UN General Assembly
1996

We would like to proclaim the principle of reconciliation of peoples and nations. Bosnia needs this. Here, no one advocates the idea of the collective guilt of a nation. Guilt is always individual, regardless of the number of perpetrators. But for the people to be absolved and for the road towards reconciliation to be open, the criminals must be punished. That is why the international tribunal in the Hague was established, but, as is well known, neither the chief Prosecutor nor the President of the Tribunal are satisfied with what the international community is doing. In vain, they repeatedly indict the perpetrators and forward the warrants. Even on the issue of war crimes, the world is seeking some painless middle- ground solution. When the issue of war crimes like those committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into 2 question, every compromise is a shameful betrayal of justice. Unpunished war criminals will continue to poison the world and ruin its institutions. Some people in Europe, and in the United States also, ask whether, after everything that has happened, Bosnia and