NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Hina) - The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday opened a debate on the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and a recent report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the circumstances of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Although it was expected that the topic would be addressed by Bosnia-Herzegovina Ambassador to the U.N., Muhamed Sacibey, this did not happen. There has been no official explanation, however, unofficial sources say the reason for this is the failure of the collective BH Presidency to take a joint stand. The case confirms an assessment by Croatia's Ambassador to the U.N., Ivan Simonovic, that joint BH bodies have to start functioning as soon as possible and become the real guarantors of equality of all three peoples. Simonovic commended the U.N. Secretary-General for starting the investigation into the Srebrenica massacre. "... shedding light on the role of the U.N. and disc
NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Hina) - The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday
opened a debate on the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and a recent
report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the circumstances of
the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Although it was expected that the topic would be addressed by
Bosnia-Herzegovina Ambassador to the U.N., Muhamed Sacibey, this
did not happen. There has been no official explanation, however,
unofficial sources say the reason for this is the failure of the
collective BH Presidency to take a joint stand.
The case confirms an assessment by Croatia's Ambassador to the
U.N., Ivan Simonovic, that joint BH bodies have to start
functioning as soon as possible and become the real guarantors of
equality of all three peoples.
Simonovic commended the U.N. Secretary-General for starting the
investigation into the Srebrenica massacre. "... shedding light on
the role of the U.N. and discovering the failures of peace
operations can only help the international organisation,"
Simonovic said.
He recalled that many crimes had been committed during the war,
"however, only some of those responsible for crimes against
humanity have been arrested and convicted". Simonovic objected
that the main culprits were still at large and the cases the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
had tried so far - involving mostly Croat and Muslim suspects - did
not reflect the need to objectively determine the responsibility
for or give a just historical evaluation of the tragic events in
South-East Europe.
According to Simonovic, an extremely important precondition for
the normalisation of the situation in the region, reconciliation,
and building Bosnia-Herzegovina, is the return of refugees to both
BH entities and the situation in the country's neighbourhood.
As positive examples Simonovic mentioned the signing of an
agreement on borders between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and
the Stability Pact for South-East Europe. The normalisation
process is hampered by the failure to complete the process of
succession to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(SFRY), Simonovic said.
(hina) rml