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Security Council

Fifty-fourth year

human rights. Even if that were to be so, it does not justify unprovoked military aggression. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter stipulates that nothing contained in it would

"authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter".

Kosovo is recognized as part of the sovereign territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Under the application of Article 2, paragraph 7, the United Nations has no role in the settlement of the domestic political problems of the Federal Republic. The only exception laid down by Article 2, paragraph 7, would be the "application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII". The attacks now taking place against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have not been authorized by the Council, acting under Chapter VII, and are therefore completely illegal.

What is particularly disturbing is that both international law and the authority of the Security Council are being flouted by countries that claim to be champions of the rule of law and which contain within their number permanent members of the Council, whose principal interest should surely be to enhance rather than undermine the paramountcy of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security.

We have heard that the attack on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will be called off if its Government accepts what are described as NATO peacekeeping forces on its territory. In other forums, we, along with the entire membership of the Non-Aligned Movement, have repeatedly said that the United Nations cannot be forced to abdicate its role in peacekeeping and that a peacekeeping operation can be deployed only with the consent of the Government concerned. Quite apart from being a violation of Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter, a peacekeeping operation forced upon a reluctant Government or population stands little chance of success. Somalia established that. In Somalia, there was at least the excuse that State authority had crumbled, but that excuse does not even remotely obtain in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. What NATO has tried to do is to intimidate a Government through the threat of attack, and now through direct and unprovoked aggression, to accept foreign military forces on its territory. There are several traditional descriptions for this kind of coercion; peacekeeping is not one of them.

We have also heard that these attacks are meant to ensure that events in the Federal Republic do not threaten regional peace and security. In fact, there is a very real danger that these attacks will imperil regional peace and security and spread discord in the Balkans and beyond.

In the interests of peace and security in the region, and if the countries now attacking the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia truly have the interests of all Yugoslavs at heart, this arbitrary, unauthorized and illegal military action should be stopped immediately. Domestic political problems have to be settled peacefully by the parties concerned through consultation and dialogue. Foreign military intervention can only worsen matters. It will solve nothing.

We urge NATO to immediately stop the military action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and we trust that the Security Council will be able to exert its authority to bring about an early restoration of the peace that was broken earlier today.

The President (spoke in Chinese): The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Germany. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Kastrup (Germany): I am speaking as the Presidency of the European Union. I would like to inform the Security Council of the following statement, adopted today by the European Council at its meeting in Berlin. The heads of State and Government of the European Union "are deeply concerned about the failure of the mediation efforts undertaken by Ambassador Holbrooke and the three Rambouillet process negotiators, Ambassadors Hill, Majorski and Petritsch, with the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic. The common objective of these efforts was to persuade the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to accept a ceasefire m Kosovo and a political solution to the Kosovo conflict, in order to stop a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo.

"Over one quarter of a million Kosovars are now homeless because of the repression carried out by Belgrade’s security forces. Sixty-five thousand have been driven from their homes in the last month, 25,000 since the peace talks broke down in Paris last Friday. While the Kosovo Albanians signed the Rambouillet Accords, Belgrade’s forces poured into Kosovo to start a new offensive. Since the outbreak of hostilities in Kosovo in March 1993, 16