Allow me to congratulate you. Sir, and the friendly nation of
Bulgaria on your election as President of the General Assembly at its
forty-seventh session. We are convinced that under your leadership the
General Assembly will be successful. I should also like to take this
opportunity to express my appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Samir Shihabi,
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, for the creative and constructive manner in which
he guided the forty-sixth session.
A number of newly independent European States, including Slovenia, have
become new Members of the United Nations and are taking part in this session
of the General Assembly. This reality, until recently almost beyond
imagination in the context of the traditional view of international relations,
came about through the process of democratization, which dramatically brought
to a close the period of absolute ideologies that formed the basis of various
forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
The far-reaching changes brought about by the end of the cold war have
confronted the international community and the United Nations with new
problems. The futility of attempts to solve the Yugoslav crisis and to stop
the war against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in all its
tragic dimensions is taking place in our immediate neighbourhood, is another
indication of the insufficiency of current institutional arrangements in the
world. This applies both to the United Nations and to regional organizations
that complement the universality of the United Nations.
Our international institutional arrangements were made in the
circumstances of a world divided into political and military blocs. The
primary function of those arrangements was to palliate the effects of
ideological, political and military confrontation by maintaining a balance of
power and a balance of fear and through understandings reached between the
great Powers. In the context of such a world order, there was insufficient
commitment to enhancing cooperation and integration, to facilitating the
necessary evolution of the modem world as required by the nature of
technology, to the organization of production, to free markets, to the
responsibility for coordinated and accelerated economic development, to
overcoming poverty, to the protection of the human environment and to the
universalization of communications and information.
opportunity to express my appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Samir Shihabi,
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, for the creative and constructive manner in which
he guided the forty-sixth session.
A number of newly independent European States, including Slovenia, have
become new Members of the United Nations and are taking part in this session
of the General Assembly. This reality, until recently almost beyond
imagination in the context of the traditional view of international relations,
came about through the process of democratization, which dramatically brought
to a close the period of absolute ideologies that formed the basis of various
forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
The far-reaching changes brought about by the end of the cold war have
confronted the international community and the United Nations with new
problems. The futility of attempts to solve the Yugoslav crisis and to stop
the war against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in all its
tragic dimensions is taking place in our immediate neighbourhood, is another
indication of the insufficiency of current institutional arrangements in the
world. This applies both to the United Nations and to regional organizations
that complement the universality of the United Nations.
Our international institutional arrangements were made in the
circumstances of a world divided into political and military blocs. The
primary function of those arrangements was to palliate the effects of
ideological, political and military confrontation by maintaining a balance of
power and a balance of fear and through understandings reached between the
great Powers. In the context of such a world order, there was insufficient
commitment to enhancing cooperation and integration, to facilitating the
necessary evolution of the modem world as required by the nature of
technology, to the organization of production, to free markets, to the
responsibility for coordinated and accelerated economic development, to
overcoming poverty, to the protection of the human environment and to the
universalization of communications and information.
The process of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(CSCE), which on the international scene in Europe complements the United
Nations system on a regional level and whose documents helped the wave of
democratic changes in Europe was, to a large extent, created with the
objective of accelerating cooperation and integration. The CSCE was
constructed and developed on the basic principles enshrined in the United
Nations Charter and which constitute a vital precondition for the security,
peace, welfare and progress of all. All CSCE participating States were
therefore expected to agree voluntarily to those principles in their own
interest. However, the CSCE was left without suitable means to respond to
situations in which a State violated and did not respect those principles and
norms.
The war in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all the horrors
which, thanks to the media, are known to the whole world, as well as the
Balkan crisis, in which we were also involved, are an important experience for
the CSCE, for the United Nations and for the world at large.
It teaches us that it is relatively simple to plead for peace. It is
much more difficult to guarantee security and to create the stable conditions
that would allow urgent and peaceful changes in accordance with the principles
upholding peace, security and prosperity. This is the most important function
of the United Nations and of all regional organizations and is the basis of
our support for the proposal that the United Nations should rapidly create
mechanisms for adjusting to emerging changes in the world.
In his report "An Agenda for Peace", the Secretary-General has made an
exceptionally cogent contribution to efforts to ensure the gradual
establishment of security machinery that will enable the peaceful settlement
of all disputes, primarily through an insight into the circumstances and the
timely mobilization of international institutions, to prevent or quickly cut
short armed conflicts between States Members of the United Nations and between
sovereign States. It is in the interest of the international community that a
war, if it occurs, does not spread to new regions and countries. The report
contains many useful ideas about the building of peace after the conflict has
been brought to an end and about when it becomes possible and necessary to
create conditions for long-term security and stability in relations between
the participants in the conflict.
The United Nations may establish machinery which will enable it to
intervene speedily to help the democratization of international and internal
relations and implementation of self-determination and thus prevent lapsing
into the kind of violence that is now tragically escalating in the Balkans.
The United Nations has in the past been a forum for achieving the
self-determination of many peoples. As such it was supported by Slovenia
which, through its active role in the Allied anti-fascist coalition as part of
former Yugoslavia, was among the Founding Members of the Organization. It is
therefore understandable that we expect the United Nations to continue in this
role the future.
The world Organization has ever more Members. This is not the result or
expression of some incomprehensible process of fragmentation: it is an
expression of democratization of relations within those non-traditional States
which were built not on the principle of national equality and the real common
interest of their nations but on ideologies, on fear of bloc threats. In
these multi-national States the levers of integration were not economic
success and respect for the welfare and dignity of man, but rather
monopolistic ideologies and a unitary party and army. In these States the
interests and dignity of people and nations were mainly subordinated to the
interests of the State and party or its apparatus.
States such as Yugoslavia which, from a historical point of view, were
artificial creations should have constantly re-examined and demonstrated their
raison d'être in the light of changing historical circumstances. Their
disintegration is not a priori in contradiction with the logic and needs of
integration. It is part of the same process. Individual nations enter the
process of integration at different points. With the formation of their own
States, they create the conditions necessary in order to enter the process of
their own free will.
We cannot exclude the possibility that new links and cooperation among
States will emerge. It is essential that such links must first conform to the
principles of international law, democracy, and respect for universally
recognized standards for the protection of human rights and the rights of
minorities and nations.
The trend of the pre-modern world was towards the concentration of power
through the conquest of territory and war. The trend of the modern world is
increasingly economic through cooperation and association, through improvement
of the quality of life and respect for natural limitations trends which
were at least partly defined at the recent world ecological summit. Slovenia
is situated in an area where the pre-modern and modern worlds meet in both
perception and in practice. It is in the interest of the United Nations and
of all nations of the modern world, so that the modern world will border only
on the modern world.
Allow me to suggest that after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
democratization of Eastern Europe, the democratic world did not respond with
as much commitment as it did, justifiably, in the introduction of the values
of democracy and the market economy. The world was insufficiently prepared
for this epochal event. It is only now seeking and implementing models and
mechanisms for overcoming and preventing the deterioration of relations
between some of the new States. The London Conference, which tried to pave
the way towards a political solution of the Balkan crisis, was a successful
expression of this common search.
The denial to the so-called Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Serbia and
Montenegro - of participation in the General Assembly of the United Nations, a
move that was supported by Slovenia, is convincing proof that the United
Nations is capable of showing the necessary decisiveness in order to condemn
the States that flagrantly violate the United Nations Charter and, above all,
peace, security and human rights.
After the final defeat and withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Slovenia
a year ago, armed conflicts flared up ever further from Slovenia. In the
process of seeking a solution, Slovenia has worked as a constructive and
objective participant in the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, unselfishly
presided over by Lord Carrington, and now the London Conference, to which it
is currently committed. Our most immediate and most direct interest is in the
solution of humanitarian problems and, in particular, the situation of the
more than 70,000 refugees in our country. Our other basic interest relates to
the settlement of all issues of State succession of the former Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It goes without saying that our ultimate
objective is the establishment of a durable peace in the Balkans.
Slovenia is not in dispute with any of the nations of the former
Yugoslavia. In accordance with the decisions of the London Conference, we
support measures against the policies of Serbia and Montenegro and we oppose
their attempt to usurp the succession of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. It is not hard to see that it was the recent policies of these
two republics, which today go by the name of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, that caused the disintegration of Yugoslavia, by enforced
domination over the others, by a reinforcement of a centralist and
undemocratic political system, and by force and seizure; later by war,
territorial conquest, "ethnic cleansing", concentration camps and other crimes
which must be the subject of judicial investigation and trial; and finally by
contempt for all the civilized values that form the basis of the Charter of
the United Nations and key documents of the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
The Helsinki Final Act is undoubtedly one of those invaluable codes of
behaviour a guide to the development of human rights, respect for borders
and their openness and the protection of minorities which, through general
respect, regulate the process of the democratization of relations between
nations and States in a peaceful framework.
The authorities of the former Yugoslavia did not really accept the
Helsinki principles. They did not believe that signing the document bound
them to respect them. The tragedy in the Balkans would not have occurred had
the Helsinki principles been respected and implemented in the former
Yugoslavia. It could have been avoided. Even once it had started, it could
have been resolved peacefully precisely by respecting the Helsinki
principles with the understanding that this might affect the political map
of Europe. Such understanding would have prevented the damage, as well as the
simplifications and justifications that frequently attribute the crisis in the
Balkans, and similar situations elsewhere, to irrational nationalist passion,
nationalist animosities, tribalism and the like.
Slovenia chose independence with its implementation of the right to
self-determination. Slovenia proposed the peaceful dissolution of Yugoslavia
in the manner advocated by Russia at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, when Russia supported the independence of all the republics of the
former Soviet Union.
Slovenia does not oppose modern movements towards integration. It
supports them provided they are based, like the European Community, on respect
for the interests of all those involved, and on equal cooperation and
agreement. Slovenia wishes to join the European Community and is prepared
voluntarily to surrender such parts of its sovereignty as all members of the
European Community must surrender. Slovenia does not wish this only because
of its need for economic integration, but also because of its historical
affiliation with that culture, which was interrupted by catastrophic
ideological, political and economic divisions after the Second World War.
Ensuring durable international peace and security requires the fulfilment
of certain conditions, among which respect for human rights is of critical
significance. Those States that do not respect human dignity and human rights
at home will not respect the dignity and sovereignty of other nations and
other States. It is evident that threats to international peace very often
start with violations of human rights within the boundaries of countries which
later disturb the peace.
The Republic of Slovenia attaches great importance to concern for the
implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. As a new, sovereign
State, it is strongly committed to the view that in our times State
sovereignty is primarily defined by criteria of the legitimacy of State
authority and respect for human rights. This is due above all to the
practical importance of human rights as a guarantee of social stability and
peace and thus as an important constituent of international peace and security.
At a time when the setting of international standards in the field of
human rights is being completed, concern for the effectiveness of their
implementation and of international supervision is of high priority.
Experience has shown that assuring respect for human rights, including
especially the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and
linguistic minorities, is of critical importance for extinguishing crises and
establishing peace. Efforts at post-conflict peace-building will be
precarious and incomplete if that condition for stabilization is not fulfilled
and supervised. The Secretary-General also fully stresses this in his
important report "An Agenda for Peace" (A/47/277).
There is one further question which highlights the need to review the
suitability of institutional arrangements. This is the problem of refugees,
as demonstrated in the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is clear that
an arrangement meeting the need to protect the personal status and integrity
of an individual forced to abandon his country through fear of political and
physical violence is inadequate for a mass exodus of entire nations fleeing
threatened genocide as a result of a war of conquest and the "ethnic
cleansing" of territory conquered by an aggressor.
A million Muslim refugees from the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina are
without adequate protection and without an internationally guaranteed status.
They are ever more widely scattered throughout Europe. There are close to
100,000 in my own country, which is, with great difficulty, providing them
with food and shelter. The Bosnian Muslims are becoming a nation without a
land, without a State, with all the attendant tragic consequences, including
repercussions for the protection of Europe against terrorism. It is of such
hopelessness that terrorism is born. It is tragic that in this war against a
State Member of the United Nations, composed of three nations, Croats, Muslims
and Serbs, the Muslims should remain almost unprotected. That is why they
seek refuge throughout Europe.
At a number of international conferences we have proposed that United
Nations peace-keeping forces create a safe haven in Bosnia and Herzegovina
itself, where the relative safety of refugees would be assured, since, after
the war, when decisions are made on the fate of that State, the Muslims must
be present and active, physically and politically. The division of the State
would otherwise become a reality. It would also be a reality that aggression
had been rewarded by the allocation of conquered territory and that the world
had recognized the policy of fait accompli and shut its eyes to violations of
the principles of humanitarian rights, and to the perpetration of genocide.
Of equal importance is an effective mechanism for prompt action in the
resolution of humanitarian problems created by armed conflict. It is
particularly important that the humanitarian assistance - in which the High
Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs. Sadako Ogata, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and its Executive Director, Mr. James Grant, and
Under-Secretary-General Jan Eliasson have invested so much effort - be
provided in a timely manner. The importance of humanitarian measures, even if
they require overcoming resistance and military protection, has been
demonstrated recently in some of the armed conflicts of the past year,
including the conflicts in the Gulf and in the Balkans. Inability to
guarantee humanitarian assistance is inexcusable and compromises the
international community and, unfortunately, the United Nations.
In a period of eased international relations and a search for new
orientations for development, there is an important way in which the potential
role of the United Nations has been extended: in preventive diplomacy and the
creation of measures which are a real contribution to defusing conflicts,
dealing with their underlying causes and overcoming their consequences.
Preventive diplomacy is a task for the future; it will require supplementing
and reinforcing the work of the United Nations. It presupposes a knowledge of
history and respect for the principles of the equality and self-determination
of all peoples, and for other principles contained in the Charter of the
United Nations. In their own interests and in the common interest, the
Members of the United Nations will have to fulfill those principles. Only
thus will the authority of the United Nations be enhanced and protected, and
the hope which people, including the people of Slovenia, have invested in it
be justified.
The United Nations has alleviated, as far as it could, the negative
effects of bloc rivalries and the bipolar division of the world. Now, the
world needs a United Nations which is capable of guiding, harmonizing and
assisting change. This can be achieved only if the Organization can
revitalize, restructure and democratize its own system. We are firmly
convinced that the United Nations, as a universal forum of multilateralism,
will successfully take this unique opportunity to lay the foundations for a
new and more just world, in building which the entire international community
shares a common interest.
I have devoted a great deal of attention to the crisis in the Balkans. I
should like, however, to stress that the Republic of Slovenia is also well
aware of other problems that beset the world, and that it has a constructive
approach to the important aspects of an international world order that will
not be burdened by war, poverty, illiteracy, intolerance, and injustice; of an
order in which the Declaration of the World Summit on Children and the
achievements of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro will be implemented in
full; and of an order in which human rights will everywhere be the standard of
behaviour respected by States. Constructive and successful dialogue among
developed and developing countries - as well as peace, international security,
and disarmament - are among our priority tasks. I wish the the United Nations
every success - success the world badly needs.