PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

By adequately addressing the issue of human suffering in Kosovo and supporting the right of the refugees to return to their homes, as well as the indictment of those responsible for ethnic cleansing and the reversal of such cleansing, the international community would further enhance the value of the Dayton-Paris Accords, Muhamed Sacirbey, Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, told correspondents at a Headquarters' press conference today. Bianca Jagger, who, as a human rights advocate, had made trips to Bosnia and to Kosovo, also addressed correspondents this afternoon.

Mr. Sacirbey said that Bosnia and Herzegovina had gone through an extensive period of suffering. After three-and-a-half years of war, peace had been achieved when the Dayton-Paris Accords had been signed. Those accords were not perfect, but they enshrined certain key principles, which his country still believed in. It was impossible to have "one quality of human rights and peace in one part of the region, in one part of Europe" and to have "a totally different quality" across the border.

He said that the Security Council was divided on how to address the issue of Kosovo and peace, but the General Assembly might, in fact, have a role to play. As Members of the United Nations, all countries should be given the opportunity to emphasize the issues which they believed were essential to peace, dignity, human rights and democracy in Kosovo and the region as a whole.

Ms. Jagger then said that she was speaking on behalf of women and children inside Kosovo who were now entrapped and under siege by the Serbian military and paramilitary forces. Not only were they subjected to atrocities, but there was also danger that thousands, and possibly even hundreds of thousands, of people could be on the brink of starvation.

"I come here to ask those nations around the world who believe in justice, who believe in the right for civilians not to be subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing to speak up and condemn the actions of the Serbian military and paramilitary forces", she said. "I am also here because, for many years, I have been advocating adherence to and respect for international law, and the importance of bringing war criminals and those who commit crimes against humanity before an international criminal court."

In particular, she mentioned such war criminals as Radovan Karadic and General Ratko Mladic, who, according to most recent reports, she said, were now involved in ethnic cleansing inside Kosovo. The reluctance of the international community to apprehend those war criminals who had been indicted by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had sent a message that the international community was not prepared to follow through and make them

accountable for their crimes. That message had been sent not only to them, but also to Slobodan Milosevic, she said.

Ms. Jagger said that she had been working with the Coalition for International Justice, which had called for the indictment of President Milosevic. She was here again to ask all countries that were part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), particularly the United States, to provide all the information that they had, so that those war criminals could be arrested. It was important that the General Assembly should adopt a resolution speaking out against the atrocities and the crimes being committed against innocent civilians inside Kosovo.

"Let us not allow what we saw happen in Bosnia to be repeated", she said. The world was seeing the same actions now as those taken against civilians and innocent women and children in Bosnia. As there had been in Bosnia, there were mass violations of human rights and rapes against women. There was also separation of women from men and disappearance of young men of fighting age.

Her great concern, she said, was that the world did not listen to the cries of those innocent civilians, and it was known what the results of turning away from a crisis could be. It was also important for a nation to believe in justice, democracy and the right of refugees to return to Kosovo. The longer the international community waited, the more difficult it would be for the deportees in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Turkey to return home. In order to protect the lives of people inside Kosovo, it was necessary to send a protective force to halt the ongoing genocide.

Mr. Sacirbey then said that he wanted to emphasize that Bosnia and Herzegovina did not necessarily share all the views of Ms. Jagger and vice versa. However, it was important to put forth those views, particularly in the context of the United Nations family. It was also important to make sure that the peace and democracy being built in Bosnia should no longer be contaminated by what was happening in the region as a whole. On the human level, people in Bosnia "very much felt the suffering of all the people of Kosovo". As a country, Bosnia and Herzegovina was very much committed to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries in the region.

At present, certain interests, as well as certain principles of the United Nations Charter, seemed to be in conflict, he said. For instance, the sovereignty of nations, on one hand, and human rights of the global population, on the other. That was a point on which a constructive debate among the Members of the United Nations and General Assembly could be very helpful.

Asked about the actions that needed to be taken in connection with the deportee situation, Ms. Jagger said that she urged the international community, the United States and members of the European Union to provide all information to the International Tribunal, so that not only President Milosevic, but also

Bosnia Press Conference - 3 - 15 April 1999

those members of his military apparatus who had been involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity, could be brought before a criminal court of justice.

She said, "It is important to remember that, as we speak, innocent civilians are being killed and massacred by the Serbian forces, that, as we speak, there are hundreds of thousands of people that are on the brink of starvation. It is important that the world, especially the nations inside the United Nations, speak up and let us know that they condemn genocide and ethnic cleansing, and let us know that they believe in the right of those deportees to return to their places of origin."

Mr. Sacirbey said that if he were President Milosevic and he were convinced of his innocence, he would certainly have a case of libel against many of the leaders saying what they were saying against him. It was certainly up to the leadership of those engaged in the war in Kosovo to stand behind the words that had been so frequently used.

Ms. Jagger said that she hoped that -- if ever there were negotiations with Mr. Milosevic -- under no circumstances would there be assurances on the part of the international community that he would not be indicted. She also said that she hoped such negotiations would not take place, because the international community should not be negotiating with war criminals.

To a question regarding efforts to propose a draft resolution, or even hold an emergency session of the General Assembly on Kosovo, Mr. Sacirbey said that "talk of an emergency session" of the General Assembly had been initiated in other quarters. Ironically, it had been done "with a different motive in mind". The General Assembly could be a positive factor in resolving the issue, as it had been in formulating the peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He also said that a meeting of several countries was going to take place, which would now take the matter under consideration. It was very difficult to call an emergency session of the General Assembly. The United Nations was now at the crossroads, as the environment today was very different from that to which the international community had become accustomed in the last 10 years. For the survival of the Organization, as well as for the people of Kosovo and of the region, it would be very helpful for the General Assembly "to sort out some of the priorities and issues" on which there had been no consensus within the Security Council.

Asked to respond to a statement that NATO might have caused much of the damage in Kosovo, Mr. Sacirbey said that it was not so. The ethnic cleansing campaign seemed to have been planned well in advance, not only of the NATO operation, but also of the Rambouillet peace talks. It would seem that the talks had not been in good faith. The only question to be asked was whether the talks might have continued for too long a time, allowing President Milosevic to prepare for the ethnic cleansing and genocide. Negotiations

Bosnia Press Conference - 4 - 15 April 1999

should be given every opportunity, but not if they were misused or abused. That had been, at least in part, his country's experience.

To a follow-up question, Mr. Sacirbey responded that Ms. Jagger and many others were genuinely concerned about what would happen to the refugees. He was afraid that the conscience of the world had not been touched until the first bombs started falling. Sometimes it was necessary to see tragedy before responding to it. That was part of the "CNN age". The world had a short memory and sometimes needed its conscience prodded before it could react.

Answering a question about a German peace proposal, which included the possibility of the deployment of international forces, as well as a transitional administration under United Nations supervision, Mr. Sacirbey said that everything in the region seemed transitional. The basic elements of international law and security should be maintained in such an agreement. Peacekeeping in the traditional sense had to be supplemented by the capacity of peacemaking. Not many institutions had such a capacity. It was clear that in Bosnia there would have been many more challenges to peacekeeping and the implementation of the Dayton-Paris Accords, had the capacity and the will to use peacemaking not been in place. That was one of the reasons he thought that a General Assembly resolution would be helpful: it could help break an impasse that seemed to exist in the Security Council now.

Asked about the role that individual countries, including Turkey and Greece, could play in the present humanitarian crisis, Mr. Sacirbey answered that they could play the most important role as members of NATO. As such, they seemed to be united, although some reports to the contrary had been heard. It was very important for NATO not to succumb to fatigue or false criticism. He was very concerned about the consequences of such a development of events for Bosnia. A defeat of NATO in Kosovo would be a defeat of NATO in Bosnia and the region as a whole.

Turning to the role of Turkey, he said that, although some were debating it, the role of Turkey had been no different from that of any other country that claimed to have a historical role in the region. Now, it was important that Greece and Turkey should work in partnership with other NATO members.

Regarding the accidental bombing of a civilian caravan by NATO, he said that his country's war experience had shown that civilians had been used as human shields. Civilians had been sacrificed and murdered. As to whether something like that had taken place in the situation in question, he would let NATO give an answer to that.

Responding to a statement that the Dayton Accords had not been successful in bringing war criminals to justice, Mr. Sacirbey said that what had happened in Bosnia had provided a more than adequate precedent to what later happened in Kosovo. "You are basically asking me if this is Dayton or Munich", he said.

Bosnia Press Conference - 5 - 15 April 1999

Unfortunately, there were aspects of both. For Bosnia, those agreements had brought peace, which it needed to defend and protect. Of course, there was a question of how well the Agreement had been implemented. He only wished to state that, as a symbol and as an instrument of peace, Dayton was working. As a functional document, it sometimes seemed comatose.

He said that he had heard criticism of Bosnian leadership for its being too vocal in support of the NATO actions in Bosnia, and he wondered if his country was supposed to keep quiet when its major ally in the peace process -- NATO -- was acting in a neighbouring country under the same principles as those of Dayton. Dayton had to be flexible -- responsive to the highest ideals of Europe and the people of Bosnia.

To a follow-up question, he said that Bosnians should be the ones to determine when Dayton should "be dead", because ultimately his people would be the ones to pay the price. His country was not seeking justice "on the back of the Kosovar people". It was just seeking "Dayton that was functional". Even if Dayton was unfair in some of its aspects, his country had signed it, and it just wanted to make sure that it would work as it was supposed to.

Ms. Jagger added that the fact that Kosovo had been left out of the Dayton Accords had condemned Kosovo to the sword. She also could not understand why the members of the Contact Group had, for a whole year, when they saw atrocities committed, continued to "drag their feet and make empty threats", continuing the policy of appeasement towards President Milosevic. She also believed that the agreement between United States Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Mr. Milosevic had had "all the ingredients to fail". The support for the International Tribunal had been very "washed-down". In fact, its Chief Prosecutor, Louise Arbour, had been turned back from the border of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by the Serbian police, and the international community had allowed that to happen.

Asked to comment on the media coverage of the events, Ms. Jagger said that she was very concerned when she saw the media used as a platform for war criminals who wanted to express their views.

* *** *