YouSaid · the spoken record

Alija Izetbegovic

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC

lines on the record: 51
first: 1993-09-24
most recent: 1996-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We are a small country, and my signature on that Treaty is not of great significance. Nevertheless, we want to participate, even if only symbolically, in everything that is constructive. One day Bosnia and Herzegovina, through its representative, will sign a treaty on the suppression of terrorism, and some other day a treaty on the struggle against drugs and organized crime. I hope that in future Bosnia and Herzegovina will join in any activity whose aim is to confront evil, and that it will continually push the limits in the direction of good and towards a better and safer world.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“The changes are necessary not only in the Organization but in its psychology as well, if I may say so. Reform of the Security Council is also necessary, in conformity with the changes in the world, and also to ensure a new attitude towards obligations. The United Nations must not undertake obligations it cannot carry out. This is impermissible. My people have paid an infinitely high price for this irresponsibility. The “safe area” of Srebrenica and its more than 8,000 innocent victims are not the only, but are the gravest, example of this incomprehensible attitude. We do not know who is responsible, but we seek reforms which will ensure that this will never happen again. Yesterday, in this very building, I signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“The media can have the same influence in strengthening peace through spreading tolerance and understanding among the people. State radio and television were an appropriate example during the election campaign. The Open Broadcasting Network could also contribute to this if it is open to all ideas and all political directions and if it is regulated by Parliament. This programme cannot be carried out by the Government alone. Bosnia and Herzegovina is still a recovering patient and it needs the world’s support. The presence of international military forces will be indispensable for a certain limited period of time, and economic assistance will be necessary for longer. Before I conclude, I would like to say a few words about the United Nations. We support reform of the United Nations system.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“It should thereafter proclaim that its programme consists of at least three points. First, it should request from all the signatories of the Dayton Peace Agreement that the Agreement be fully and consistently implemented. At this moment, all the domestic as well as international actors, at least verbally, express their support for this Agreement. The Government should hold them to their words. International pressure in this regard will be necessary for a long time. Secondly, the Government should proclaim the reconciliation of the peoples and nations on the condition that war criminals are prosecuted vigorously. And thirdly, the Government should ensure freedom of the media as a way to heal the country. The media started the war several years ago with the unprecedented spread of hatred.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“So the real question is not whether the people can live together, it is more concrete and more straightforward: does a larger nation have the right to expel a smaller nation and then, under the slogan “we cannot live together”, usurp its property and demand that these violations be forgotten and legalized? This is how the question “is Bosnia and Herzegovina possible?” should be formulated. And for people of principle and morality, the answer is clear. Finally, what should the future Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina do at this crucial and historic moment for Bosnia and Herzegovina? In my opinion, it should be constituted as a maximally representative Government composed of all the relevant political actors in conformity with the results of the elections, including an opposition from both entities.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Unpunished war criminals will continue to poison the world and ruin its institutions. Some people in Europe, and in the United States also, ask whether, after everything that has happened, Bosnia and Herzegovina is possible. These people either do not know the facts or are morally corrupt. They do not know that on the territory of the Serb entity, over half a million people, 40 per cent of the indigenous pre-war population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were either killed or expelled, and they are totally indifferent to this fact. My answer is that if genocide without punishment is possible, then Bosnia and Herzegovina is not possible.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Here, no one advocates the idea of the collective guilt of a nation. Guilt is always individual, regardless of the number of perpetrators. But for the people to be absolved and for the road towards reconciliation to be open, the criminals must be punished. That is why the international tribunal in the Hague was established, but, as is well known, neither the chief Prosecutor nor the President of the Tribunal are satisfied with what the international community is doing. In vain, they repeatedly indict the perpetrators and forward the warrants. Even on the issue of war crimes, the world is seeking some painless middle- ground solution. When the issue of war crimes like those committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into 2 question, every compromise is a shameful betrayal of justice.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“The issue of Brcko will be solved by the main Arbitrator, Mr. Roberts Owen, an American, since the Serbian side does not attend the meetings of the Arbitration Commission. Both parties have presented their arguments. I wish to emphasize that, in making his decision, the Arbitrator will not be totally free. He is bound by respect for the principles of legality and equity, as explicitly stated in Annex 2, Article V of the Dayton Agreement. I will complete this brief analysis of the implementation of the Dayton Agreement by stating that the main war criminals, Karadzic´ and Mladic´, are still free, in spite of Dayton, in spite of the orders of the Hague Tribunal and in spite of the elementary demands of justice. We would like to proclaim the principle of reconciliation of peoples and nations. Bosnia needs this.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“With regard to free media, significant progress has been achieved only in the territory of the legal Bosnian Government, where a large number of independent newspapers and magazines, 40 radio stations, and 12 television stations operate. During the last 50 days of the pre-election period, the ruling party had only one-tenth of the allotted time available at prime time on the State television station, Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m., while opposition parties had nine- tenths of the allotted time at their disposal. The Government also granted preliminary approval to the Open Broadcasting Network and stands ready to extend this approval on the condition that the Open Broadcasting Network covers the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is open to all the political tendencies, left and right.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“The provisions of the Dayton Agreement stipulate that there should be respect for human rights but, nevertheless, human rights are being violated more or less throughout the entire territory. The September elections and the pre-election campaign offered an opportunity to test this in a very effective manner. Conditions are particularly bad in this regard in the territory of Republika Srpska. For the people from the Federation, neither before nor during the elections was there freedom of movement, or it was very limited; and only Serbian political parties could act. Moreover, the electoral boards that registered the voters and counted the ballots consisted in all cases of only one nation and, very often, one party.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“This is not happening; rather, expulsions are continuing. Generally speaking, the problem of the Dayton Peace Agreement lies in its selective, that is, partial implementation. The Serbs, for instance, like paragraph 2 of Annex 4, which mentions the Republika Srpska, yet they do not like Annex 7, which demands the return of people who have been expelled. They accept the first provision and reject the second one. The world, and above all, the Contact Group members, should tell them explicitly that the Dayton accord is a whole. If there is no return of the expelled people, there is no Republika Srpska. Otherwise, the Dayton Agreement will grow from a small and bearable injustice into a huge and intolerable injustice — and an intolerable injustice leads to new conflict.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“It is often considered that the Dayton Agreement is not good enough. It is good because it has stopped the killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and because a better plan does not exist. Its main deficiency is not in it, but in its implementation. All of the bad aspects of the Agreement could be improved if it were completely and consistently implemented. Unfortunately, this is not the case. According to the provisions of the Agreement, “Herceg-Bosna”, established as a parallel State during the war, should cease to exist. But it still exists and impedes the building up of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton peace accord provides that the second entity, the Republika Srpska, should facilitate the return to their homes of more than half a million Bosniaks and Croats who have been expelled.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“That page of our history is over, and we are turning to a new one: Peace. I thank the United States of America for starting the initiative for peace and for making efforts, together with other countries, to strengthen this fragile and complex peace. We are a small country, and we must pursue an open and honest policy. Secret diplomacy and double games are privileges of the mighty. For this and many other reasons, among which is also the aforementioned article, I should like to reiterate some facts and our objectives. Bosnia and Herzegovina is possible only as a democratic State of three equal nations and of free citizens. We accept this fundamental provision of the Dayton Peace Agreement, with all of its consequences. That is, the well- known formula: one State, two entities, three nations.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Their only fault is that they helped the Bosnian army to obtain some arms during the war. Today, there are more than a billion Muslims world wide. I do not know in whose interest it is, in this or similar articles, to push them into the embrace of the extremists. Our country and people went through hell. The world deemed that it had the right to impose an arms embargo; we believed that we had the right to self- defence. In a competition between those two rights, we believed, and we still believe, that our right was greater. Therefore, I am not going to apologize to anyone for our having done everything possible to secure arms in order to survive. On the contrary, I pay tribute to all brave people, and express my gratitude to all of the friendly countries that assisted us during the war.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“I should first like to greet you, Sir, and to wish you a successful term as President of the General Assembly. I am also happy to inform the Assembly that I come here today from Bosnia, where there is no killing any more. I make both of these statements with great satisfaction. Allow me now to deliver a less optimistic page of my address. While flying to New York the day before yesterday I read an article published in a prominent American newspaper that dealt with the provision of the Bosnian army with arms during the war. The author of the article does not say so explicitly, but he implies that everything that is Muslim smells of terrorism. For him, it seems it is enough to have a Muslim name and to wear a beard to be suspicious. The writer also mentions a number of people.”
1996-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 51 (1996)
“Secondly, we consider that, like all other nations, we have an inalienable right to self-defence. Therefore, if our compromise proposal on the arms embargo is rejected for any reason, we shall ask our friends to secure the immediate, and even unilateral, lifting of the embargo. Unfortunately, I have to inform representatives that, just today, I learned that this compromise proposal is meeting resistance, and even rejection, from some Contact Group countries. Finally, I take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have supported its struggle for survival and freedom.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Under this formula we would limit our demand for the lifting of the arms embargo to the adoption of a formal decision, and the application or consequences of that decision would be deferred for six months. In this case UNPROFOR troops could remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Contact Group would fulfil its promise, and a clear message would be conveyed to Karadzic’s Serbs. I should like, in conclusion, to state our two commitments. First, our irrevocable objective is a democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina within internationally recognized borders, and with full ethnic, religious and political rights for all its citizens. In such a Bosnia and Herzegovina the Serbs will have all rights, up to the highest level of autonomy, but they cannot have a state within a state.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The last-mentioned of these measures should envisage, as an integral element, the opening of the city along the north communication route - road and highway - through the creation of a demilitarized belt 2.5 kilometres wide on both sides of the thoroughfares. In this demilitarized belt, only United Nations troops and police might remain. The potential use of force against the strangulation of Sarajevo is envisaged under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s decision of 9 February 1994. Provided that the above conditions were fulfilled, and on condition that UNPROFOR continued to carry out its mission, the Government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be willing to accept a new, modified formula to deal with the problem of the arms embargo.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“In this conviction, and despite all our disappointments and frustrations, I have come to speak here before the Assembly and to present some of our proposals. From the General Assembly and the Security Council, we are asking the following: first, that all resolutions on Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly be implemented; secondly, that measures be taken effectively to monitor the border between Serbia and Montenegro, on the one side, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other, so that any transport of troops, weapons and military equipment across that border may be prevented or detected in timely fashion; thirdly, that should this transport occur, the decision on the suspension of some of the sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro - Security Council resolution 943 (1994) - be immediately revoked and that tightened sanction measures be imposed in accordance with the plan of the Contact Group of July 1994; fourthly, that there be no further easing of the sanctions towards Serbia and Montenegro until they recognize Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia within internationally recognized borders; fifthly, that a resolution be adopted, without delay, to strengthen the protection and mandate the extension of the safe areas provided for in Security Council resolutions 824 (1993) and 836 (1993), and in accordance with provisions of Article 6 of the Contact Group plan; and, sixthly, that decisions be taken to ensure an immediate end to the strangulation of Sarajevo and to prevent a recurrence of such a situation.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We have accepted the plan, and we have been punished by a complete blockade of Sarajevo. Both processes have occurred simultaneously, in parallel. Today, the highest civilian and military United Nations authorities are warning us: If you demand and succeed in achieving the lifting of the arms embargo, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) will pull out of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and so on. I have certainly not undertaken this long and arduous journey from Bosnia to America solely to convey facts that may be known to the majority of those here. We in Bosnia believe that, despite the hardships, good and justice cannot be defeated. We do not abandon our faith 7 that the world can be better and that we should all work and strive continually to make it better.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“It cannot be blind, and there is thus only the other alternative. This is the argument that has gained an increasing number of supporters. It will not be a good thing if the world’s billion Muslims come to accept it. The latest events surrounding the plan of the Contact Group have given the supporters of the so-called conspiracy theory an additional argument, namely, that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been offered a proposal backed by five major Powers and, therefore, by the majority of the international community, and it has been clearly stated that the side that rejected the plan would be punished while the side that accepted it would be protected. Yet the opposite has happened. The Serbs rejected the plan, and they have been rewarded by the suspension of sanctions.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“This is a sorry situation, and one that concerns every man and every woman in the world, no matter how near or far from Bosnia they may be. For a very long time I rejected - indeed, I still reject - any so-called conspiracy theory, the theory that all that has happened to Bosnia has happened because its majority nation is Muslim and there are dark powers that consciously impel the Serbs towards the extermination of Bosnian Muslims. Those who support this theory have their arguments, and I believe they have been heard here before. They maintain that overt aggression, followed by genocide, concentration camps and other forms of the darkest fascism, is at work in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that the world must be blind not to see it. Is the world blind? Does it consciously condone all these evils?”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The capital is completely blocked and is virtually dying. Yesterday, after I had arrived at United Nations Headquarters, I received a letter from Srebrenica, a small town on the river Drina. The letter was supposed to be a report, but it was also a cry from a real human hell. I could not find the strength to read it a second time. Over three months ago "ethnic cleansing" was reignited, and there is now a new wave. Thousands of civilians whose only fault is that they are not Serbs have been expelled from their homes in Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Janja and other towns under the control of Karadzic’s army. Once again, nothing has been done. The world seems to have grown gradually accustomed to unpunished violations of the basic norms of international law.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“For many of us, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not only a homeland: it is an idea; it is a belief that peoples of different religions, different nationalities and different cultural traditions can live together. Were this dream to be forever buried, were this idea of tolerance among the peoples of the area to be irretrievably lost, the guilt would lie not only with those who have been relentlessly killing Bosnia with their mortars for over 30 months now but also with many of the powerful elsewhere in the world who could have helped yet have chosen to do otherwise. Two days ago, I left Sarajevo. I did not leave by plane because the airport was closed. I had to take land routes through woods that are constantly exposed to fire and where many people are killed daily. For days there is no electricity, water and gas in the city.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The next bloody round in the war ensued, to be followed by another round of negotiations that resulted, on 5 July 1994, in a peace plan drawn up by the Contact Group consisting of five great Powers: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Russian Federation. Again, we chose peace and the attackers, once again, opted for a continuation of the war. We accepted the unjust peace offer in order to halt the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We did so in the hope that the injustice of the peace plan could still be corrected in the years of peace. Knowing the Bosnian soul, we believed - and we still believe - that peace can save - but that war will destroy - all that we call Bosnia. What we call "Bosnia" is not merely a small piece of land in the Balkans.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“In the belief that the only right path was to continue to defend our land and that in this just struggle the peace-loving and freedom-loving peoples of the world would support us, we refused for a very long time to negotiate with war criminals. Finally, faced with the unbearable plight of our people and the world’s indifference, without any choice we accepted negotiations. It turned out that the aggressor had only been using negotiations as a way to bargain for time and to cover up its continuation of the aggression. 6 In March 1993, after long and painful negotiations and with many concessions from our side, we signed the so-called Vance-Owen plan. The aggressor rejected it.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“While they kill our children, rape our women and destroy all our relics, do recognize our right to self-defence." So far, however, the arms embargo has remained in place. With only guns and rifles in their hands, our defenders have faced artillery and tanks. We have lost many people, and reports indicate that more than 90 per cent of them have been killed by grenades and artillery shells. Our cities and villages have been left at the mercy of the powerful military technology in the hands of the murderers. In the capital city of Sarajevo alone, more than 10,000 people have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded. Not a single family is without casualties, either killed or wounded. To all this, the world has sent us one message: negotiate.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Everything changed: the war began, the aggressor and the victim were clearly discernable, but the arms embargo has remained in place as if nothing had happened in the interim. Justice was turned into injustice because the aggressor had weapons - weapons that had been stockpiled over the course of 40 years - while the victim was unarmed and its hands were kept tied. The resolution on the arms embargo became its own contradiction. By maintaining the imbalance in weaponry, it has prolonged the war and turned the peace negotiations into diktat by the better-armed aggressor. We said to the world, "You do not have to come to defend us, but do at least untie our hands and allow us to defend ourselves.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“When the news and pictures of new concentration camps in the heart of Europe came out, the public was astonished or shocked, but for the most part those responsible kept silent. Tens of thousands have perished in those camps and many thousands have disappeared without a trace. The more brutal an attack, the more hesitant the world became. The free world neither defended nor supported freedom. Our people, facing the threat of extermination and a clearly pronounced death sentence, decided to defend itself. But then it encountered a new absurdity. It found its hands tied. In short, before the war broke out against Bosnia and Herzegovina the United Nations imposed a notorious resolution that banned any import of weapons into the territory of former Yugoslavia.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The results of this uneven struggle are as follows: 70 per cent of our country came under occupation in the first months of the war; more than 200,000 civilians have been killed; over 1 million - or one fourth - of our inhabitants have been expelled from their homes; hundreds of cities and villages have been destroyed and burned. This cannot be described as a classic example of warfare between two armies. This has been a war of an army against civilians, followed by genocide and, to date, unprecedented destruction of cultural and religious objects. The world has not responded in an appropriate manner to such barbarity. Whether it was because of the brutality of the attack, or because it was morally and psychologically unprepared, or perhaps because of its entanglement in its conflicting interests, the world seemed confused and hesitant.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The Serbian and Montenegrin aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina began on 5 April 1992, the very day when the decision on recognition of the country was adopted. The aggression has continued to this day with more or, at times, less intensity, and without any prospect of its coming to an end in the near future. The war that was forced upon Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples - and that has now entered its thirty-first month - is one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind. At the very beginning, it was not a war but rather an attack by a well-armed and equipped army, the former Yugoslav army, against defenceless citizens.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“At the time - some three years ago - when Yugoslavia experienced its dissolution, we were doing our best to carry out the separation in a peaceful fashion and without any violence. For reasons already known, our initiatives did not bear fruit. 5 When Slovenia and Croatia seceded, and the dissolution of Yugoslavia had become inevitable, we organized a referendum in order to decide, in a democratic manner, the fate of Bosnia. By a two-thirds majority - exactly 64.4 per cent of the body of registered voters, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, opted for the country’s independence in the referendum of 1 March 1992. International recognition of our country followed soon thereafter, and so did the aggression against it. The decision on its recognition was made on 5 April 1992 and was announced the following day, 6 April 1992.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Allow me, at the outset, to commend Mr. Samuel Insanally for the able manner in which he conducted the work of the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly. I would also like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of this, the forty-ninth session. I wish you success in pursuing this very important task. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at this distinguished gathering. I come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a far-away country that has currently been the subject of many discussions. Unfortunately, I have to begin my statement by repeating facts that, for most of you, may be or should be well known.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We cannot and will not accommodate the anxieties of those same Governments and allow them to pressure us to abandon our last hope for self-preservation and a real and durable peace. Although there has been a process through which many witnesses to this crime have become anaesthetized to its horror, the horror itself will never go away, and future generations of the righteous and the just in every nation will neither forgive nor trust the countries which allowed it to happen. At least a billion people are waiting for this body to act. Are Members really ready to surrender Bosnia and its people to annihilation? Those billion people I have mentioned, and not only they, will never forgive you.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“One way or another, it cannot continue with the present policy, which makes it an accomplice in the destruction of the Bosnian people. My Government remains committed to peace and to the ideals of a pluralistic, democratic and multi-religious society. Unfortunately, some of the very nations that espouse these ideals world wide have betrayed them by inaction, and in their own backyards. We cannot indefinitely continue a struggle on principle without adequate help from outside or without at least being afforded the full opportunity to defend ourselves. The action of our Parliament is clear in its commitment to peace, its demands for a viable State and a durable peace. Principles have been shamelessly abandoned by those who had the greatest duty and reason to uphold them in our country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“What has happened to the Security Council’s demands in resolution 752 (1992) for the withdrawal of all Serbian military and paramilitary units from our country along with their heavy weapons? Why has there been no implementation of Security Council resolutions 787 (1992) and 838 (1993), which were to monitor the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and prevent the continuing massive flow of arms and material going to the aggressors in Bosnia? It is no longer possible to speak of non-intervention. The international community’s involvement in Bosnia began with the imposition of the arms embargo and has continued through this whole series of unfulfilled commitments. The United Nations must either follow 4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session through with its intervention or decide to rescind that intervention.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Tragically, United Nations involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far shown the very antithesis of any clarity of objective and firmness of resolve. The moral void created by this confusion has naturally been filled with a determination to defer to the aggressor’s wishes at the expense of the victim. The United Nations intervention, in its half-heartedness and equivocation, combined with its proud insistence that it is getting the job done and that therefore we cannot be allowed to arm ourselves, may well go down in history as the principal instrument of my country’s destruction. In this regard, a few unavoidable questions arise. Why has there been no implementation of Security Council resolutions 824 (1993) and 836 (1993) calling for the lifting of the siege of our cities?”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Our Bosnian minority in Serbia, the Muslims of Sandzak, have been deprived of their rights. Many people who have defended the rights of their countrymen have been imprisoned or expelled. While the Serbian regime has ostensibly been protecting the rights of ethnic Serbs in Croatia, it has not been willing to recognize those same rights for minorities in Serbia. We demand the same rights for the Muslims of Sandzak as those that Serbs are demanding for themselves in Croatia. Future negotiations cannot neglect this very important political and human-rights issue. As United States President Clinton recently stated before this body, the United Nations cannot become involved in every world conflict. United Nations involvement should only be undertaken with a clear political and military strategy in place.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In this effort it is essential that the international community and its most capable members and relevant regional organizations do the following: first, take steps to encourage and enforce the maintenance of the cease-fires recently agreed to by all the relevant forces; secondly, take steps, as envisioned in several Security Council resolutions, to stop the blockage of humanitarian relief and other essential supplies such as water, electricity and gas; thirdly, reopen Tuzla Airport, making possible the delivery of humanitarian relief to over a million people; and, fourthly, establish clear demands for the lifting of the siege of Sarajevo as a first step towards the lifting of all sieges of Bosnian towns, including the safe areas designated by Security Council resolutions 824 (1993) and 836 (1993).”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“On behalf of all Bosnians, I must first thank the United Nations and all the friendly Governments, private institutions and heroic individuals that have helped provide humanitarian assistance in Bosnia. We profoundly appreciate the efforts that have so far saved many lives. But with the coming of winter, more help will be needed if our wounded and malnourished population is to avoid finally succumbing to starvation, disease and exposure.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Council cannot escape its responsibilities and the inherent inconsistencies by hiding behind the frequently repeated excuse that it will accept whatever all the parties agree to, when one party, the victim, is under the pressure of the very real threat of genocide. As further negotiations on these matters continue, the mediation team should be enlarged to include a representative of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which will most likely be the agent of enforcement. This would add a degree of clarity, direction and credibility to the talks that has been lacking so far. Now, let me bring to the Assembly’s attention the impending humanitarian tragedy unfolding in my country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Otherwise, we risk adopting another agreement or commitment that will, like so many others previously, become worthless for peace and of value only to further legitimize the aggressor. Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 3 Fourthly, in the event that the international community is not successful in implementing the peace plan, then we must be allowed to arm and defend ourselves. Consistent with its authority and unavoidable responsibility, the Security Council should evaluate the plan prepared by Lord Owen and Mr. Stoltenberg to determine its consistency or inconsistency with the United Nations Charter and numerous resolutions previously adopted by the Council.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Secondly, the aggressor forces must surrender control of the territories where they have slaughtered and expelled civilian populations so that the Bosnians can return to their homes. Well over half a million refugees would find it impossible to return to villages, towns and cities from which they were expelled if Serbian forces that committed murder, rape and torture were to continue to control those territories. There is the option that some of those territories could be temporarily administered by international peace-keeping forces. Thirdly, the final agreement must contain comprehensive and specific guarantees concerning its implementation from those nations and regional organizations that will actually be enforcing the peace. Such guarantees must be an integral part of the peace accords and cannot be delayed until a later date.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Finally, any peace plan that makes no provision for a viable Bosnian State, that does not address even the most basic needs of the victim and that does not provide the necessary measures for real implementation and durability is, in the end, not a plan for real peace. Last week’s provisional acceptance by the Bosnian Parliament of the peace proposals is dependent on the same minimal adjustments that we have consistently held to be necessary for a durable peace. These adjustments are the following: First, the Bosnian Republic within the proposed Union of the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be viable geographically, economically, politically and defensively.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It could mean the death of thousands more. The unjust peace plan is flawed because it is based upon the repugnant and historically failed concept of ethnic partition and apartheid. The flaw is compounded by the fact that even the partition is unfair, since it seeks to satisfy the aggressor’s appetite for an inequitably large share at the expense of the victim. However, the flaws in the so-called peace plan being forced upon us are not merely philosophical. First, any plan that legitimizes genocide and promotes ethnic partition will most likely sow the seeds for new aggression and fuel the fires of retribution. Secondly, any peace that does not address the true causes of war will, at best, offer only temporary, remedial relief rather than promoting the healing that is essential.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It was abandoned only to be replaced by a new one, which is based on the false thesis that what we have in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a civil war between the three peoples and that territorial partition is therefore the only solution. But this plan is being fulfilled neither with respect to the idea that the partition of the land should be carried out in accordance with the criterion of ethnic majority, nor with respect to the basic intention of bringing about peace. As a result, the uncontrollable unfolding of events will continue, and will cause nothing but new suffering for our people. Now the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are being asked to choose between a just, defensive war and an unjust peace. The war, if continued, is likely to cause further suffering for our people and the further destruction of our nation.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The experiment, unfortunately, is being performed in vivo by testing various hypotheses on our living national and governmental organism. In this experiment, our people are dying, and so is our country and our State. The first experiment was performed by the London Conference. This concept, which sought to stop the aggression, was abandoned without a single attempt to implement it; and this only intensified the war on our soil. This was followed by an attempt to find a solution by means of constitutional, legal and political reform to a crisis that was becoming ever deeper. This project, known as the Vance-Owen plan, no one even attempted to implement.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is obvious that the remaining forces of the Communist potential for aggression have been exercised against us and that an extirpation of chances for democratic development has been perpetrated before the eyes of Europe, America and the whole world. This act is being carried out entirely by force, in forms ranging from aggression and mass murder of civilians to destruction of all traces of civilization and culture and the extermination of whole nations by the barbaric tactics of burned and destroyed land. Simultaneously with this unprecedented violence, an experiment in political vivisection is being carried out against our country. It is being carried out by an international community that, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has obviously been testing various models for the post-Communist State.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is pleased to welcome the Organization’s newest Members: Andorra, the Czech Republic, Eritrea, Monaco, the Republic of Macedonia and the Slovak Republic. We are confident that these Members will uphold the principles of the United Nations Charter. The international community has neither a definite policy nor a clear plan of political action that would facilitate a transition from the Communist structures that have been in power for 50 years to concepts based on freedom and democracy. We believe that it is impossible to find solutions for either global or local conflicts unless a clear stand is taken on the overall question of what the post-Communist heritage is to be. The negative aspects of this problem have been fully illustrated in the case of my country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We should also like to congratulate the Palestinian and Israeli people on their recent efforts towards peace. We are likewise happy to see the great strides towards democracy being made in South Africa. Mr. President, it is my pleasure and privilege to extend to you our sincerest congratulations on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. Your election to this high office reaffirms the importance of the role that small States play in the family of nations. We should also like to extend our appreciation to your distinguished predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stojan Ganev, our Balkan colleague, for conducting the deliberations of this body with great expertise and commitment.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)