CROATIA SUPPORTS UN SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Hina) - Croatia supports a UN Security Council reform which would make it more representative and enable a more efficient dealing with new global challenges to international peace and security, Croatia's representative to the UN, Vladimir Drobnjak, said before the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. #L# During a general debate at the 58th session of the General Assembly in late September and early October, all participants supported the UN Security Council's reform. Drobnjak stressed that an objective could not be achieved by a partial but only a comprehensive reform, adding that it was important to finally take action. Drobnjak on Tuesday also spoke at the First Committee of the General Assembly in charge of disarmament and international security. According to him, from a country which used international security mechanisms through peace operations Croatia has become a country which contributes to international peace and security. Croatian experts and soldiers are participating in five peace missions across the world, Drobnjak said, adding that Croatia also played a key role in the long-term building of trust and the stabilisation in Southeast Europe. Drobnjak said Croatia advocated further progress in nuclear disarmament. The country also supports the work of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to which it offered a unit for radiological, biological and chemical decontamination within the framework of the international assistance and protection, Drobnjak said. Croatia supports the re-establishment of an ad hoc group for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Weapons, said Drobnjak, adding that regarding the implementation of the Ottawa Mine Convention, the country advocated bigger assistance in the process of the rehabilitation of mine victims. (hina) it sb