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Security Council

Fifty-fourth year

the intransigence of the Belgrade Government has led to this result, which no member of this Council desires.

Argentina reiterates its position regarding the urgent need for strict compliance with Security Council resolutions 1160 (1998) and 1199 (1998), in which the humanitarian abuses in Kosovo were condemned.

Yesterday the Government of Argentina issued a communiqué in which it emphasized the need to create conditions conducive to a lasting peace, within a framework based on respect for human rights and for the principles of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as greater autonomy for Kosovo and protection of minorities.

We also wish to say that Argentina profoundly regrets the suffering of the innocent civilian population and any other victims that may result from this situation. But, as we indicated at the beginning, the responsibility lies with the Belgrade Government, since the objective of the military action is to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo.

Lastly, we wish to make a sincere appeal to the Belgrade Government to return to the path of negotiation.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom): President Milosevic has been engaged in repression of the Kosovo Albanians since he revoked Kosovo's extensive autonomy almost 10 years ago. During all this time he has declined seriously to pursue a political solution to the problem of Kosovo, a problem that everyone knew would lead to increased tension and that he, as leader of his nation, held the responsibility for remedying. Instead, he has chosen to use brute aggression against a peaceful population. Where is the outrage at that?

Since March last year, Serb violence against the population of Kosovo has increased massively. Over last summer and autumn, Serbian internal security forces and the Yugoslav army embarked on a series of offensives in western and central Kosovo, which were increasingly characterized by wanton destruction of homes, crops and livestock. Over 2,000 people have been killed in Kosovo since March 1998, and Serb scorched-earth tactics have forced over 300,000 people to flee their homes.

Today, President Milosevic is once again repeating the tactics of the summer, forcing people out of their homes and burning entire villages. In the past month alone he has created more than 65,000 new displaced people. While the Kosovo Albanians were signing the Rambouillet accords in Paris last week, Belgrade substantially reinforced its security-force presence in Kosovo and began a new offensive.

The international community — the Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Contact Group and the United Nations and its agencies — have sought over the past year to persuade Belgrade to end the suffering it has caused and to agree a political settlement with the Kosovo Albanians providing for a substantial degree of self-government but also respecting the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In a series of resolutions, most recently resolutions 1199 (1998) and 1203 (1998), the Security Council has called on Belgrade to end actions against the civilian population and withdraw security forces responsible for repression, to cooperate with organizations engaged in humanitarian relief and to pursue a negotiated settlement. But Belgrade has rejected all of the Security Council's demands, and continues to act in defiance of the expressed will of the Council. In these circumstances, when diplomacy has failed, do we react just with further words?

In October, Ambassador Holbrooke negotiated a package with President Milosevic setting up an unarmed OSCE verification mission and a NATO-led air verification mission. President Milosevic also accepted a commitment to reduce his force levels in Kosovo. But President Milosevic tried to expel the head of the OSCE mission. His forces continued to repress, particularly in those areas where the mission was not present. The massacre at Racak showed his contempt for the mission and for the international community as a whole. And his force levels were, and remain, well above the agreed levels.

In recent months the Contact Group and Ambassadors Hill, Mayorsky and Petritsch, on behalf of the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union, have taken the lead in seeking a negotiated settlement. Several months of painstaking shuttle diplomacy led to the talks in February and March at Rambouillet and at Paris on an interim settlement for Kosovo, underpinned by a NATO-led force: a truly exhaustive process. But President Milosevic refused to engage seriously in negotiations on an agreement. His intransigence led instead to the breakdown of the Rambouillet process. Since the ending of the talks, a 11