$ NOBILO WASHINGTON, 22 Dec (Hina) - The next year would bring the completion of the mandate of the U.N. Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), and it would enable the Croatian diplomacy to turn to regular
activities in the United Nations after five years, said Mario Nobilo, Croatian Ambassador in the U.N., in an interview with the Croatian news agency Hina.
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$ NOBILO
WASHINGTON, 22 Dec (Hina) - The next year would bring the
completion of the mandate of the U.N. Transitional Administration
in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), and it would enable the Croatian
diplomacy to turn to regular activities in the United Nations after
five years, said Mario Nobilo, Croatian Ambassador in the U.N., in
an interview with the Croatian news agency Hina. #L#
'We have achieved our main goals in the U.N., and the war,
UNPROFOR and UNCRO are behind us, as well as many difficulties in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Priorities of the Croatian diplomacy,
including those in the U.N., are turning towards peace-time
development', Nobilo said.
Activities of the Croatian diplomacy in the U.N. in 1996 were
dominated by questions which are under the jurisdiction of the
Security Council, ranging from UNTAES and U.N. Military Observers
on Prevlaka peninsula to redefining the International
Implementation Force (IFOR) and to human rights and succession to
the former Yugoslavia.
The most important thing, after the decision on the extension
of the UNTAES mandate until 15 July 1997, was to set the date of
the local elections, and to hold them, if possible, simultaneously
with local and county elections in other parts of Croatia.
It was also important to keep up the pace of the transfer of
authority once the elections were over, the Croatian ambassador
said.
The presence of the international community in the Croatian
Danubian area could be expected after the expiry of the UNTAES
mandate as well, but the international community would not be
present there in the form of the transitional administration but
rather in the form of assistance in reconstruction and
stabilisation of the area.
The year of 1996 also brought the extension of the U.N.
mandate on Prevlaka peninsula until 15 January 1997, Nobilo said,
adding he expected that the mandate would be extended in 1997 as
well.
'International presence, although symbolic, is a guarantee of
Croatian sovereignty and stability in the area', Nobilo said.
A new element was that Belgrade had officially set territorial
pretensions towards Prevlaka in an aide-memorandum, which was made
public in the U.N. two months ago.
'We are not going to give up Prevlaka and that question should
be reduced to the delimitation of territorial waters and security,
that is, the reduction of arms in the area, to the benefit of
tourism on both sides of the border'.
'We are ready to accept international arbitration, because
Security Council resolutions as well as international and
historical law are completely on our side', he said.
The question of security and cooperation in the region of
Prevlaka should in future be regulated through bilateral mechanisms
based on the Agreement on the Normalisation of Relations.
As far as human rights were concerned, Croatia's diplomacy
would try to transfer the monitoring of human rights in Croatia to
regular U.N. mechanisms.
Croatia's transfer to regular U.N. activities in 1996 could be
seen in the intensified work of the General Assembly committees and
in the support of U.N. agencies for reconstruction projects in
former occupied areas.
Croatia also participated in the process of securing continual
international presence in Bosnia, through the transformation of
IFOR into Stabilisation Forces (SFOR), the implementation of
elections and the establishment of new structures in the Croat-
Muslim Federation and in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
'The situation in Bosnia will, to some extent, represent a
weight on our feet as concerns our speedier accession to European
integration processes, but because of geo-political, historical and
development reasons and obligations in the protection of
constitutional rights of the Croat people in Bosnia, we cannot give
up that responsibility, which is part of the Dayton agreement.
Some 'painful questions' concerning Bosnia-Herzegovina would
remain, for example, cooperation with The Hague.
'We do not refuse cooperation with the Tribunal, but we demand
a balanced approach to all crimes committed in the region', Nobilo
said.
Another question that would remain open in 1997 was
Yugoslavia's status in the U.N.
'Croatia has nothing against Yugoslavia's admission to the
U.N. under the same conditions under which all other successor
states had been admitted to the organisation. Anything else would
be detrimental to other successor states. The final legal
definition after the disintegration of Yugoslavia should prevent
the reconstruction of irredentism in the region.
Croatia supported the latest changes in the U.N. General
Secretariat and State Department, as they were an even stronger
guarantee for the successful implementation of the Peace agreement,
Nobilo said in the end.
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