo, saying it
shows the vulnerability of women to war and the need for women
everywhere to work for peace.
"The more women can express themselves both privately and
publicly about the need to put old conflicts behind us, that to
me is something that women should pay particular attention to no
matter what other agenda we might have," she said.
She said building a stable society requires "a high degree
of organised effort. ``It is easier to march soldiers into
Kosovo and engage in ethnic cleansing than it is to figure out
how to build the economy of Yugoslavia."
RB-- 03/30/99 12:27:00
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1999
THE FIRST LADY
Hillary Clinton, in Morocco, Says NATO Attack Aims at Stopping Bloodshed
By JAMES BENNET
own personal interest."
MARRAKESH, Morocco, March
Milosevic wages war
Now, Mrs. Clinton said, President
30 Hillary Rodham Clinton said
Milosevic is pursuing the same sort
tonight that the NATO bombing in
'in his own personal
of policy that he carried out in Bos-
Yugoslavia was necessary because
nia, pointedly noting that most of the
of the Serbs had planned a "cam-
interest, the First
Albanians in Kosovo are Muslims.
paign of massive and systematic de-
Mr. Milosevic, she said, had found
struction" against ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo.
Traveler says.
waging war easier than building a
modern state. "It is difficult, very
Mrs. Clinton used a speech here on
difficult in today's world to make
tolerance to add her voice to the
some of the hard decisions that must
NATO position that President Slobo-
stopped at an orphanage and visited
be made in peace," she said.
dan Milosevic of Yugoslavia bears
a housing development that gets
Mrs. Clinton also attacked the
responsibility for the bombing. She
helps from the American Govern-
treatment of women by the Taliban,
accused him of having prepared to
ment.
the fundamentalist Muslim group
kill or expel ethnic Albanians from
She spoke before more than a thou-
that controls most of Afghanistan,
Kosovo even as peace talks were
sand people- most of them Muslims
and recalled the killings of hundreds
under way earlier this month.
- who gathered at sunset in the
of thousands of people in Rwanda in
"That is why my husband and our
ruins of El Badi Palace, a 16th-centu-
1994. At the same time, she congratu-
NATO allies could not stand and look
ry compound fragrant with orange
lated Morocco on a "tradition of tol-
the other way," she said. "They
trees and surrounded by towering
erance" that included resisting Nazi
could not permit this to go on with
adobe walls. Although she had previ-
persecution of the Jews.
impunity until most of the Albanian
ously expressed her support for
On her stops in Egypt, Tunisia and
population was either dead or dis-
American service personnel, her re-
Morocco, Mrs. Clinton, who is travel-
placed.
marks this evening on the fighting
ing with her daughter, Chelsea, has
"It is also why my husband and
were her most extensive.
visited several mosques and repeat-
our NATO allies are determined to
Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Milose-
edly stressed American support for
persevere until Milosevic has em-
vic of having tried for 10 years to fan
Islam, even as she has condemned
braced peace or NATO has signifi-
ethnic and religious hatred in Yugo-
its fundamentalist strain.
cantly limited his ability to make
slavia. "He did it for his own person-
She has also stopped in several
war."
al political advantage," she said.
churches and synagogues, and she
Mrs. Clinton is 10 days into a 12-
"Tolerance, he thought, would not
visited a 440-year-old Jewish ceme-
day trip through North Africa to pro-
give him any advantage. But exploit-
tery here on Monday evening. "We
mote education, health care and hu-
ing the consequences of division,
are all children of God," she said this
Associated Press
man rights. Today she attended a
waging war on his neighbors and his
evening. "We are all children of
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is touring North Africa to promote
roundtable with Moroccan women,
people, is what he thought was in his
Abraham."
education, chatted yesterday with Princess Lalla Fatima of Morocco.
PREC: RUSH CLASS: INTERNATIONAL DOCID: R0191717
FM: Reuters
a1244
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-FOG 1STLD
^FOCUS-Fog diverts Mrs Clinton's plane to Rabat
(Adds meeting with Morocco's PM, para 3, quotes, paras 7-9)
RABAT, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton was forced to scrap her schedule on Thursday, the final
day of her North African trip, after fog prevented her plane
from landing in the Moroccan city of Fes.
Mrs Clinton's plane circled over Fes for some two hours and
made a preliminary attempt to land, but the pilot was finally
forced to give up and head to the capital Rabat, some 200 km
(125 miles) to the west.
Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi, whom Mrs
Clinton was due to see in Fes, followed her in a small plane for
a brief meeting at Rabat airport. She later flew home to
Washington.
The first lady was scheduled to visit a hospital and meet
representatives of non-profit organisations in Fes before
wrapping up her goodwill tour to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
Mrs Clinton's started her tour on March 20 with an aborted
take-off in Washington caused by a crosswind that shut off one
of her plane's engines.
The U.S government regards the meeting with Youssoufi as an
important recognition of expanding democracy in Morocco.
Youssoufi, a Socialist, was appointed in 1998 by King Hassan II
to lead the first government in four decades drawn largely from
opposition groups.
"He (Youssoufi) is the most serious experiment in the
expanded political participation" in Morocco," a U.S. official
said.
"His progress is being watched very closely all over the
Arab world, by governments and by different opposition parties
throughout the Arab region," the official added.
Youssoufi, 74, was also a ``secular alternative to political
Islam," he added in an apparent reference Algeria where tens of
thousands of people have been killed in seven years of horrific
fighting between Moslem rebels and the army-led authorities.
Mrs Clinton met the Moroccan monarch on Wednesday.
^REUTERS
RB-- 04/01/99 10:25:00
PREC: RUSH CLASS: WASHINGTON DATELINE DOCID: R0196228
FM: Reuters
a2811
^BC-CLINTON-HILLARY-TRIP
^Hillary Clinton returns from North Africa tour
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton returned to Washington Thursday after a 12-day North
African trip that gave her a chance to promote her causes on an
international stage as she weighs whether to run for the U.S.
Senate.
Clinton's trip was aimed at improving relations with the
Islamic world.
A U.S. official said Thursday the tour let Clinton use her
personal touch talking with ordinary citizens and showing
respect for Islam with her visits to mosques and holy sites --
to put across an official U.S. openness to the Arab world that
other officials in formal speeches have been unable to do as
effectively.
"I think Mrs. Clinton is able to do it on a
people-to-people level that's much more meaningful to the
average folks out there," the official said. ``It just has much
more resonance to average people."
Clinton's trip ended as it began, with flight difficulty.
She was forced to scrap the schedule for her final day in
Morocco when heavy fog prevented her plane from landing in the
imperial city of Fes. At the outset of the trip on March 20, her
plane aborted takeoff from Washington due to engine failure.
Clinton's plane Thursday diverted to the capital Rabat,
where she held a hastily rearranged meeting with Prime Prime
Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi. Youssoufi flew in from Fes
on a smaller plane that was able to take off.
The trip also gave her a chance to promote her causes of
women's rights and social development on an international stage
as she considers a run for a New York U.S. Senate seat in 2000.
Clinton said Wednesday she would resume deliberations upon
her return. Her aides said she has given no indication on which
way she is leaning.
During her trip, she toured ancient and holy sites of Islam,
Judaism and Coptic Christianity. She spoke out for religious
tolerance, women's rights and education for girls, and discussed
human rights concerns privately in meetings with the leaders of
Egypt and Tunisia.
Clinton also saw numerous examples of people working to
solve basic development problems such as providing money to
start a business or clean water.
U.S. officials said her meeting Thursday with Youssoufi was
an important show of support. The United States regards
Youssoufi as a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalist politics
and a standard-bearer for greater political openness in Arab
governments.
Youssoufi, a Socialist who once was sentenced to death by
King Hassan II, was named last year by Hassan as head of the
first government in decades to be drawn largely from opposition
parties.
^REUTERS
RB-- 04/01/99 19:27:00
United States Department of State
fee
Chief of Staff
foree pr
Washington, D.C. 20520
February 12, 1996
File
Melanne Verveer
Deputy Chief of Staff
Office of the First Lady
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Melanne:
Attached to this letter are the January 15, 1996, international and domestic editions of
Newsweek. The contrasts are interesting. They include a completely different cover caption
("Hillary's World" versus "Saint or Sinner"). Additionally, in lieu of the Isikoff/Hosenball story
on Whitewater, the international edition includes a story on the impact of the First Lady's trips
abroad (describing her following outside the United States as "both large and enthusiastic").
I especially wanted to make sure that you had seen the story on the impact of the foreign trips.
All the best.
See you soon,
5
Tom Donilon
Attachments: 2
Not
Copied
]
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
BOSNIA: GETTING THE JOB DONE
Newsweek
®
THE INTERNATIONAL NEWSMAGAZINE
January 15, 1996
00. 11 00.11
508 oo.uxd.s 3421805 3422 m.u
America's First Lady Speaks
About Her New Troubles at Home
PLUS: Her Appeal to Women Overseas
Hillary's World
02
Austria
Sch 45.00
Finland
Mk 21.00
Ireland (inc.tax)
LE 1.90
Poland
PLN 5.00
Switzerland
SF 5.90
Baltic States
$3.50
France
F 24.00
Israel
NIS 11.00
Portugal Cont
Es 590
Turkey (incl tax)TL60,000
Belgium
BF 150.00
Germany
DM 5.80
Italy
L 5500
Romania
Lei 2280
United Kingdom
£ 1.80
Bulgaria
Leva 80.00
Gibraltar
£ 1.80
Luxembourg
LF 140.00
Russia
$5.00
U.S. Forces
$3.00
Cyprus
C.E. 1.50
Greece
Drs 700
Malta
Lm 1.10
Slovakia
SK 60.00
Czech Republic
KC 60.00
Hungary
Ft. 220.00
Netherlands
FI 6.90
Spain
Pts 490
9 770163705036
Denmark
Kr 26.00
Iceland
IKr240
Norway
Kr 25.00
Sweden
SKr 26.00
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
03
0 706288 9
01134
EXCLUSIVE: Excerpts
From Hillary Rodham Clinton's
New Book-And a Candid Interview
on the White House Scandals
SaintorSinner?