NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Hina) - Ahead of the beginning of informal consultations of the United Nations Security Council on the latest report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Croatia's southernmost peninsula of Prevlaka, which borders
with Montenegro, Croatia's Permanent Representative with the United Nations Ivan Simonovic on Tuesday forwarded a letter to the Council Chairman, US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. In the letter, Simonovic reiterated the well-known position of the Croatian Government that the dispute with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia could be treated only as a security issue. "As long as the Yugoslav side refuses to honour its obligations and persist on its quest to alter existing international borders between the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia remains deprived of any justifiable basis upon which to proceed with bilateral negotiations on the per
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Hina) - Ahead of the beginning of informal
consultations of the United Nations Security Council on the latest
report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Croatia's
southernmost peninsula of Prevlaka, which borders with Montenegro,
Croatia's Permanent Representative with the United Nations Ivan
Simonovic on Tuesday forwarded a letter to the Council Chairman, US
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.
In the letter, Simonovic reiterated the well-known position of the
Croatian Government that the dispute with the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia could be treated only as a security issue.
"As long as the Yugoslav side refuses to honour its obligations and
persist on its quest to alter existing international borders
between the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia remains deprived of any
justifiable basis upon which to proceed with bilateral
negotiations on the permanent resolution of the security issue of
Prevlaka," said Simonovic.
He reminded that documents dating back to the time of the former
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and later, to 1992,
with the signatures of the then Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic
and the Head of the SFRY Joint Chief-of-Staff, Zivota Panic,
confirmed the land border between Croatia and Montenegro.
About a year ago, Belgrade authorities requested that the
authenticity of those signatures be checked. The U.N. Secretariat
confirmed that there was no reason for doubt regarding the
authenticity of the signatures in October last year, however, the
Yugoslav side has failed to present its stand, which was the reason
why the meeting of negotiating teams, scheduled to take place in
Zagreb in September last year, did not take place.
Simonovic also judges that the opening of the border crossings of
Debeli Brijeg and Konfin toward Montenegro had contributed to the
strengthening of mutual trust on both sides of the border as well as
to the overall stability.
He hopes that the Security Council would act in order to enable the
civilian population on the whole Prevlaka to have unobstructed
access to the area, with the possibility of fishing and farming.
(hina) mm it/rml