From: pnmideast@igc.apc.org
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Date: 01 Sep 92 03:19 PDT
Subject: CONFERENCE ON FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475300373:000:23894
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnmideast    Sep  1 03:19:00 1992


From: <pnmideast>
Subject: CONFERENCE ON FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

From pnmideast Mon Aug 31 22:07:08 1992
Received: by igc.apc.org (4.1/Revision: 1.22 )
	id AA26361; Mon, 31 Aug 92 22:07:07 PDT
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 22:07:07 PDT
From: <pnmideast>
Message-Id: <9209010507.AA26361@igc.apc.org>
To: pnmideast
Subject: CONFERENCE ON FORMER [D[D[D[DY
Status: R

/* Written 10:04 am  Aug 31, 1992 by peg:unic in cdp:unic.news */
/* ---------- "CONFERENCE ON FORMER [D[D[D[DY" ---------- */
This information is provided by the United Nations Information
Centre in Sydney for Australia, New Zealand and the South
Pacific.

For further information, please call 283 1144.

						      Press
						      Release
						      SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992

   TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL BOUTROS
   BOUTROS-GHALI
   AND UNITED KINGDOM PRIME MINISTER JOHN MAJOR AT INTERNATIONAL
   CONFERENCE
		  ON FORMER YUGOSLAVIA, IN LONDON, 27 AUGUST


     The PRIME MINISTER:  I would like firstly, if I may, to thank
the Secretary-General and all his staff for the very important
part they played in bringing this Conference about and in the
outcome of the Conference.

     Let me say something to you about what has been agreed today,
although there is a very great deal of detail that underlies what
I will say and there will be a detailed briefing tomorrow morning
on what underlies the comments made this evening.

     At this Conference, we have brought together the parties to
the conflict in Yugoslavia and the international community as
well.  Over two days the concerted pressure of the world has been
brought to bear on all the participants in this conflict.  In the
opening statements yesterday there was a real sense of anger at
what was happening in Yugoslavia, and with that there was a very
real determination to tackle it effectively.

     The international community seeks an end to the hostilities
in Yugoslavia; we seek to tackle the human suffering which could
otherwise get worse for up to a million and a quarter people as
winter approaches.  Experience has shown us that we need the
cooperation of the parties to achieve a settlement.

     Over the last two days we have had cooperation and I believe
we have achieved significant results.  The first result will be
new negotiations for a settlement starting in Geneva next week
under the chairmanship of the United Nations and the European
Community.  The talks will be on the basis of clear principles to
which all the participants, without exception, have subscribed.
That means that the Yugoslav parties have pledged themselves
before the rest of the world to a code of conduct; they have
themselves signed up to the standards by which they will be
judged.

     Specific comments made by the Bosnian-Serbian leader, Mr.
(Radovan) Karadzic, in the Conference has enabled President
(Alija) Izetbegovic to commit himself to those talks.  Let me tell
you of the commitments made by the Bosnian-Serb leader.

     Firstly, that the Bosnian-Serb side would notify to the
United Nations, within 96 hours, the position of all heavy
weaponry to be grouped around the four towns of Sarajevo, Bihac,
Goradze and Jajce, this grouping to be completed within a period
of seven days.  The weaponry, once grouped, would be put under the
continuous supervision of permanent United Nations observers.  The
Bosnian-Serb side would expect the Bosnian Government to take
reciprocal action but would not impose this as a precondition for
their own action, which will be unilateral.  The Bosnian-Serb side
further undertook, with immediate effect, not to initiate fire
from any of the heavy weaponry.

     Secondly, the Bosnian-Serb side recognized that, in
negotiations between the Bosnian parties, they would agree to
withdraw from a substantial portion of the territory now under the
control of their forces.  President Karadzic has put his signature
to that document which will be circulated to you in due course.


				    (more)


				     - 2 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     The second result of the Conference is that for the first
time all the parties have accepted that a settlement must include:
firstly, recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina by all the former
Yugoslav republics; secondly, respect for the integrity of present
frontiers unless changed by mutual agreement; and thirdly, the
principle that acquisition of territory by force will not be
accepted.  Here, too, we have a clear yardstick by which to judge
the behaviour of the parties.

     The third result is agreement on a mechanism by which we hope
to achieve the end of hostilities.  We have agreed on the
essential steps needed to wind down the conflict; the
Secretary-General will elaborate on this in a few moments time.
Some of these will happen immediately, some of them will take
longer, all of them are frought with pitfalls, all of them require
the involvement and the pressure of the international community
and the continuing work of the Conference, starting in Geneva next
week, and of its detailed working groups.

     The fourth result has been both to step up the humanitarian
effort and to improve the conditions in which the United Nations
and the relief agencies will operate.  The Secretary-General will
be asking the Security Council for a mandate to extend the United
Nations' humanitarian operations, supported by "Blue Berets",
throughout Bosnia.  All the Bosnian parties have committed
themselves to a programme of action on the delivery of
humanitarian relief; that document is published and you will have
it shortly.

     The fifth result has been unconditional agreement to
dismantle the abhorrent camps.  The international community is to
be given immediate access.  The humanitarian organizations will
look at temporary options to help people before they can return to
their homes.

     Let me say this on this Conference.  We cannot rely on the
goodwill of the parties, we need pressure, and the sixth result of
this Conference is agreement on specific steps to tighten the
existing sanctions regime, including better reporting of breaches
and better monitoring to ensure that breaches can then be stopped.
Most of those taking part in the Conference are ready to increase
the pressure through further sanctions leading to total isolation
of those who do not comply with their obligations.

     I do not believe that we could have come this far at this
Conference without the hard work, patience and skill of Peter
Carrington over the last year and I pay a very warm tribute to him
for the work that he has done.  As you know, Peter has decided
that the time has come to pass the baton on to someone else and I
am pleased to announce on behalf of the European Community that
David Owen will take his place as co-chairman of the Conference in
Geneva with Cyrus Vance.  It is under their direction that what we
have agreed this week must be put into practice.

     There will be set-backs, but there can be no turning back
from the agreements that have been reached.  Piecemeal efforts
have not worked.  We now have for the first time a comprehensive
framework.  This Conference will stay in being; if it has to meet
again at Ministerial level it will meet again at

				    (more)


				     - 3 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


Ministerial level.  We know what needs to be done, how it needs to
be done and by whom it needs to be done.  The international
community will cajole, negotiate and pressurize the parties for a
long as it takes to bring about a settlement.  I believe in these
last two days we have made significant progress; we will keep up
the pressure and attempt to build on it.

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  Thank you very much.  First of all I
want to thank the British Government and the European Community
and to mention how constructive was the cooperation between the
United Nations and the European Community  This Conference has
created new momentum in favour of peace, but what is more
important is the follow-up of the Conference.  And to maintain
this momentum, we have created in fact six institutions, plus the
United Nations system which is there to assist those six
institutions.

     The first institution is, as the Prime Minister mentioned,
the International Conference; the International Conference will
remain in being until a final settlement of the Yugoslav problem.
In other words the two chairmen can decide to have a meeting of
the International Conference in the next two or three months if
there is a reason to have this kind of meeting.

     The second very important institution is the Steering
Committee, it is a high-level committee which will have two
co-chairman, the first co-chairman being the representative of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Cyrus Vance, and the
second co-chairman will be the representative of the European
Community David Owen.  This Steering Committee will be composed of
three members of the European Community, the troika of the
European Community  Then you will have the troika of the CSCE
(Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe).  Then you will
have the five permanent members of the Security Council, you will
have the six Presidents of the working group, and I will mention
later this working group, two representatives of the neighbouring
countries of Yugoslavia and one representative of the Organization
of the Islamic Conference.  They will represent around 22
members.

     This Steering Committee will have a working group and this
working group in fact represents the continuity because this
working group will work on a permanent basis in the headquarters
of the United Nations in Geneva.  We will have in this working
group only eight persons, the two co-chairmen; the representative
of the President of the European Community and the representative
of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and (the
presidents of) the six working groups which will work in
continuous session at the office of the United Nations in Geneva.

     You will have a working group on Bosnia and Herzegovina; the
group's task is to promote the cessation of hostilities and to
find a constitutional settlement to Bosnia.  Then you will have a
second working group which is the humanitarian issues group; this
will promote humanitarian relief in all its aspects.  There will
be a third working group on nationalities and minorities.  There
will be a fourth one, the "succession issue" working group.  The
fifth one, the economic issue working group.  And the sixth one
will be on confidence and security building measures.

				    (more)


				     - 4 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     The presidency of those six working groups will be divided;
three presidents will belong to the United Nations system and
three presidents will belong to the European Community, and those
working groups, as I mentioned, will have their first meeting on 3
September in Geneva.  You will have the meeting of the Steering
Committee and after the meeting of the Steering Committee you will
have the meeting of the working group.

     May I mention that there will be another institution which is
a small secretariat which will be established at the office of the
United Nations in Geneva and it will be headed by an Executive
Director and it will be staffed by a small group of United Nations
and European Community (personnel).

     Those institutions will work in cooperation with the European
Community and with the United Nations.  In other words, the two
institutions, the United Nations and the European Community will
assist those institutions which will work on a continuous basis to
maintain the momentum in favour of peace.  And I believe we have
created the momentum, and the important point is how to maintain
this momentum.  We believe that through those six institutions,
and through the assistance given by the European Community and the
United Nations, we will be able to maintain the momentum and we
will be able to find a solution.

     It will not be an easy operation; it will be quite
complicated.  And, what happened during the last two days shows
how it is difficult to find a solution to the Yugoslav problem.
But I believe that the political will exists among the different
protagonists of the dispute; the political will exists in the
United Nations system and in the European Community, and it is
with this political will that we will be able to find the
beginning of a solution.

     QUESTION:  What pressure are you going to exert on the
Bosnian Serbs if they do not live up to those commitments, because
I can see pressure on Serbia but none on the Bosnian Serbs
themselves?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  I had some meetings with Mr. Karadzic
this morning and I think he is in no doubt about our determination
to reach an agreement.  I don't want to discuss the detail of
those discussion.  Suffice it to say, at the conclusion of those
discussions he was freely prepared to offer the changes in his
attitude and that of the Bosnian Serbs that I set out to this
Conference.  We made it clear to him that we would expect him to
meet those obligations in future.  I don't propose to go further
than that but I believe he will meet them.

     QUESTION:  Prime Minister, Secretary-General, if you could
for one moment extract yourselves from your position as leaders of
an organization, could your please tell me briefly what is the
message that you could send to the people of Sarajevo who are
actually looking at the Conference expecting a lot from it, so
that they see that they have not been forgotten by the Community.
They have a lot of hope, you know.

				    (more)


				     - 5 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  I believe that they must trust the
institution which we have created and that we will be able through
this institution to find a solution to the problems.  Furthermore,
you have the United Nations troops who are there; we will have
observers there; and we have adopted the resolution in the
Security Council that you will have United Nations forces to help
the humanitarian assistance so that you will be sure that that
humanitarian assistance will reach Sarajevo.  The humanitarian
assistance will reach through the airports and already we have
sent about 8,000 tonnes of food and assistance and humanitarian
assistance will reach also through different roads, because of we
have decided to use the roads to Sarajevo also.

     The PRIME MINISTER:  If I may add something to that, one
thing I think that will encourage them you will find in the
detailed documentation that will be circulated -- and indeed, many
of your questions you will find answered there -- is the decision
that we propose to put observers both on the Bosnia-Croatia border
and on the Bosnia-Serbia border and that of course, I suppose in
small measure, also goes towards answering Paul Reynold's question
a moment or so ago, though not entirely, but you will find a whole
series of detailed decisions like that which will be implemented
as speedily as practicable.

     QUESTION:  According to what I have seen so far, you have
eleven days in which to get people into place to take over the
control of these armaments which are going to be centralized.  Are
you going to be able to do that and which new UNPROFOR (United
Nations Protection Force in Yugoslavia) force will be brought in?

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  We already have received the support
of certain European countries which will put at our disposal new
forces to be able to add new numbers to the UNPROFOR troops
existing there and which will take care of this humanitarian
assistance.  The agreements have been concluded and tomorrow you
will have a meeting of the Occidental Union, which will add new
forces which would be put at the disposal of the United Nations
and which will be incorporated in UNPROFOR.

     The PRIME MINISTER:  During the Conference, a number of
nations indicated that they would be making further troops
available to the United Nations.

     QUESTION:  Can you tell us more about the ban on military
flights?  How is that to be imposed and policed?  And on the
question of territory, doesn't the agreement to hand back a
fraction of the territory held by the Bosnian Serbs create the
danger of a break-up of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  No, it isn't a fraction.  I don't know
where you get the expression "a fraction" from -- that certainly
wasn't what was agreed, and it was perfectly agreed in the
Conference that the existing borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina are
going to remain and that land held by force could not be retained
by force.  So, there is no doubt at all about the united position
of the international community on that particular point.  The
detailed implementation of matters such as flight bans will be
discussed early next week in Geneva.

				    (more)


				     - 6 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     QUESTION:  Given the degree of unilateralism that has
developed through much of the fighting in recent months, do you
believe all those gathered here who did sign up to what has been
agreed actually have the power and the influence to stop all the
fighting?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  Only events will prove that, which is
why both the Secretary-General and I said that we have to keep the
pressure on.  We can't necessarily rely on the fact that
everything that has been undertaken will be delivered speedily or
in the form in which it has been undertaken.

     Where we have made the advance is in the structure of how we
carry forward the peace process, in the promises that have been
made, the fact that those promises have been made before an
international community, the fact that the whole of the
international community in the follow-up Conference will be there
to apply consistent pressure to meet those promises.  Insofar as
they are not met, there will now be continuing pressure to have
them met day after day.  Some people may not be able to deliver
them all immediately or in full, and that is why both the
Secretary-General and I indicated there is still a great deal to
be done, and there may be some bumpy sessions before we get
everything heading in the direction we want.

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  May I add, Mr. Prime Minister, that
the Security Council will follow the situation and that the
Security Council has the capacity to adopt a new resolution to
cope with the situation or with further deterioration of the
situation in former Yugoslavia.

     QUESTION:  Yugoslavia already showed that it is ready to
cooperate.  When are you going to remove sanctions?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  We are not proposing to lift sanctions
at the moment.  Indeed, sanctions are tightened by the agreement
that we have actually made over the last couple of days.  The time
to remove sanctions is when promises have been enacted and there
are significant changes.  Sanctions will not be removed before
then.

     Indeed, the relevant Governments have made some further
agreements on sanctions:  to implement an agreed plan to ensure
that the sanctions are rigorously applied; to enforce sanctions on
the Danube far more effectively than at present, and that is
consistent with our view that the riparian States have both the
authority and the obligations to enforce those sanctions.  We are
also proposing to provide practical advice, manpower and equipment
to help neighbouring countries enforce the sanctions rigorously.
That is an illustration of some of the decisions we have taken.

     The direct answer to your question is sanctions will go when
the killing stops and there is no need for sanctions.

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  And we need a resolution of the
Security Council to remove the sanctions.

				    (more)


				     - 7 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     QUESTION:  With all respect, Sir, do you think that this is a
Rosetta stone which will decipher what has seemed up to now the
"Tower of Babel", to say the least?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  We hope so.  We hope that we now put in
place a process that will unravel these ancient hatreds and bring
peace.  We don't pretend it is certain; we don't pretend it is
easy; we don't pretend it will all be necessarily swift.  We do
believe, as a result of these two days, that collectively the
world is in a better position to enforce its will and the will of
people around the world towards moving towards peace far more
effectively than we could before.

     We knew when we called this Conference that there was no
certainity as to what the outcome would be, that it was a
hazardous undertaking with no certainty of a good result. We took
the view, frankly, that if we hazard nothing, we achieve nothing.
We took the hazard; I think the achievements are there; we must
now see whether those achievements are carried out into practice.

     QUESTION:  Will the negotiations next week in Geneva be
face-to-face between Mr. (Alija) Izetbegovicv and Mr. Karadzic,
and did the Conference adopt the expected paper on Serbia that we
were told it would adopt?  Also, in the Bosnia paper there is a
reference to a peace-keeping operation under United Nations
auspices for Bosnia.  Is this a new initiative that will lead to a
similar mission to that negotiated by Mr. Vance for Croatia?

     The PRIME MINISTER:  On the talks, there will be proximity
talks in the first instance in Geneva between the parties to the
conflict.

     On the question of Serbia, we took the views of the
Conference throughout the two days, both in bilateral discussions
that the Secretary-General and I and others had and also in what
was said in the Plenary, and the Secretary-General and I laid a
paper in front of the Conference setting out views on Serbia.
That also will be made public and available.

     On the third point, I think that is for the
     Secretary-General.

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  I believe that the whole operation in
     Bosnia will
be under the leadership of UNPROFOR.  We will add new
peace-keeping soldiers but the whole operation will be one
operation under the leadership of UNPROFOR.

     QUESTION:  Has the Conference discussed how to bring those
who have committed war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (to
justice)?

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  We have discussed the possibility.
We are studying the possibility of creating an international penal
tribunal and when this tribunal will be created, the purpose of
which is to condemn those who have committed crimes against peace,
and this is one of the subjects which was discussed.

				    (more)


				     - 8 -            Press
				     Release SG/SM/4800
						      28 August
						      1992


     QUESTION:  (Beginning not transcribed) ... Secretary-General,
to Yugoslavia to collect evidence?

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  We have people there and this is one
of the objectives which was agreed at this Conference.

     QUESTION:  You have spoken about the pressure on the warring
parties in ex-Yugoslavia but, given the sorry record of financial
contributions to United Nations peace-keeping, what steps have
been decided on to make sure that the Member Governments finance
these new United Nations activities?

     The SECRETARY-GENERAL:  A good question; I will give you a
     good answer.

     We have received offers from different countries; the 20 who
     will
participate in the peace-keeping forces will assume all the
financial burden of this new participation in the peace-keeping
forces.

				    * *** *