UN General Assembly
1992

The transition, however, has proved more traumatic and destabilizing than the propitious circumstances would have suggested. The energies for revolutionary change need to be positively directed so that prospects for international peace are not threatened by the resurgence of ancient ethnic and tribal conflicts and the violent clash of nationalistic rivalries. Regrettably, there are alarming manifestations of that new threat in Yugoslavia and Somalia. Barbados is appalled at the savagery with which the protagonists of ethnic strife in what was once Yugoslavia are pursuing their misguided notions of nationalism and sovereignty. Such barbarism, including the horrendous practice of "ethnic cleansing", has no place in our modern world. Its perpetrators must be made to understand the outrage of the international community at their actions. My country fully supports the regime of sanctions imposed by the Security Council and the dedicated efforts of the European Community and the United Nations to create the conditions for a peaceful settlement and to bring relief to the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian victims. Equally disturbing is the desperate situation in Somalia, which,