I welcome the opportunity
to address, on behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the
General Assembly of the United Nations, the highest
body of the world family of sovereign nations.
I congratulate Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on
his election to his very responsible post. I also
congratulate the newly elected President of the General
Assembly, Mr. Srdjan Kerim, who hails from our
region of South-East Europe.
Serbia attaches exceptional importance to the role
that the world Organization, and the Security Council
in particular, play in maintaining international peace
and security and in safeguarding the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of the Member States. Proceeding
from the Charter of the United Nations as the
cornerstone of the current international legal order,
Serbia calls for its consistent implementation.
The sixty-second session of the General
Assembly is taking place at a very important moment
for Serbia as the negotiation process on the future
status of its province of Kosovo and Metohija is under
way. Proceeding from the firm position that the
independence of Kosovo is unacceptable to Serbia, we
have offered special rights and competences to Kosovo
Albanians for the autonomous development of their
community within the Republic of Serbia.
In defence of the State sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Serbia, our negotiating team has offered a
decentralization model based on European solutions
that would protect the interests of Kosovo Albanians,
as well as the threatened interests of the Serbian and
other non-Albanian ethnic communities in the
province, in an effective way. Serbia offers solutions
that would definitively solve, through mutual
agreement and with the implementation of European
values and rules, an old inter-ethnic conflict and open
the prospects of reconciliation and coexistence within a
modern, democratic and European Serbia. My country
is ready to compromise, yet we wish to point out that
the legitimate interests of democratic Serbia and the
specific needs of the threatened Serbian community in
the province, as well as of other communities that have
fallen victim to expulsion, such as the Roma and
Gorani communities, must be respected. Let me recall
that more than 200,000 Serbs have left Kosovo since
1999; to date, according to the official data of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, only
7,100 have returned.
Today, negotiations are under way under the
auspices of the Contact Group, but a legitimate
decision on the future status of Kosovo can be taken
only by the Security Council. Only a decision taken by
that institution can be based on international law.
Persistent in our request that the territorial
integrity of the Republic of Serbia be respected, we
call for the attainment of a compromise solution
through diplomatic, legal and peaceful means, and not
through war and violence. It is precisely for those
reasons that democratic Serbia does not accept that the
threat of violence made by the party we are negotiating
with is an argument for redrawing the borders of
legitimate democracies and for violating the norms of
international law. My country is therefore steadfast in
warning of the unforeseeable consequences of that
unprincipled and dangerous policy, and remains
committed to the search for a peaceful and compromise
solution through dialogue and in full respect for the
Charter of the United Nations.
Serbia would also like to recall that threats have
been bandied about of late that the Kosovo Provisional
Institutions will unilaterally declare independence on
11 December. We point that out because of the fact that
the international legal order would never be the same
following a one-sided recognition of Kosovo’s
independence, while many separatist movements the
world over would exploit the newly established
precedent. Many regions in the world would thereby be
destabilized. We therefore call on the legitimate
representatives of the Kosovo Albanians to proceed to
the resumed negotiations without prejudging the
outcome, so that a compromise solution acceptable to
both parties can be achieved, leading to long-term
Serbian/Albanian reconciliation.
This year, Serbia is presiding over the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe. In that capacity,
we have made every effort to make a maximum
contribution to the strengthening of democracy, the
protection of human rights and the rule of law the
basic values of the oldest pan-European organization.
We have also sought to strengthen synergy between the
Council of Europe and the United Nations, especially
in the field of human rights.
It is in the strategic interest of Serbia to become a
member of the European Union. We are working hard
to become a candidate member by the end of 2008. We
are engaged in the process of Euro-Atlantic integration
through the Partnership for Peace programme. We have
thereby clearly evinced our acceptance of European
values and our readiness to develop our country in
accordance with the highest European standards.
We are convinced that the European perspective
on the entire Western Balkans is the most effective way
to stabilize the situation and accelerate the
development of all countries in the region. Only thus
shall we overcome the problems inherited from the past
and encourage a spirit of tolerance and commitment to
the same goals and values, which will provide a basis
for building stable and lasting peace in our region.
Unfortunately, the question of war crimes
continues to burden relations among Balkan countries.
For its part, Serbia has done everything within its
power to track down, arrest and transfer to The Hague
those accused of war crimes, thereby demonstrating its
commitment to cooperating with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to a
successful end. That is not only Serbia’s international
obligation; above all, it is our debt to ourselves and to
our neighbours. By punishing criminals and building a
stable and prosperous region, a common space
integrated into the European Union, we can ensure a
better future for all citizens.
It is with pleasure and optimism that we note that,
step by step, South-East Europe is becoming a region
of good-neighbourliness and cooperation. There are
numerous examples of very successful initiatives and
concrete forms of cooperation, the contribution of
which to the promotion of peace and mutual trust is
exceptionally important. There is hardly any field in
which we have not yet established a mechanism of
mutual cooperation. That proves unequivocally that
this is a lasting, strategic orientation of all countries in
the Balkans and a reflection of their common
aspiration to the full inclusion of our region into
European integration.
(spoke in English)
Global problems call for global answers, and all
Member States are therefore required to participate
actively in their solution. Today, as we face completely
new and specific challenges that threaten international
peace and security and pose a threat to overall
development and prosperity, we are becoming
increasingly aware of the great need perhaps greater
than ever before for the United Nations.
Terrorism is one of the greatest scourges of the
present-day world. In order to fight and eradicate it
effectively, we must take a global, coordinated
approach, as well as vigorous action at the regional and
country levels. Last year, Serbia hosted the regional
summit meeting on terrorism, organized crime and
corruption.
As can be seen, we cooperate very closely with
our neighbours in order to forestall threats. An
excellent example of that cooperation was the recent
joint exercise of the armies of Serbia, Romania and
Bulgaria, which provided abundant evidence of our
three countries’ collective readiness to combat
terrorism and any other threat to the security of our
citizens. Serbia also initiated the signing of an
agreement with neighbouring countries on cooperation
in the protection against natural disasters. The recent
catastrophic fires that engulfed Greece and the manner
in which we reacted provided eloquent proof of the
vital importance of mutual dependence and solidarity
in the Balkan region.
Numerous crises continue to plague the world.
Some are dormant, some are escalating, while others
threaten to provoke conflicts that could engender
dangerous consequences, destruction and humanitarian
catastrophes. Our experience to date makes us believe
even more firmly that lasting, just and stable peace and
security can be achieved only peacefully, through
dialogue, mutual respect and cooperation.
Serbia believes that the United Nations continues
to be an irreplaceable international authority and
mechanism for the prevention of crises and the
resolution of conflicts. Successful and timely
deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces is
an important aspect of the maintenance of international
peace and security. We support the efforts of the
Organization to further strengthen the efficiency of its
peacekeeping capacities. Serbia therefore considers
that only gathered together around common goals and
objectives and united in action can we make a vigorous
stand against such global threats to international peace
and security as terrorism, bellicose extremism, mass
poverty, organized crime, pandemic diseases and the
harmful consequences of climate change.
Global warming is surely a major problem of our
age and rightly figures as one of the central topics on
the agenda of the sixty-second session of the General
Assembly. That phenomenon which, arguably, may
affect all humankind knows no national borders and
circumvents no part of the world. To solve it, therefore,
we must address it very seriously, as it brooks no delay
and all Member States must get on board. Within the
Belgrade Initiative, Serbia has proposed that activities
to stop global warming be carried out also at the
regional level and that a regional centre for South-East
Europe be set up in Belgrade to that end. We also
emphasize that plans to reduce harmful emissions must
take into consideration the level of the economic
development of various countries as well.
The complex of relations among different
cultures, civilizations and religions is also a question
that deserves to be at the focus of the attention of the
United Nations. A truly multi-ethnic, multi-
confessional and multi-cultural country, Serbia fully
understands all the sensitivity of those questions and
treats them with due attention. We are well aware that
the world of the twenty-first century must not be based
on intolerance on any ground. We, the leaders of the
United Nations Member States, are entrusted with a
great responsibility to make every effort to ensure that
all the diversity of this world be comprehended and
accepted as the wealth of all, rather than as the cause
of new divisions. Indeed, dialogue and mutual
tolerance must prevail as the basic principles of our
mutual relations, both within States and internationally.
As a responsible member of the world community
and international organizations, Serbia fully respects
the Charter of the United Nations and the international
legal order established by the Charter. Building a truly
democratic society in our own country, we call for the
democratization of international relations on the basis
of the strict implementation of the Charter and other
generally accepted norms and standards.
We firmly believe that only equitable cooperation
among countries and peoples, respect for basic human
rights and fundamental freedoms, and mutual trust can
guarantee stable international peace and security. At
the same time, short of the political stability and
economic prosperity of States, there is no successful
cooperation at the bilateral, regional and global levels.
The precondition for stability and dynamic economic
development is equal access to new technologies and
modern scientific achievements.
(spoke in French)
The Republic Serbia is willing and ready,
alongside other countries, to be actively involved in the
process of United Nations reform and revitalization in
order to make the world Organization capable of
effectively facing the challenges of our times. Our
historic responsibility is to ensure future generations a
much better environment than that in which we live
today. The Republic of Serbia remains devoted to
achieving the goals of the United Nations and, along
with other countries, is ready to work on further
strengthening the integrity of the world Organization
under its Charter.