SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES END TO 'DECADE OF HATRED AND SUFFERING' IN BALKANS, NOTES ROLE FOR UN IN NEW PATH TOWARDS PROSPERITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Press Release
SG/SM/7084

SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES END TO 'DECADE OF HATRED AND SUFFERING' IN BALKANS, NOTES ROLE FOR UN IN NEW PATH TOWARDS PROSPERITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Message to Stability Pact Summit Speaks of 'Too Many False Dawns' -- Time Now Ripe for Efforts towards Democracy, Economic Development

This is the text of a message from Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to the summit meeting at Sarajevo on stability in the Balkans, as delivered by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Carl Bildt:

I have the honour of delivering the message of the Secretary-General, who very much regrets that he could not be present today.

The Stability Pact Summit taking place in Sarajevo today marks a new beginning in the efforts of the international community to end the Balkan wars of this century. After a decade of conflict that has taken us from Croatia and Bosnia to Kosovo, we have now returned to Sarajevo with a strong determination to achieve lasting peace.

It is my fervent hope that these efforts will set the region as a whole on a path towards lasting stability, prosperity, democracy and respect for human rights.

We all know that there have been too many false dawns, too many shattered hopes and lives, too many tensions left unresolved throughout this decade of hatred and suffering in the region.

We all know that democratic and economic development, as well as respect for human rights, are needed in order to prevent future wars, to foster a culture of tolerance and diversity, and to ensure that future differences can be resolved peacefully and democratically through legitimate, responsible institutions answerable to the people.

With this meeting, and with the extraordinary attention and dedication devoted to overcoming the devastating results of the last of the Balkan wars, the international community has the opportunity to honour its pledges towards this region, and thereby enable the peoples of the region to achieve stability in their own lives, without the threat of violence or war or repression.

- 2 - Press Release SG/SM/7084 30 July 1999

By focusing on the regional roots of the conflicts in the Balkans, by committing ourselves to ensuring the true integration of South-Eastern Europe into the larger economies of the continent, by placing pluralism and respect for the human rights of both minorities and majorities at the core of our efforts at reconstruction, and by continuing to emphasize our role as that of enabling the peoples and parties themselves to build lasting peace and democracy, we will create a framework for lasting peace and stability in the Balkans.

The United Nations, which has been given a central role in these efforts, is already engaged in building the pillars of this framework. I am confident that this meeting will give all our efforts new inspiration and new initiative, so that we will enter the next century with renewed faith in lasting peace and prosperity for the entire region.

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