United Nations S/PV.4105 Security Council Provisional Fifty-fifth Year 4105th Meeting Monday, 28 February 2000, 12.25 p.m. New York President: Mr. Listre ....................................... (Argentina) Members: Bangladesh ...................................... Mr.Chowdhury Canada ......................................... Mr.Vámos-Goldman China .......................................... Mr.Wang Yingfan France .......................................... Mr.Dejammet Jamaica ......................................... Miss Durrant Malaysia ........................................ Mr.Hasmy Mali ........................................... Mr.Kasse Namibia ........................................ Mr.Andjaba Netherlands ...................................... Mr.Hamer Russian Federation ................................. Mr.Lavrov Tunisia ......................................... Mr.BenMustapha Ukraine ......................................... Mr.Yel’chenko United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ........ Mr.Eldon United States of America ............................ Mr.Cunningham Agenda Briefing by Mr. Carl Bildt, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Balkans 00-31762 (E) This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-178. Security Council 4105th meeting Fifty-fifth year 28 February 2000 The meeting was called to order at 12.25 p.m. I now call on Mr. Bildt. Adoption of the agenda Mr. Bildt: It is indeed an honour to be able to address the Council on the search for self-sustaining The agenda was adopted. stability, as well as human rights and democracy, in the Balkans. Briefing by Mr. Carl Bildt, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Balkans Kosovo is once again the centre of public attention. But it is not my task to go into the details of all of the The President (spoke in Spanish): I should like to challenges we are facing there. Indeed, Mr. Kouchner will inform the Council that I have received letters from the be briefing the Council on these on 6 March, I representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former understand. It is enough for me to repeat what I remarked Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in which they request to in informal consultations last year: that the operation in be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Kosovo is the most complex and the most challenging Council's agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I operation of this sort that the United Nations has ever propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those been asked to undertake. representatives to participate in the discussion, without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of But Kosovo is only one small part of a region that the Charter and rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of is in search of stability, and my task as Special Envoy of procedure. the Secretary-General is to see what can be done to prevent new conflicts from occurring, as well as to see There being no objection, it is so decided. what can be done to pave the way for self-sustaining stability in the region as a whole. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Sacirbey (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Mr. Cˇalovski (the Instability and conflict are not recent phenomena in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) took the this region. We often tend to forget that conflicts and seats reserved for them at the side of the Council instabilities in the Balkans dominated the first decade of Chamber. the twentieth century as much as they dominated the last. To find a stable political order for this region, with its The President (spoke in Spanish): In accordance with rich mosaic of peoples, cultures and traditions — the the understanding reached in the Council's prior result of millennia of rule by multinational empires — has consultations, and in the absence of objection, I shall take been a most difficult task. it that the Security Council agrees to extend an invitation under rule 39 of the its provisional rules of procedure to It was a decade ago that we were confronted with Mr. Carl Bildt, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for these issues again. Old regimes and old structures of the Balkans. repression were thrown away, and the international community was faced with the task of helping the region There being no objection, it is so decided. transit to a new order of stability, now also built on respect for human rights and democracy. This has proved I invite Mr. Bildt to take a seat at the Council table. to be a most challenging task. Some would describe it as a succession of failures: the failure to prevent the war in The Security Council will now begin its consideration Croatia, the failure to prevent the war in Bosnia and the of the item on its agenda. The Council is meeting in failure to prevent the war in Kosovo. Those wars of accordance with the understanding reached in its prior course devastated the lives of people and devastated the consultations. region. The United Nations system, from the very beginning, has been at the forefront of the efforts to At this meeting, the Security Council will hear a alleviate suffering and help ordinary people. It has often, briefing by Mr. Carl Bildt, Special Envoy of the Secretary- as the Council knows, been a thankless task. General to the Balkans. Following his briefing, the members of the Council will have an opportunity to As we look at the situation now, a decade later, I do comment and to ask questions. not think it is possible to say that we have managed to achieve a situation of self-sustaining stability in the 2 Security Council 4105th meeting Fifty-fifth year 28 February 2000 region. Indeed, our combined political, humanitarian, but the time is certainly ripe for discussion of the core economic and military involvement in the different parts of issues. Let me indicate four starting points for such a the region is larger and more demanding than ever before. search for a settlement. They, in turn, come on top of the Were it to be withdrawn today, we would be facing new most obvious point, namely, taking into account the wars tomorrow. wishes of all those living or having their roots in Kosovo. The larger issue that we are confronted with in the First, I believe the search for a regional settlement region is the conflict between what I refer to as the forces must have the solid support of the Council. This is not of integration and the forces of disintegration. The conflict just an abstract principle or political statement. It is based is between those who favour, or at least accept, integration on concrete experience in the region during the past 10 within their societies as well as between them, and those years. For only when there has been a solid consensus who favour — often in the name of extreme nationalism — among the key international actors — often the United disintegration within their societies and between nations. States, the countries of the European Union and the We know, of course, from rather bitter experience that Russian Federation — has it been possible to achieve virtually every step of disintegration in the region has been political agreements between the different warring parties associated with violent conflict of one sort or another, more in the different conflicts in the area. Any lesser often than not resulting in massive violations of human combination has, as a rule, been doomed to failure. It is rights, massive ethnic cleansing and massive destruction of thus important for there to be a dialogue within the economic and social infrastructure. This has not been a Council on the shape of the regional settlement that must region of velvet divorces; this has been a region of violent come. divorces. Secondly, I believe that the States of the region must As we look at the region today, we have to conclude be active participants in the search for this settlement. In that the forces of disintegration are still stronger than the Rambouillet a year ago, the search for a settlement was forces of integration. As long as this is the case, a self- primarily between Belgrade and the political sustaining stability that also conforms to our other values representatives of the Kosovo Albanians. Although this will be most difficult to achieve. This makes it even more certainly remains the core conflict yet to be settled, its important to press on with our search for such stability. settlement is no longer enough. The future of Kosovo affects the region as a whole in a very profound way. We In 1995, after massive failures and massive efforts, we must thus be clear in seeking the voice and the managed to achieve a political settlement in Bosnia. The involvement of the leaders in Skopje and Tirana, as well Dayton Peace Agreement remains one of the most as other regional capitals. We must take into account the ambitious agreements of its kind in modern history. In views expressed in Podgorica and in Sarajevo. We must 1999, efforts to seek a political settlement to the conflict in treat it as a truly regional issue. Kosovo failed, and the war that resulted ended with Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), as well as with a Thirdly, I believe it is fundamental that we be ready military-technical agreement. But there was and there is no to make it clear that a true deal will be one that meets the proper peace agreement. minimum demands of everyone, but the maximum demands of no one. This was the essence of the political This is a key factor that makes the task of the United deal that resulted in the Peace Agreement for Bosnia.