YouSaid · the spoken record

KOVANDA

lines on the record: 460
first: 1994-01-06
most recent: 1996-01-24
sittings or episodes: 65
sources: un-security-council

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“However, as many Members have stated many times - and the Permanent Representative of Ethiopia, who has just addressed the Council, was just the most recent in this long line - the primary responsibility for the future of Liberia lies with the Liberians themselves, including ULIMO-J. In the event of future serious threats to the security of UNOMIL, of ECOMOG or indeed of the Liberian people, my country will be prepared to seriously re-evaluate our continuing support for UNOMIL.”
1996-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3621 (1996) · source
“At this moment at least, we do not see a pandemic civil war erupting again. The important thing now is to intensify pressure on Liberia's factions to meet their commitments, to provide security guarantees to ECOMOG and to UNOMIL, and to proceed with disarmament and demobilization. In turn, the factions will need concrete help as their members reintegrate into civilian life. Upon careful consideration, my authorities have reached the conclusion that withdrawing our support from UNOMIL, modest though it is, would at this time be unfortunate. We therefore support the Secretary-General's recommendation that UNOMIL's mandate be extended by several months, and we will continue participating in the Mission.”
1996-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3621 (1996) · source
“We do not consider the fighting in Tubmanburg and the casualties suffered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to constitute such an improvement, to state the obvious. We salute ECOMOG and the memory of its fallen comrades and extend our deepest sympathy to their families. We strongly condemn the attacks by ULIMO-J. Such outbreaks severely stretch the willingness of disinterested countries to continue assisting Liberia. In the light of these events, the Czech Republic has very seriously reflected on the future of UNOMIL and on the purpose served by exposing its own participants to the attendant dangers. In our final evaluation, though, we feel that the conflagration caused by ULIMO-J has not spread into other areas of the country.”
1996-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3621 (1996) · source
“In fact, the Czech Republic is the only European country that actually participates in the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). These remarks of ours would thus have been addressed to the troop-contributors meeting, but we are grateful to the Council for having provided this opportunity to actually get them on record, and it is an honour to speak in the presence of the Foreign Minister of Liberia. We find the Secretary-General's report alarming. Hopes concerning the peace process in Liberia have flowed and ebbed, but they definitely crested with the signing of the accord in Abuja. All along, the Security Council has warned at various times when deciding on the UNOMIL mandate that, if significant improvement is not attained, this time might be the last time the mandate is extended.”
1996-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3621 (1996) · source
“Allow me first to congratulate you, Sir, on assuming the presidency for January 1996, and to thank Ambassador Lavrov for the excellent job he did as President last month - the last month of our own tenure on the Council. Also, I wish to congratulate new Council members: Chile, Egypt, Guinea- Bissau, the Republic of Korea and especially Poland, which has assumed the seat reserved for our regional group. One may wonder how the interests of the Czech Republic are specially affected by the situation in far- away Liberia, such that we would be granted the privilege of participating in the discussion under rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure. We feel that Article 44 of the Charter provides us with grounds to participate, inasmuch as the employment of contingents of the Czech armed forces is involved.”
1996-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3621 (1996) · source
“Compliance with Security Council resolutions and with requests of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia constitutes an essential aspect of implementing the Peace Agreement. And this is where today's matter is only seemingly of a different cloth than was the suspension of economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the resolutions concerning the Peace Agreement. We fear that there will not be a lasting peace in Bosnia until we will have dug out the truth - literally perhaps - about the massacres under consideration here today and until the perpetrators have been tried and punished.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“The Security Council has always insisted on individual responsibility of the perpetrators of "ethnic cleansing". Individual responsibility applies, of course, to all parties. In this connection, my delegation is deeply concerned by recent reports of violations of human rights of the civilian population and of arson and looting in those areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the Peace Agreement would transfer to another authority. In particular, this concerns crimes of which we suspect the Bosnian Croats - the HVO - in the areas of Mrkonjic-Grad and Sipovo. A durable peace in the Balkans is, first of all, in the interests of the parties to the conflict themselves. By contributing a substantial unit to IFOR, the Czech Republic expresses its confidence in the sincerity of the parties' commitment to all aspects of this Agreement.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“We would, most of all, delight in finding out that the Srebrenica thousands were not killed at all, that they had merely been forgotten - sequestered, perhaps, in some barn in a hidden mountain valley. However, we are not aware of any such factual evidence. We are not aware of any evidence better than that provided in the Secretary-General's report, and we agree with him that it is indeed undeniable. We are profoundly shocked that some parties are still not cooperating with the international community in allowing a search for the necessary additional evidence. By not cooperating, they contravene the obligations they undertook in signing the Peace Agreement. We urge Bosnian Serbs to comply with their obligations, including providing access to persons displaced, detained or reported missing.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Some have described the Secretary-General's report as containing "shortcomings", as providing "insufficient evidence", as containing "arbitrary statements". They have argued that the "alleged" mass killings and disappearances furthered a "propaganda campaign" of the Bosnian Government, and even that it was renegade Muslims who slaughtered thousands of their co-religionists. My delegation would be the first to welcome factual rebuttals of the information contained in the Secretary- General's report. We would welcome a factual explication of its alleged shortcomings, the marshalling of factual evidence to make up for its alleged insufficiencies.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“We also note that we are addressing the issue on the eve of the visit of my President, Vaclav Havel, to Sarajevo. We are grateful to the Secretary-General for his report, which - in his words - provides "undeniable evidence of a consistent pattern of summary executions, rape, mass expulsions, arbitrary detentions, forced labour and large-scale disappearances". (S/1995/988, para. 74) Only the worst possible fate can be inferred concerning the thousands missing in Srebrenica. And, of course, the more time that elapses since the tragedies under discussion, the less chance there is that we shall ever find out exactly what really happened and who exactly is responsible. This should not stop us from trying, however.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Just a few days ago we commended leaders of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for having signed the Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Shortly before that, we suspended economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These developments will, we hope, stanch the torrent of destruction in the former Yugoslavia. The deployment of the Implementation Force (IFOR) constitutes a serious commitment by the international community to assist in this. Today, however, we have to deal with what seemingly is another issue - namely, violations of international humanitarian law and of human rights. During our two-year tenure on this Council, this is at least the tenth time my delegation is addressing this issue, and we have again joined the sponsors of the draft resolution before the Council.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“The phased lifting of the arms embargo may be viewed as the obverse of the removal of sanctions. My Government, however, is uncertain whether lifting the embargo three months into a peace, a peace which will be so new an experience for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is absolutely indispensable - and this, at a time when tens of thousands of defenders of peace, namely, the implementation force, will be pouring into the country. Serious discussions are under way even as I speak which should lead to a serious and substantive contribution of Czech soldiers to the implementation force. We would hate to suffer any casualties resulting from a freshly legal inflow of arms into the cauldron of killing that is Bosnia and Herzegovina. In all, though, my delegation will vote in favour of both draft resolutions before us.”
1995-11-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3595 (1995) · source
“Individual responsibility, established by and punished by the International Tribunal, is necessary not only for justice to be done, but also to prevent the emergence in Bosnia and Herzegovina of a culture of impunity, a culture which leaves victims and their children with a feeling that if any justice is to be done they have to seek it themselves, thus sowing the wind which will possibly yield another whirlwind of war. One of the difficult open issues among the south Slav States is the matter of succession. The draft rightly stresses the need for successors to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to reach necessary agreements on the distribution of funds and assets. The Czech Republic has some experience of peaceably dividing countries and their assets and would, I am sure, gladly provide advice about how to go about it.”
1995-11-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3595 (1995) · source
“Our sanctions draft mentions compliance with the requests and orders of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as constituting an essential aspect of implementing the Peace Agreement. This mention appears in the preamble, but not in the operative section of the draft. My delegation would warn, however, against interpreting this fact as diminishing its importance. In resolution after resolution the Council has insisted on individual responsibility of perpetrators of "ethnic cleansing". We have never abandoned this insistence.”
1995-11-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3595 (1995) · source
“It was, of course, the formidable resources of United States diplomacy and military might which brought about and pulled off Dayton. We sincerely congratulate all concerned. Our own role here in the Council is one of a supporting actor: to undo, now that peace is looming, measures which we adopted in very different circumstances. My country is pleased to have co-sponsored the draft resolution providing for the suspension and eventual termination of economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and, in due course, Bosnian Serb territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The casing of sanctions is deliberate and leaves open ways for reversing the suspension should the subjects of the sanctions fail in taking the steps anticipated of them in Dayton.”
1995-11-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3595 (1995) · source
“Today we meet on a happy occasion by any standards - except that the name of Dayton, having become a part of history, will cause difficulties to future generations of schoolchildren. We have, indeed, had precious few occasions to celebrate anything concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Council in recent years. We may not have the end of the war, but we do have the beginning of peace. The next weeks and months will show how this beginning will unfold. It will show which of all the complex arrangements of Dayton will live, even flourish, and whether any will die on the vine. The Security Council has been sidelined for several months when it comes to the former Yugoslavia, at least since the Contact Group assumed the initiative in dealing with that part of the world.”
1995-11-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3595 (1995) · source
“Having highlighted several potential problems of the coming period, my delegation is nevertheless satisfied that the UNOMIL mandate for the current conditions is outlined fairly clearly and cleanly. We shall therefore vote in favour of the draft resolution.”
1995-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3592 (1995) · source
“Through the Cease-fire Monitoring Group of ECOWAS (ECOMOG), African States have borne the brunt of support for peace in Liberia. Frankly, we are therefore doubly surprised by their low turnout here today. We note, however, that, in proportion to the populations of Liberia and Mozambique, ECOMOG is to be 10 times as strong as the United Nations Operation in Mozambique was. We have heard no satisfactory explanation of this difference in strength between the two forces. Needless to say, the size of ECOMOG has an immediate bearing on the volume of financial, logistical and other assistance that Member States are urged, in paragraph 7 of the draft resolution, to provide.”
1995-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3592 (1995) · source
“A prolonged stay, especially if in miserable conditions, leads not only to demoralization but, worse - as in Mozambique - to revolt and mutinies. Thirdly, there is the importance of effective control of weapons. In Mozambique, large quantities of rusty, useless, non-functioning weapons were turned in early in the process, the good stuff being withheld. Parallel to that, every now and then a hidden cache of arms was discovered. Fourthly, there is the importance of the speedy and effective reintegration of combatants into civilian life. Any delays will, in conjunction with the proliferation of arms, lead to banditry. The Secretary-General clearly highlights this danger in paragraph 47 of his report, but no clear countermeasures are envisaged.”
1995-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3592 (1995) · source
“I do, however, wish to point out that the way ahead will not be problem-free - certainly not on the military side. The disengagement, assembly and demobilization of combatants and their reintegration into civilian life will not proceed without hitches. Experience from Mozambique, which continues to impress us, demonstrates several flashpoints. First, there is the importance of providing combatants with an incentive to come out of the bush and allow themselves to be disarmed. In Mozambique, this incentive took the form of a guaranteed income for a certain period. In Liberia, we are more or less relying on combatants being tired of war and on their being sufficiently controlled by their commanders. Secondly, there is the importance of rapid processing of combatants once they are on assembly sites.”
1995-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3592 (1995) · source
“We speak here today not only as a member of the Security Council but also as a participant in the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) - the only European participant and, apart from China, the only participant among Council members. Thus, we feel a special responsibility for the careful and realistic formulation of the mandate of UNOMIL. We have seen in other peace-keeping operations the difficulties that follow from a fuzzy mandate, and last year our own men had to escape danger in Liberia under rather dramatic circumstances. But political developments have led to a change in circumstances, and that is what we are reacting to here. I shall not comment on the new conditions, as we have done so in this Chamber on a previous occasion.”
1995-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3592 (1995) · source
“I reflected then that perhaps, for its fiftieth birthday, the United Nations might receive a gift from the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, perhaps a piece of art called, for example, The Fall of Gorazde. I suggested that it could be exhibited outside our Chamber, in the vicinity of the tapestry of Picasso's Guernica. Well, it seems I made a little mistake: the possible gift would more correctly be called The Fall of Srebrenica.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“We are on the side of the victims. The most awful of atrocities with which we are probably dealing here is that of Srebrenica. Melos was destroyed in 416 BC. during the Peloponnesian War, Carthage in 146 BC. during the Third Punic War. The men of those cities were put to death, which appears to have been the fate of thousands of men in Srebrenica as well. The main difference between Srebrenica and those two cities of antiquity, whose destruction has marked the entire subsequent history of the world, was that, in Srebrenica, women and children were not actually sold into slavery. Some 18 months ago, we were deliberating in this Chamber the shelling of Gorazde.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“We fully support the request that the Secretary-General submit a written report on the issue at hand, based - I stress - on all information available. "Ethnic cleansing" is reprehensible no matter who conducts it and no matter what methods are used. With this in mind, we are concerned at "ethnic cleansing" not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in Croatia. And even though, in Croatia, the killings may have been fewer in number, even though they may not have been organized and even though in Croatia a determined effort appears to have been made to bring the perpetrators to justice, all this is irrelevant to the victim. The wretched old man whose throat is being slashed does not particularly care whether he is one of thousands or merely of hundreds; he does not care whether the knife was authorized or not.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“It is impermissible obfuscation to interpret the one as equalling the other; it is impermissible mystification to interpret the one as causing the other; it is impermissible cynicism to interpret the one as justifying the other. We applaud efforts to get information out about the screams of the victims. We have been particularly impressed by the reporting of The New York Times and that of Mr. David Rohde of the Christian Science Monitor. Their reporting is all the more important since our own United Nations feelers frequently do not reach quite as deep or as far as these reporters do. We are gratified by indications that the United States, whose national means have been very helpful in bringing indications of the tragedies to our attention, intends to share all its relevant information with the International Tribunal.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“We must declare most resolutely that efforts to establish this kind of linkage, this type of causality, this type of quid pro quo are repugnant and absolutely unacceptable. No matter what we feel about the movement of the battlefront, about violations of cease- fires about one side prevailing over the other in combat, we all have to recognize one thing: there is a fundamental difference between, on the one hand, the struggle of armed men, men in military uniform, on the field of Mars; and, on the other hand, the one-sided expulsions, rape and butchery of unarmed civilians, isolated in their individual homes, defenceless and thus scared out of their senses of the untrammelled brutality of their tormentors, whether they be forces in official uniforms, paramilitary units in black masks or vigilante squads.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“And yet, amazingly, an epidemic of deafness seems to have affected whole groups of people, even important people, in Croatia, and in particular in Serb- controlled Bosnia. This deafness has prevented them from appreciating that "ethnic cleansing", violations of humanitarian law and wholesale Violations of human rights do not belong among instruments of war, let alone of politics, in countries of today's civilized world. These people, even important people, place themselves beyond the pale of civilized discourse. We have heard, even here in the United Nations, the argument that the recent Serbian slaughter of Muslim and Croat innocents in places like Banja Luka and Sanski Most was caused, or perhaps provoked, by Croat and Bosnian Government advances along the nearby line of fighting.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“My delegation offers its congratulations to you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of our Council, and we also most warmly congratulate your predecessor, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, for having managed to get all our work done last month, the United Nations jubilee celebrations notwithstanding. Although we co-sponsored it, my delegation is completely exasperated over the fact that we would even need resolution 1019 (1995). One would have hoped that after three or four years of constantly appealing to, admonishing, castigating, criticizing, ostracizing and condemning people involved in "ethnic cleansing", indeed after the formation of an International Tribunal to deal with these crimes - the first of its kind since the Nuremberg Court 50 years ago - no one could possibly still be deaf.”
1995-11-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3591 (1995) · source
“My delegation has even on previous occasions argued that a longer period of relaxed sanctions would be appropriate, and the half year for which sanction relief has been authorized today is in our view very proper. This is why the Czech Republic was happy to co- sponsor resolution 1015 (1995). We recognized that this resolution might well be the last of its kind, inasmuch as in six months we might be facing a different situation altogether. Needless to say, that depends more on future actions of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia than on the Security Council.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“Furthermore, these developments vindicate the policy of this Council, which in resolutions 942 (1994) and 943 (1994) first sought to underscore the then emerging differences between Serbs of the FRY and Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina by differentiating its treatment of the two, by relaxing sanctions on the former while tightening them on the latter. At that time last year, the Council took a gamble and the voting was nowhere near the unanimity we witnessed today. This gamble has paid off. The resolutions that followed 943 (1994) extended or shortened the time period for relaxing sanctions depending on how we perceived the behaviour of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“This is a posture we greatly appreciated, even more so since the brunt of the humanitarian aftermath of Croatia's military action, in the form of hundreds of thousands of Serb refugees, has fallen largely on State and local authorities of the FRY. More recently, the FRY and President Milosevic personally were critically instrumental in agreeing to a set of peace principles in Geneva concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina. The promise of Geneva has in the most recent days been augmented by an accord on Bosnia and Herzegovina, which we hear was actually based on propositions of President Milosevic. There is for us, at least, auspicious symbolism in these developments taking place just as we in the Czech Republic have started celebrating a month of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the auspices of Presidents Havel and Izetbegovic.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), has received yet again a clean bill of health from the Co- Chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY) concerning its maintaining a sealed border with the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and concerning its cooperation with the ICFY Mission monitoring that border. This would be reason enough for the Security Council to pass resolution 1015 (1995), which has extended the sanctions relief first effected by resolution 943 (1994). In addition, though, we have taken good note of the posture of reticent onlooker that the FRY authorities adopted during recent Croatian military activities aimed at reintegrating parts of Croatia's territory that had been under the control of Croatian Serbs bent on secession.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“The Czech Republic has been making its own modest contribution to the peace process in Liberia. Ours is the only European country which has fielded a certain number of military observers to take part in the work of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), as, indeed, our observers took part in Mozambique. My authorities are currently studying a request to further augment the number of our observers serving in Liberia. We hope that the people of Liberia and their leaders will stay firmly on the course they have outlined for themselves for Liberia to emerge yet again as a bastion of peace in Western Africa.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3577 (1995) · source
“There will be ample opportunity for local flare-ups, and heaven knows there is an ample supply of arms in the country. This is where the Mozambique example comes into play. In it we can find inspiration as to how to wrestle to the ground the devil of the details. Even so, today's success is tremendous, and we congratulate the parties themselves. We congratulate the countries of the Economic Community of West African States, which have been shouldering the tremendous burden of fielding the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), and most certainly we congratulate the statesmen of Ghana and of Nigeria for their steadfastness and singularity of purpose, which have been so appropriately crowned with success. My delegation wholeheartedly supports the draft resolution before us.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3577 (1995) · source
“Our experience there should be studied and its success factors distilled and applied wherever else they are applicable. Liberia seems to offer a chance for applying these lessons. The first building blocks of a lasting peace have at long last been put in place. At long last all the main factions of the civil war there have installed a Council of State and have agreed on a process of disengagement, encampment, disarmament and demobilization and, finally, on preparations for elections to be held next 20 August. The devil is in the details. The implementation of this plan will surely run into any number of logistical difficulties and into the occasional unwillingness of this party or that, or of their local followers, to take this or that concrete step.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3577 (1995) · source
“My delegation, too, will miss our dear neighbour, Ambassador Merimee, that paragon of diplomatic skill, unfailing coartoisie, sartorial excellence and la francophonie. We wish him all the best in Rome. A year ago a Security Council mission visited Mozambique to see what more the Security Council could do to help implement an agreement between belligerents there, an agreement that pulled the country out of years of civil war. I had the honour to serve on that mission. We witnessed processes of demobilization and voter registration which eventually culminated in free elections. The United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) peace-keeping operation is today a term in United Nations history. Fortunately, it is a term denoting success. The success of Mozambique and of ONUMOZ is a shining example.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3577 (1995) · source
“We wish to point out that not all areas of conflict have been dealt with in Geneva so far. No points of agreement have yet been reached on Eastern Slavonia. Even though the parties intend to return to this issue shortly, we find this worrying. It supports the view, which we share, that more Vigilance, including a strengthening of United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO) forces in the area, is appropriate. In conclusion, let me emphasize the strong and unequivocal support of my country for the role the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have jointly played and the measures they have taken in recent weeks to prevent further shelling of the civilian population of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to bring the parties to the bargaining table.”
1995-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3575 (1995) · source
“The news from Geneva indicates the readiness of parties to the conflict not only to accept a peace proposal, but also to implement it in good faith. We applaud the recent efforts of United States diplomacy and the continuous efforts of the Contact Group members, which have contributed tremendously to reaching this point. We call upon the parties to embark on the process sketched out in Geneva immediately, for time is of the essence. The process of reaching a political settlement should no longer be hostage to military extremists who bully and prevaricate while massacring innocent civilians in one Bosnian city after another. The Czech Republic stresses that only unconditional and full implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions and of the Geneva principles will guarantee a lasting settlement of this conflict.”
1995-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3575 (1995) · source
“Since this is the first time my delegation has spoken this month, allow me first, Sir, to congratulate you on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of September and to express our gratitude to Ambassador Nugroho Wisnumurti and his team for the way they conducted the business of the Council in August. This evening, my delegation wishes to look into the future rather than the past. My Government welcomes the basic principles for a new shape of Bosnia and Herzegovina that parties to the conflict agreed upon earlier today in Geneva. This agreement does not mean an end to the war, at least not quite yet. Nevertheless, it surely represents a milestone on the way to its peaceful settlement.”
1995-09-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3575 (1995) · source
“Over the coming years, sufficient trust will have to develop between the two ethnic groups, trust which will allow all segments of the population to participate in all aspects of the country's life. The commission of inquiry might be of assistance here as well inasmuch as it might make recommendations concerning appropriate legal, political or administrative measures, for such measures are probably necessary if Burundi is in the future to avoid not only the vortex of Rwanda, but also the twin dangers of a dictatorship based on the predominant majority of one ethnic group as well as a dictatorship based on a firepower monopoly of the other ethnic group.”
1995-08-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3571 (1995) · source
“The persons identified as having participated in the assassination of President Ndadaye or in the subsequent slaughter of Tutsis, which the Burundian authorities describe as genocide, will then presumably be dealt with by the arm of the law, which in Burundi would demonstrate for the first time in years that crimes do lead to punishment. There is one other indelible impression that one gets in Burundi. With the 1993 elections, the country set out on a democratic path. Democracy as the rule of the majority is one thing we all understand. In Burundi especially, though, democracy's other aspect comes into play - the protection of minorities. The Tutsi minority now distrusts its country's democracy and sees sufficient self-protection only in having control of all the country's guns.”
1995-08-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3571 (1995) · source
“I have had the privilege of serving on both of these missions. There are one or two indelible impressions which Burundi leaves on a visitor. One is the corrosion of the body politic caused by what has been aptly described as "a culture of impunity". It is difficult to instil respect for human life, let alone a sense of political responsibility, if crimes - even political crimes, even political assassinations, even an assassination of the country's President - go unpunished. The international commission of inquiry which would be set up according to the draft resolution before of us would continue the excellent work of the Mission of Ambassadors Ake and Huslid, whose sensitive report of May 1994 is mentioned in the first preambular paragraph of the draft.”
1995-08-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3571 (1995) · source
“The results of those elections were tragically marred when, in October of that year, the newly-elected President Ndadaye, whom the Hutus of the country thought of as their own Nelson Mandela, was assassinated. The culprits were never publicly identified, let alone brought to justice. And in the aftermath of the assassination a tidal wave of revenge led to the slaughter of perhaps 50,000 people, mostly Tutsis. Again, culprits were never identified, let alone tried. The political situation in the country has been tottering from one crisis to the next ever since, periodically verging on an explosion of one sort or another. The Security Council has felt it necessary to dispatch two missions to the country in the past year or so. Burundi is the only country in crisis which has received attention of this intensity.”
1995-08-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3571 (1995) · source
“Burundi has for some time now been balancing on the edge of a precipice. With an ethnic composition very similar to that of neighbouring Rwanda and with distrust between the two ethnic groups similarly pronounced, there have been periodic fears that Burundi, too, might witness a Rwanda-style genocide. The differences between the two countries, however, are very important as well. While Hutus constitute an overwhelming majority of the population of both countries, in Rwanda the Hutus had also been in control of the military and security. The Hutus in Burundi, on the other hand, have the numbers, but it was only in 1993 that they won a significant piece of the political pie in the country's first democratic elections.”
1995-08-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3571 (1995) · source
“The embargo-suspending provisions of this draft resolution rightly emphasize two things: first, any arms flows into Rwanda must be destined solely for the Rwandan Government forces - that is to say, for no other forces in the country, and for the forces of no other Government outside the country; and, secondly, the free- for-all arms bazaar is one of the greatest scourges of the countries in the region.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source
“The embargo was imposed on a genocidal regime, and many of us recall the sorry spectacle of a representative of that regime sitting at this table, making his objectionable presentation and voting against paragraph 13, which actually imposed the embargo. Surely, a lot has changed since then. Today we are in effect suspending the arms embargo for a little over a year, allowing it to terminate automatically unless the Council decides to reimpose it, based on a report that the Secretary-General is called upon to submit next August. In other words, Rwanda is not off the embargo hook entirely; and one hopes that progress in solving its domestic problems, and, for that matter, progress in resolving the camp-population issue, will be so clear that there will be no reason to reimpose it.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source
“It is imperative that the Government, which we hear is not united in its view on these matters, demonstrate the necessary political will and resolve fundamental political issues that are delaying the process, namely: first, the nomination of judges to the Supreme Court; secondly, the use of expatriate personnel in the judicial system; and, thirdly, the solution of procedural irregularities that have resulted from the emergency nature of most arrests. The start of trials has to become a priority for all branches of government; the legislature and the executive have to cooperate with the judiciary for judicial action to begin. This draft resolution started out as one dealing with the now-obsolete provisions of the arms embargo that resolution 918 (1994) imposed on Rwanda.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source
“Paradoxically, as domestic stability is ever more firmly established, the relative weight of responsibility for refugee return that falls on Rwandan authorities increases. The Government must have as its constant priority improving conditions: both those that are tied directly to refugees' willingness to return and those that shape the overall image of the country and thus influence their willingness to return, at least indirectly. Two of the latter aspects are particularly important: the situation in jails and the justice system. The two are linked. There can be no excuse for 50,000 people to be languishing in jails a year after the end to the genocide - with no relief in sight, because no trials have started.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source
“Even more disturbing are reports of arms trafficking in the camps and of possible preparations for another military conflagration in the area. This gives the camp leadership a Khmer-Rouge tint, to be sure. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the draft resolution under consideration is operative paragraph 2, which would kick off a process that would eventually, we hope, lead to a thorough investigation of arms flows in the region; and we are pleased that the Government of Zaire has expressed its support for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to this effect. If the return of refugees is hindered by their campmasters, on the one side, they are not assured of a terribly warm welcome in Rwanda, on the other side. Unlike the situation of the camps, this is a situation over which Rwandan authorities have far greater control.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source
“One year after the end to the genocide in Rwanda, one year after the end of the civil war, Rwandan authorities and the people of Rwanda have accomplished a very great deal in reconstructing their country. For this, they deserve our admiration and congratulations. Problems remain, of course. Of these, none is more pressing than that of the refugees. Gathered in the millions in camps just outside the country, they are, on the one hand, being controlled, even terrorized, by camp leaders, partisans of Rwanda's previous genocidal regime, and, on the other hand, being demoralized by the ready handouts provided through the international community's generosity - handouts that are an easier source of livelihood than working the fields in their home villages.”
1995-08-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3566 (1995) · source