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REAFFIRMATION OF BASIC OSCE PRINCIPLES
The new Charter for European Security should reaffirm the basic principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), including the respect of the principles of international law and the principle of the sovereign equality of states and equal security for all without impositions and force, says an Aide Memoir prepared by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and distributed on the occasion of the OSCE summit to be held in Istanbul on November 18 - 19.
Following is the official translation of the Yugoslav government's Aide Memoir:
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is carefully following the preparations for the OSCE Summit in Istanbul, in particular the drafting of the new Charter for European Security. It is vitally interested in the strengthening of the European system of collective security and cooperation, based on full recognition of the principles of sovereign equality of States and on the respect of their sovereignty and territorial integrity. The FR of Yugoslavia supports an approach in the work on the new Charter, reaffirming and strengthening the basic OSCE principles and further developing the system of common and an indivisible security which would equally encompass human, economic, political and military dimensions.
Mindful of the bitter experience of the recent past which includes an unprecedented aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia, thousands of human casualties, humanitarian catastrophe, economic destruction of the country, imposition of economic sanctions and forcing the country to shelter more than a million refugees and displaced persons on its territory, the FR of Yugoslavia considers that appropriate lessons must be drawn to avoid similar disregard of international law and practice in the future. Developments in the territory of the former Yugoslavia confirm the necessity of reaffirmation of the basic principles of international law, in particular of the United Nations Charter and OSCE principles and objectives as well as the need to respect in practice the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter.
In view of the fact that it has been prevented from participating in discussions on the new Charter for European Security which, inter alia, builds upon the painful experience of the former Yugoslavia, the FR of Yugoslavia wishes to point to some essential elements without which European and international security cannot be promoted, particularly to those issues which require critical evaluation:
- The NATO aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia was in direct violation of the United Nations Charter, since the use of force was resorted to without prior authorization of the UN Security Council. The primary role of the Security Council in matters of peace and security has thus been ignored; the system of collective security and confidence in the effectiveness of international organizations has been brought into question; the fundamental principles on which the system of international security rests have been violated. At the same time, fundamental provisions of international law have been violated, including most serious breaches of the Geneva Convention with unforeseeable consequences on the stability of international relations in the future (1);
- Massive destruction was inflicted that will have far-reaching consequences and damage estimated at more than a hundred billion dollars was caused, a damage that aggressor countries should be obliged to compensate for;
- The primary authority of the Security Council was significantly diminished when its responsibilities were taken over by a regional military alliance;
- A new notion of "humanitarian intervention" was introduced, although there was no legal basis in any international document to allow it;
- The freedom of information was brutally attacked by the savage killing of journalists, by the destruction of communication systems and media outlets, as well as through dissemination of massive misinformation aimed at misleading the international public and covering-up the crimes and justification of the aggression;
- Human and minority rights and the right to self-determination have been abused by foreign factors for the purpose of imposing their will;
- The destruction of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) and open support for secessionism and separatism have led to the establishment of new borders in Europe, in direct violation of the basic OSCE principles, i.e. the principles of inviolability of internationally recognized borders, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, non-interference in internal affairs;
- Not all existing OSCE and UN mechanisms for the settlement of disputes and the prevention of crises have been fully exhausted or invoked, or they have been selectively applied and abused;
- The region has been divided into the spheres of influence and attempts have been made to reshape geo-political map of the Balkans, with the participation and support of factors outside the region;
- The arms race has been provoked leading to the expansion of military bases in the region of south-eastern Europe thus representing direct threat to peace and security and resulting in the region's technological and economic lagging behind and long-term dependency on non-regional factors;
- Sanctions have been abused for the purpose of achieving illegitimate political goals;
- By preventing the FR of Yugoslavia from participating in the work of the OSCE, an unprecedented practice ("consensus minus one") was introduced. Issues related to the fate of a country have been discussed and decided upon in its absence;
- On 16 October 1998, the FR of Yugoslavia signed the Agreement on Kosovo Verification Mission with OSCE. This agreement was one-sidedly violated by OSCE when it withdrew 1400 KVM personnel from Kosovo and Metohija on the eve of NATO aggression against the FRY, thus enabling the bombing, destruction and the humanitarian disaster, which represent a crime against peace and humanity. In this way, OSCE has been manipulated with a view to accomplishing strategic goals of NATO.
Based on these considerations, the FR of Yugoslavia deems it necessary that the new Charter for European Security should reflect the following elements:
- the reaffirmation of the original OSCE principles and objectives, including the respect of the principles of international law, as well as the principle of sovereign equality of States and equal security for all, without any imposition or coercion;
- the reaffirmation of the principle of open borders, free flow of people, goods, information and ideas without political conditions, as well the right of freely choosing one's own path of internal development;
- the critical re-evaluation of the policy of penalizing the population, of causing humanitarian crisis and misuse of human rights for the purpose of imposing one's own will;
- the reaffirmation of the precedence of the UN Charter and the basic OSCE documents over unilateral acts and decisions taken by regional organizations;
- the definition of the role of regional alliances within the European security system and the reaffirmation of the OSCE as the main pillar of European cooperative security;
- the support of the new regional approach to European security launched by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and already justified in practice through the Agreement on Confidence and Security-Building Measures (Article II) and the Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control (Article IV) as well as through new negotiations on regional arms control (Article V, Annex 1B). This approach should be applied to all regions of Europe, with a view to consolidating the unified concept of European security;
- the rejection of any interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, and particularly threats or use of force contrary to the UN Charter;
- pointing out the necessity of concluding an agreement (2) which would regulate the activities of international presence on the territories of independent States, thus eliminating the weaknesses demonstrated in practice in implementing the provisions of UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) on Kosovo and Metohija (which can be illustrated by many examples (3));
- putting in place the verification mechanisms that would make impossible the practice of abuse of international missions and overstepping of their mandates (4);
- insisting on a consistent application in practice of existing rules and opposing ad hoc solutions that set negative precedents in international practice. The insistence on the application of OSCE mechanisms to States which are prevented from participating in the decisions that directly affect them is unacceptable; punitive measures and isolation of States have proved counter-productive, considering that there can be no co-operation without dialogue on an equal footing;
- the consideration of sanctions in the context of close interrelationship between security and respect for human and minority rights. The case of the FR of Yugoslavia has proven that economic sanctions are counter-productive and unjust, because their ultimate victims are large segments of the population. They are also ineffective from the standpoint of promoting stability and confidence in Europe as a whole;
- the consideration of the need for developing new OSCE mechanisms aimed at environmental protection and ensuring essential living conditions of the population, taking into account the adverse effects of exposing the FR of Yugoslavia to environmental disaster and the use of inhumane weapons (5) against its population;
- The FR of Yugoslavia once again reaffirms its readiness to contribute actively to the establishment of a new European security system that would be based on mutual cooperation, equality and prosperity for all. In this context, the FR of Yugoslavia upholds the process of devising a new concept of security, hoping that it too will be able to make a positive contribution to it on an equal footing.
(1) - NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia constituted a crime against peace and humanity. Several thousands civilians were killed; there was a massive exodus of refugees; many civilian facilities were destroyed, namely roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, dozens of thousands of residential homes, cultural monuments, electrical energy and distribution systems and an environmental catastrophe was provoked.
(2) - The OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission Agreement can serve as a positive example, because it acted as an element of stability in the region, even though it was grossly abused and paved the way for the subsequent aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia.
(3) - See the document "Memorandum of the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)" (Annex 1).
(4) - A drastic example of overstepping the mandate as set out in the Agreement is the case of the former Kosovo Verification Mission Head, William Walker.
(5) - Cluster bombs and depleted uranium bombs were used during the aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia; oil installations, chemical plants and electric power plants were destroyed and huge amounts of toxic chemicals and electro-magnetic material were released, the consequences of which are yet to be assessed. This has upset the environmental balance in the entire region and further afield.
REPEATED ATTACKS OF ALBANIAN TERRORISTS ON HOUSES OF GORANIES
The Goranies ethnic community has condemned the bomb attacks by Albanian terrorists on the homes of Goranies, who are in constant fear for their lives, said a statement issued by the Goranies ethnic community.
The bomb attacks have increased in frequency, the statement said and added that a few days ago hand grenades were thrown on the houses of Omer Jamini and Dehir Ibrahimi from Dragas.
The Goranies ethnic community has warned that in Kosovo and Metohija were endangered 19 villages, inhabited exclusively by Goranies.
UN COMMISSIONER ROBINSON DISPUTES YUGOSLAV SOVEREIGNTY IN KOSMET
Head of the permanent Yugoslav UN mission in Geneva, ambassador Branko Brankovic has disclosed that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson absolutely unfoundedly disputed the sovereignty of Yugoslavia in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija in a report forwarded to the UN General Assembly.
Ambassador Brankovic said in a letter sent to Commissioner Robinson that her report on the activities of her Office aimed at enhancing and protecting human rights did not acknowledge UN Security Council Resolution 1244, and did not respect and accept the sovereignty of Yugoslavia on all of its territory.
Brankovic said that the report stated that the state of human rights in Kosovo and Metohija had been a cause of the international community's concern for nearly a full decade, quoted statements made by the special UN rapporteur for the former Yugoslavia in 1993, and gave an arbitrary description of the situation which led to it described as an eruption of violence in 1998.
It is well known that the reports on which Commissioner Robinson's report relies, especially those of Mr. Mazowiecki, as special rapporteur, were extremely biased and based on lies fabricated by media centres, including CNN, and state centres, including the U.S. State Department, with a view to implementing a policy which is contrary to international law and the UN Charter, ambassador Brankovic set out.
It is incomprehensible that in the current dramatic situation for the Serbs and the other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, the same fabricated accusations about the alleged violations of the rights of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija are again being repeated (and have been year after year), Brankovic said.
He underscored that the KFOR and the so-called KLA were in fact intensively working to ethnically cleanse Kosovo and Metohija of Serbs and the other non-Albanians. In other words, the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Metohija is pursued with the blessings of the United Nations, which was never before the case in the history of the U.N, ambassador Brankovic set out.
Mary Robinson qualifies Serbs as an "ethnic minority group" in Serbia's southern province. At the same time, she alters the status of the Albanian national minority in the Republic of Serbia. Such a stand is contrary to the Constitutions of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, constitutes an interference in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia and runs counter to the basic norms of international law which define minorities, ambassador Brankovic stressed.
SECOND DONOR CONFERENCE ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA TO OPEN IN BRUSSELS
The second conference of donors on the reconstruction of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province following NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on the country will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday.
The conference has been co-organised by the World Bank and the European Commission that estimate that about 2.343 billion U.S. dollars will be needed for the province's reconstruction in the next four to five years.
Kosovo and Metohija's overall reconstruction should really begin in 2000, with Wednesday's conference being aimed at securing funds for the province's priority needs next year.
The first donor conference on Kosovo and Metohija was held in Brussels in July when the participants in it pledged to ensure about 2.2 billion dollars. Only a sum of about 900 million dollars has, however, been provided up to this point.
The European Commission decided in a meeting in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday to earmark 36 million dollars for assisting the province's public sector and the reconstruction of a part of its economic facilities.
The sum is said to be a part of the total sum of about 500 million euros that the European Union plans to earmark for the province's reconstruction next year.
U.S. LIKELY TO PAY PART OF ITS 1.7-BILLION DOLLAR DEBT TO UN
Washington's announcement that the United States will pay a part of its 1.7 billion-dollar debt to the United Nations has proved to be nothing but a move aimed at keeping the right to vote in the UN General Assembly.
Under a proposal disclosed on Monday, the United States would pay only 926 million dollars of its debt in three instalments in the next three years.
The country would, however, pay only 350 million dollars by December 31, 1999, when the deadline for paying at least a part of the debt to the world body expires.
Under the UN Charter, if the United States fails to do so, it might lose the right to vote in the General Assembly.
According to UN officials, the United Nations has hailed the U.S. announcement that it will pay at least a part of the debt. The officials, however, do not conceal their dissatisfaction with the sum that the United States plans to pay.
Washington denies that its debt to the United Nations has reached 1.7 billion dollars.
YUGOSLAV INVENTOR WINS GRAND PRIX AT BRUSSELS EUREKA EXPOSITION
Yugoslavia's Mato Zubac has won a grand prix at the EUREKA world exposition of inventions in Brussels. Zubac received the award at the exposition's closing ceremony that took place late on Tuesday. The ceremony was attended by top Belgian and Brussels officials.
A number of other Yugoslav participants in this prestigious world exposition, which was attended by over 800 inventors from 64 countries who presented 1,260 inventions, also received awards.
Zubac, a leading businessman in Apatin, the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, won the grand prix for inventing a way of how to briquette fresh bio-masses for the purposes of power industry and fodder production.
Zubac owns the Dakom Company in Apatin that has already started applying this method.
The brewery of Apatin received an award for its Jelen Pivo beer, Vladimir Jovanovic and the OM company were awarded for design, while Slobodan Jelisijevic of Gornji Milanovac was awarded in the category of brands.