YouSaid · the spoken record

Misie

lines on the record: 80
first: 1995-04-19
most recent: 1996-08-15
sittings or episodes: 7
sources: un-security-council

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 find the recently announced seven-point action programme on anti-personnel mines presented by the German Foreign Minister to be an extraordinary contribution to the decisive course towards the goal for which the majority of humanity strives: the elimination of the dangers and irreparable damages that mines cause both to peace-keepers and to civilians. We cannot but express our gratitude for the material and other contributions that the United States of America, Germany, Japan, Canada and other countries have made towards the elimination of the dangers of mines, as well as for the assistance offered to my Government in detecting, marking and clearing mines, which are cowardly weapons that only reveal the most evil intentions of their users.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“We also believe that those countries and Governments which are mine exporters and which violate United Nations resolutions, existing conventions and future decisions on mines should be discouraged from doing so with the threat of more serious consequences. In this regard, I fully share the view expressed here by the representative of Pakistan. My Government not only has no reservations, but salutes and fully supports the latest initiative of the President of the United States of America to ban the usage, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel land- mines.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“This is why we join those who have called for much greater investment in financial, scientific and human resources in order to improve the technology for the detection and the destruction of mines, instead of increasing their destructive effects. In this context, I cannot resist expressing my deepest gratitude and appreciation for the Norwegian Government's decision to send to the territory of the former Yugoslavia a newly invented, highly efficient and safe mine-clearing device, as the Norwegian representative announced in his statement this afternoon. Bosnia encourages the linkage of international humanitarian, financial and/or military assistance with the cooperation of needy countries, with the goals and desires of the many countries which have spoken today and with the Convention on Conventional Weapons.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“Because it is our country and a long-term project, it should be handled by those with the greatest interests - the Bosnians themselves. But the real threat of mines remains. All of this reinforces our strong support for the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons and for many General Assembly resolutions. We especially support the efforts of many Member States and international organizations for a total ban on the manufacture, transfer and use of anti-personnel mmes. But we also stress the importance of remembering that the issue is not only that of the manufacture, transfer and use of anti-personnel mines, but also the marking, removal and destruction of existing mines.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“My Government, first and foremost, supports and expects the demining project to be carried out primarily by Bosnian people and by Bosnian companies; they should be trained, equipped and supported in all other ways to do the job. Other alternatives can only be considered a temporary quick fix for a very large and time- consuming problem. The reason for this is clear. I would like to put the mine problem in Bosnia into perspective. According to the Mine Action Centre, it would take 1,000 mine clearers 33 years to cover all the mine-contaminated areas in Bosnia and Croatia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina today, there are still 20,000 unmarked mine fields. We are under no illusions as to the time much of the international conununity is willing to invest in clearing Bosnia and Herzegovina of mines.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“My Government thanks the Governments of all the countries actively involved in Bosnia and Herzegovina and all the organizations, including the Office of the High Representative, the World Bank, the European Union and the Implementation Force (IFOR) in their efforts at demining and in the establishment of the United Nations Mine Action Centre. Unfortunately, the Mine Action Centre has been unable to do its duty quickly because of the chronic problem faced by my country today: the lack of pledged resources and the need for competing resources for countless other vital programmes needed to cement the peace in Bosnia. There are also serious technical issues which need to be worked out.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“The mine problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina has, first, contributed to the lack of progress in the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes; secondly, helped to prevent freedom of movement in the country; thirdly, posed an obstacle to economic recovery; fourthly, kept a psychological burden of siege on the Bosnian people so that they are unable to experience normal living, knowing that the threat of land-mines in most areas remains real; and, fifthly, contributed to increasing the burden of medical costs mandated by the treatment and rehabilitation of affected persons. But now we hope it is time for the comprehensive and intensified action in demining to begin re-establishing and laying the groundwork for strengthening peace and inspiring new reconciliation.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“For this reason, if I, as a representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, focus my discussion on the issue of mines as a threat to the population and to aspects of the social life in my country, I kindly ask you not to interpret it as neglecting peace- keepers. Mines, as everyone knows, do not only kill, maim and cripple. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are a blatant reminder of intolerance, ethnic chauvinism and the war aims which tore apart the fabric of Bosnian society, which today we are trying to stitch back together. In Bosnia today, land-mines have completed their military purpose. They are now doing what the perpetrators of division, "ethnic cleansing" and genocide tried to do: divide, separate and continue to breed fear and mistrust.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“We hope that the Security Council recognizes in this context the absolute interdependence of the protection of the peace- keepers and the protection of the domestic civilian population. For, in a way, while on the ground, the peace- keepers become part of the local communities in the areas where they are deployed. The successful detection, marking and clearing of mines and other unexploded ordnance protects both peace- keepers and the local population. Likewise, their existence, non-detection and non-lifting jeopardize both equally. Here the interests of both are absolutely inseparable.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“In only two Bosnian cities, Tuzla and Zenica, 55 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, of all war-time amputees were maimed by mines. The cost of rehabilitation for these persons and all others maimed is tremendous and competes with resources for other purposes from the international donor community. But these are not the only reasons why we are so grateful to you, Mr. President, and to all members of the Security Council for putting the discussion on demining in the context of peace-keeping on the agenda at this formal meeting, thus giving us the opportunity to express our views on this issue. At the outset, I have to say that we agree that the protection of peace-keepers deserves the special attention of the Security Council, which authorizes peace-keeping operations and bears responsibility for their participants.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“I guess it is not news to the members of the Security Council that up to 3 million land-mines litter my country today. Their effects on peace-keepers and other members of international organizations engaged in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially on our people - indeed, on the whole country - have been devastating and is ongoing. From 1 January 1996 to 15 June 1996 alone, 16 persons were killed by land-mines, 8 of those being children. In the same period, 98 persons were seriously wounded, 34 of them children. So we see that even though the military conflict has stopped, the tools of military conflict continue to do their barbaric work of killing, maiming and crippling. And as has been said in this Chamber many times today, the overwhelming majority of land-mine victims have been, are and will continue to be children and civilians.”
1996-08-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3689 (1996) · source
“For the aggressive Serbian warriors and the architects of a greater Serbia without non-Serb peoples, the danger of peace is obvious. The danger is that peace will offer the deceived and fooled Serbian people a chance to understand where their leaders have led them and, finally, to start protecting themselves from their own self-proclaimed protectors. This is why the rebel Serbs, their leaders and supporters have so far, so long and so persistently rejected peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I can only hope, however, that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's diplomacy will soon begin to distance itself from war criminals, "ethnic cleansing" and other objectives of aggressive nationalist policies and will live up to the commitments the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia made by signing the Peace Agreement in the middle of this month in Paris.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“There have long been no Bosniac Muslims or Bosnian Croats in the parts of Sarajevo occupied by Karadzie's and Mladic's Serbs, just as there are none remaining in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Serb forces for which Jovanovie expresses his concern. The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not expel any Serb civilians from the so-called Serb-held parts of Sarajevo, nor Serbian soldiers. My Government has never propagated the idea or carried out the practice of creating "ethnically pure" territories, as have Karadzie, Mladie and their hordes. The Serb people should, rather, be protected from those who have dragged them into this shameful aggression, who have forced many of them to expel Bosniacs and Croats and who have organized "ethnic cleansing" and genocide.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“In it he called for guarantees of protection, freedom, security, equality and human rights for Sarajevo Serbs. Those Serbs that he has in mind and for whom he has shown so much concern are actually those who engaged in the destruction of that very Sarajevo for three and a half years, those who killed so many Muslims, Croats and others, as well as many of those 80,000 Serbs who remained in besieged Sarajevo, rejecting Karadzie's and Mladie's policy of aggression and genocide. The Serbs Jovanovie cares for are not Serbian civilians but those extreme nationalists and militant fanatics who wanted to erase the traces of this multi-ethnic city so that a Serb- only Sarajevo could be built on its ruins.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Government has, through the acceptance of the Dayton Agreement and a range of other commitments, at least formally rejected the policies of Karadzie and Mladie. They have been characterized as war profiteers and criminals, even by the Serbian officials and regime-controlled media in Belgrade. Is it possible that this has gone unnoticed by Ambassador Jovanovie? Or does he have his own personal opinion on such issues? Or is this maybe a double game on the part of the regime in Belgrade? Whatever may be behind this letter of Mr. Jovanovie, it is most regrettable and disheartening. I cannot neglect to recall the last statement by Mr. Jovanovie before this Council upon the adoption last Friday of resolution 1031 (1995).”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“He has shown us how the truth can be turned into a lie and how he arrogantly disrespects not only the most responsible personalities of the United Nations but also this whole institution, including the Security Council and its members. Unfortunately, these methods have been used with some effect, and sometimes even with some approval. N ow the question again arises whether anybody could even contemplate neglecting the spirit and the letter of the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the status of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the United Nations. Some may say that by this most recent letter Jovanovic' is shooting himself in the foot. But, more importantly, one should fear that Jovanovie is shooting at the very Dayton Peace Agreement.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Finally, after all, what can be expected of a man who did not shy away from stating and instructing his diplomats to claim that those heinous massacres in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Gorazde and elsewhere had been invented and staged by "Muslim forces", as he takes particular pleasure in calling us. Ambassador Jovanovie could not resist this temptation even in his last letter. He uses this favourite formula of his in claiming that Muslims in Srebrenica actually killed each other off. In brief, Ambassador Jovanovie, in his last letter, has once again demonstrated the basic diplomatic manners and methods of the regime that he serves.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Those who have followed Jovanovie's actions since his arrival at the United Nations realize fully that truth is at the bottom of his agenda and that he employs various means to create confusion, deceive his colleagues and blur reality in order to defend the crimes and abhorrent policies of the self-proclaimed Serbian leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and their supporters in Belgrade and to denounce and insult their victims. Frankly, it is difficult to expect anything else from a man who, as chief of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia diplomacy, attempted to convince the world that the Belgrade regime had nothing to do with the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, that in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia the Serbs had only responded to the ostensible terror of the Bosniacs and Croats and so on.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“It is difficult, however, in this context not to remember the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's statement, which was transmitted to the Security Council by Mr. Jovanovie in his letter dated 2 November and contained in document S/1995/916. This statement calls the murders, criminal attacks on and destruction of the safe area of Srebrenica "operations for the liberation of the Muslim military stronghold of Srebrenica". (S/1995/916, annex) Thus, Ambassador Jovanovie's latest letter is neither surprising nor shocking.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Ambassador Jovanovie's most recent letter to the President of the Security Council, containing his reaction to the Secretary-General's report on human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, provokes in the first place amazement, then sorrow, and then, great alarm. If the representative of the former Republic of Yugoslavia decided on his own initiative to be the advocate for war criminals whose indictments have recently been extended to include mass murder and genocide in Srebrenica and Zepa, then this letter to the President of the Council, though still ethically and diplomatically disgraceful, would be of less concern than if it reflected the position of his Government.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“The Secretary-General's report confirmed the Pale Serbs' continued and brazen disrespect of resolution 1019 (1995), the clear concealment of the truth regarding the fate of the missing persons, and the likely destruction of evidence of the crimes committed under Mladie's orders and, frequently, in his presence. After many provocative and disgraceful statements by Ambassador Vadislav Jovanovie, which have until now gone unnoticed or produced little reaction, the Secretary- General's report has furthermore helped to draw attention to Ambassador Jovanovie's affinity for manipulating the facts, for disregarding the truth and for pretentious lecturing to the Security Council itself.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“This flow of men and materiel, not to mention the direct involvement of the military leaders of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, played a very important role in the brutal and criminal overrunning of the safe areas, in contravention of all the Security Council resolutions on the matter, and led to the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians and the liquidation of thousands of unarmed men and boys. Therefore, the Secretary-General's report indirectly confirmed that the previous reports by the Co-Chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia were lacking and that those three-monthly decisions of the Council to suspend the sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro were not based on proper evidence.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“This draft resolution can - if implemented, of course - certainly have a positive impact on the establishment of mutual confidence and the healing of the wounds of the survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is why my Government welcomes this draft resolution and expresses its gratitude to the sponsors. The Secretary-General's report, on which the draft resolution was based, indicated that the Co-Chairmen's report on the isolation of Pale Serbs by the Milosevic regime was unfortunately inaccurate. The report confirmed that paramilitary forces, war materiel, special police forces, and vehicles and many other items had regularly and without interruption been delivered from Serbia to the Pale Serbs.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“Today the Council will adopt the draft resolution before it. It could and should have been adopted much sooner. Its significance, therefore, is, in my opinion, rather of a moral and ethical nature. Although long overdue, the draft resolution can ultimately have some positive effects. It cannot bring the dead back to life, but it can reveal the otherwise hidden truth of their suffering and their executors. It may not immediately bring to justice those who have so disgraced mankind, but it can possibly halt the producing of more criminals and encourage others to deny them protection and, instead, to provide the required cooperation and assistance to the Tribunal in The Hague.”
1995-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3612 (1995) · source
“At the same time, we would like to believe that the manipulated followers of Mladic and Karadzic in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina have finally realized that they have a new chance to disabuse themselves of the idea of a Greater Serbia and to spare their only homeland, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from further destruction, which ultimately affects the Serbian population too, so that they can build their future and happiness only through peaceful co-existence, tolerance and understanding with their Bosniak Muslim and Bosnian Croat neighbours.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“Because of this hope and these expectations, I have to remind the Security Council that it was precisely on 5 July last, as the Council was adopting resolution 1003 (1995), that, in Belgrade, under the auspices of Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia, his military commander, General Momcilo Perisic, and the commander of rebel Pale Serbs, General Mladic, were planning the onslaught against the United Nations-declared "safe areas" of Srebrenica and Zepa, which concluded not only with their destruction, but also in new crimes against humanity in which thousands of inhabitants of these two martyred towns were slaughtered and 8,000 more are still unaccounted for.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“Without the clear and full compliance of the FRY with the border closure resolutions and all the well-known conditions, which include mutual recognition by the FRY, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia, as well as full respect for independence sovereignty and territorial integrity among the three neighbouring States, there will be no basis for any further easing of existing sanctions. We do hope that the latest peace initiative will bring us to the goal that would make this the last in the series of sanctions resolutions.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“During the last two weeks, Belgrade and Pale have tested the new determination of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and I believe that they have come to the right conclusions - conclusions which will help them choose the right way forward from the crossroads at which they now find themselves. I hope they will not misunderstand the generosity and the confidence of the Security Council. I hope Belgrade will realize that it cannot build its prosperity on the conquest of its neighbours' territories and on its support for the formation of terrorist and secessionist movements.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“I can present a list of hundreds of names of Mladie's and Martie's soldiers, captured in the action to liberate Bihac last August, all of whom are citizens of the FRY and all of whom were mobilized by the authorities of the Milosevic regime and sent to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia in June and July this year. To those who doubt their identities, my Government is ready to offer the opportunity to verify the facts on the spot in Bihac. Indeed, we are surprised that the resolution which will be adopted today supports the suspension of sanctions against the FRY for the whole period of 180 days. But we also tend to believe that the time when the international community was willing to be deceived by the regime in Belgrade and their Pale proxies is irretrievably gone.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“The findings of my Government, which I have presented to this Council, differ drastically from those that the Co-Chairmen of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia have been submitting over this year to the Security Council. From January to the end of July deliveries of all kinds of military assistance from the FRY to the Pale Serbs doubled. This contributed to the destruction of the safe areas of Srebrenica and Zepa and to the immeasurable sufferings of civilians in Sarajevo, Bihac, Tuzla and Gorazde. It made it possible also for Mladie and Karadzie to continue to ignore the international community, to humiliate and disable the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), and to pose a threat to the lives of the courageous and decent men and women serving under the UNPROFOR colours.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“I also cannot forget the significant contributions of Ambassador Wisnumurti of Indonesia and his associates, who during the month of August clearly demonstrated why their country, and their President Suharto, enjoy the complete confidence and sincere respect of the non-aligned countries, of which he has been the successful chairman during the last three years. The draft resolution on the agenda of the Security Council represents a new, and so far the most generous, investment in the present bankrupt policy towards the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the FRY, which since August 1994 has been making promises and taking on obligations, but never fully and sincerely delivered; it never stopped supporting the Pale Serbs, both militarily and politically.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“Since I am addressing the Council for the first time this month, allow me, Sir, sincerely to congratulate you on your inspired, conscientious and, above all, successful leadership of the Security Council during the first half of this turbulent month of September, which has been full not only of challenges and traps, but also of hopes that the tragic events in my homeland could be stopped and that finally solid foundations could be laid for a durable and stable peace that could, in the course of years, also become a just peace. If our hopes are fulfilled, we will remember with gratitude that you, Mr. President, your colleagues in the delegation that you lead and your Government selflessly contributed.”
1995-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3578 (1995) · source
“In this draft resolution on Bosnia there is no mention of the destiny of those who have found refuge in Serbia from Zepa, but who have unfortunately become the subject of propaganda exploitation, and, we fear, new tortures, humiliation and even murder. We request international humanitarian organizations to, without delay, if possible, complete their work on the registration of all those refugees, to continue to search for them and locate them, and to prevent their disappearance or further abuse and subjection to violations of the Geneva Conventions and humanitarian law. We look forward to prompt reporting by the Secretary-General on these issues, as requested by the Council in the draft resolution.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“I think the picture of the Bihac pocket is much clearer now. The humanitarian situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia will be easier to normalize and maintain if UNCRO ensures that its commitments, as accepted in the agreement with Croatia's Government, are fulfilled and that armed Serbs from Krajina surrender their weapons before they cross Bosnia on their way to Serbia. These weapons directly endanger the safety of Serb refugees, since the armed Serbs are provoking actions by firing from the refugee convoys - a matter on which the United Nations Secretariat has or could have some information.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“The humanitarian situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been remarkably alleviated, thanks to the joint actions of the Bosnian and Croatian armies to lift the monstrous siege of Bihac and stop the terrorization resulting from the coordinated actions of the armed gangs of Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subsequently, 200,000 inhabitants of the Bihac enclave, who spent three years in complete isolation, without any humanitarian assistance, have been saved. The joint action of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia most likely saved the face of the international community, whose key members built for weeks the myth that practically nothing could have been done around Bihac, and justified this with the argument that there were too many armies there that were difficult to distinguish.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“In the meantime, all the appeals of the Bosnian Government directed in the past two years to the United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council to open the Tuzla airport for humanitarian purposes have not borne fruit. Moreover, Sarajevo airport continues to be closed, upon the dictates of Karadzic's Serbs, despite its status being completely clear and its purpose solely humanitarian. For the fourth month, Sarajevo airport remains closed. The humanitarian situation in the city, coupled with continuing artillery attacks and sniping, is unbearable. We would hope that the criteria and standards of humanitarian actions would be unified, since any classification of Victims is only a first step in the chain of injustice.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“Nevertheless, this is a resolution that more clearly articulates care, even though it may be irreparably late for many. When speaking on the draft resolution on Croatia, I expressed my satisfaction that in the alleviation of the situation of Serb refugees from Croatia, certain standards for minimizing the suffering and helping the Victims of humanitarian crises have improved, and have risen to a higher level. With this improvement comes swiftness of action and the inventiveness of humanitarian organization. One proof for this is the intention to use for humanitarian purposes the military airport in Banja Luka, which until now has been used only for carrying out destructive actions and acts of killing Bosnians from the air.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“Today's discoveries by the United States Government, which appears very lonely in its efforts to establish the truth, disclose the facts and empower the work of the war crimes Tribunal. These discoveries have finally shed more light on what took place in Srebrenica and Zepa. We owe much gratitude to the German delegation and to delegations of the caucus of the Non- Aligned Movement, which have repeatedly raised the issue of the people missing from Zepa and Srebrenica. The savage terror inflicted by the criminals against the innocent civilians of Srebrenica and Zepa did not manage to receive more attention, despite the repeated appeals by my Government, except for a couple of presidential statements and the occasional statement to the Press. Today's resolution, we feel, is a small step forward.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“Behind the slow advance of an ever wider flood of Serbian refugees from Croatia, light has never been shed on the incomparably more severe suffering of those Bosniac Muslims, who, barehanded, stood no chance against the Pale war criminals. With this humiliation and extermination, many of those who even today are not clear whether or not they would protect the remaining safe areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina have claimed that their mandate was not to protect the civilians or to defend the safe areas. These very same interpreters of the mandate of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not shown nearly as much interest, or made nearly as much effort, in preventing the Pale Serb leaders from starting a new series of cruel and savage crimes.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“While in recent days the international community has focused its attention and activities on the exodus of many thousands of refugees from Croatia rather than on the tragic humanitarian situation that has not ceased in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the bloody details of the expulsion of some 60,000 civilians from the so-called safe areas of Srebrenica and Zepa have disappeared. The destiny of at least 10,000 civilians who never reached the safety of the territory under the control of my Government has been hidden under the dark, deadly curtain that Mladic and Karadzic have thrown over these unfortunate regions - regions that have simply been abandoned by the world.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3564 (1995) · source
“This is not the defeat of the Serbian people in Croatia, though, unfortunately, it is the Serbian people who are succumbing to the manipulation and propaganda machinery of armed criminals and of Milosevic's Serbia and who are now paying the price. This is a victory of the Croatian army over the terrorists and criminals among the Serbians, who wanted to carry out violence against history and against innocent civilians on both sides. When justice is done, I am confident that both the Serbian and the Croatian peoples will find the way to rehabilitate themselves from the injustices perpetrated on them and to heal their wounds, no matter how deep they may be. Therefore it is high time that justice was done.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“It has, by utilizing its sovereign and inherent rights, made a most significant contribution to peace and created conditions under which the Pale Serbs can learn a lesson from the defeat of their Knin friends. The world should not search in Croatia for those guilty of causing the exodus of these tens of thousands of civilians - camouflaged and intermingled among them armed thugs who for four years terrorized not only Croatia and western Bosnia but their own compatriots. Those guilty of causing this latest exodus have already escaped to Belgrade and they should be looked for there, together with their bosses who now denounce them and who are beginning to realize all the limitations and the unreliability of the militarily aggressive actions which were intended only to further their own political goals.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“We have increasingly seen pictures of leading members of international humanitarian organizations and the highest representatives of the United Nations who had not been even close to Vukovar, Prijedor, Foca or Srebrenica, not to mention the concentration camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina where tens of thousands of innocent Bosniac Muslims have perished. We hope that these improved standards will remain in place in the future and will be extended to all regions, but let us also hope for - and first and foremost let us take all measures necessary towards creating - a situation where the need for humanitarian assistance and rescue actions in these regions will cease to exist. After all, Croatia has not endangered peace or stability with its latest action.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“The Serbs of formerly occupied Croatia are leaving in vehicles - tractors, cars, buses - and are able to take a significant portion of their belongings. Muslims and Croats have had to leave everything and start on foot into the uncertain, very often across mine fields and through front lines, and most frequently after having been humiliated, raped, tortured, beaten - while some 200,000 were killed, massacred, so that they would reach nowhere. Fortunately, with this latest exodus of innocent Serb civilians, the standards of conduct and care by the international community, in particular of humanitarian organizations, have risen, in order to alleviate the plight of these people and to ensure their safety.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“Let us hope that this is the last time - never again - the world will watch these sad pictures, directed for us by those who for more than three years pulled the leg of very cooperative and acquiescent representatives of the international community by rejecting all initiatives for solving the crisis in Croatia and for the peaceful reintegration of Krajina into the sovereign and independent State of Croatia. The world could and should also note that this latest exodus of Serbs from Croatia, though very sad and unfortunate, and though absolutely excessive and unnecessary, is at its core somewhat different from the expulsions and extermination of peoples over the past four years from the territories of Croatia and of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“The quarrel between the leaders of Serb Krajina reported by a Serbian news agency and by international media reveals that their goal was to start this huge exodus of the population in order to provoke the international community to retaliate against Croatia and to draw Serbia once again into open war adventurism. The innocent Serb civilians are again being manipulated by their self-serving leaders, black marketeers and war profiteers, amateur statesmen but certainly professional war criminals.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“It has uncovered the very logic, the very mechanism and the very perpetrators of the aggression and terror in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has shown that the leaders of terrorism do not care even for the lives of their own nationals, their own people. Martic and his commanders, not the Croatian Army and police, expelled Serbs from Krajina and forced innocent civilians to leave their homes for the exile of Serbia, whose leaders have many times in the past manipulated Serbs from other parts of the Balkans and used them as cannon fodder, and are doing so once again.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“The neutralization of the terrorist centre in Croatia should also halt the financial waste levied on the world's taxpayers for a peace force and a grossly bureaucratic apparatus intended to maintain the status quo in Croatia. This burden is mostly borne by the taxpayers of the country which is host to the United Nations and whose wisdom helped create and realize the ideas of the League of Nations and the United Nations. The Croatian victory has concurrently disclosed the real nature of the terrorists and the dangerous misconceptions of the international community, which, instead of quickly identifying the criminals, has promoted them to negotiators and has almost legalized them as Government officials and statesmen.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“It has dashed the selfish arguments of those who spare no effort to convince both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to accept military defeat and to accept the tailoring of their borders not only according to plans offered to Pale and Knin - offered and each time refused - but according to plans conforming to the dictates of the ever more arrogant Karadzic, Mladic and Martic. It has prevented the international community from rewarding the Yugoslav aggression in Croatia, which would have led to irreparable damage and suffering to the quality of life in the territories of former Yugoslavia for decades to come. The Croatian action of extinguishing the fire in its own house and subduing the arsonist has shown that some in the international community have practically begun to struggle to maintain occupation rather than peace and stability.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source
“The Croatian action has preserved the Bihac safe area, which the international community had given up on following its surrender of the Zepa and Srebrenica safe areas to The Hague invitees, Mladic and Karadzic, and has destroyed the myth of the invincibility and commitment of armed Serbian gangs. It has destroyed the premise of those who ignorantly bleated to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Croatia and to a world demanding justice that any action against the aggressor in Bosnia and Herzegovina would require a mighty force like that used in the Gulf.”
1995-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3563 (1995) · source