Subject: YDS 9/8 From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY BELGRADE, 8 September 1995 A D D I T I O N A L I S S U E THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN GENEVA ON BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA JOINT STATEMENT We have just concluded a meeting, held under the auspices the Contact Group, of the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Republic of Croatia (Croatia) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia). The Contact Group announces today that the three Foreign Ministers, speaking for their governments - the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which also represents the Bosnian Serbs in a joint delegation - have authorised us to issue the attached Agreed Basic Principles. All three governments - and their Presidents - agree that these principles will govern the difficult negotiations to come, and all agreed, after some tough discussions, to the exact words of this important statement. With regard to Eastern Slavonija, Baranja, and Western Srijem, the Co-Chairmen are commited to a solution as part of an overall peace settlement and will make it top priority when they return to the region next week. The statement takes us an important step closer to peace. Yet, important as it is, this statement does not constitute the end of the tragedy in the Balkans. Far from it. Significant differences exist between the sides - differences that will require continued intense negotiations. We will return to our respective capitals tonight for consultations. Next week Assisten Secretary of State Richard Holbrocke and European Union Special Negotiator for the former Yugoslavia Carl Bildt will return to the region with their delegations, and tomorrow First Deputy Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia will go to Belgrade. The Contact Group will meet again in Geneva next week at the Russian Mission to the United Nations. Subsequent meetings will be held in Moscow and in an expanded format in Rome. Following yesterday's important meeting in Paris, we have also been consulting closely with the representative of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and will continue to do so within an institutionalized coordinating structure. The statement we are issuig today is an important milestone in the search for peace. Today's statement contains many significant points. Within its current internationally recognized borders, it is agreed that Bosnia and Herzegovina will be comprised of two democratic entities, the existing Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republica Srpska. Bosnian territory will be divided - the Federation with 51 percent and the Serbian entity with 49 percent. They also agreed today to create a Commission to enforce accepted international human rights standards within their territories. They agreed to allow freedom of movement within Bosnia's borders and allow displaced persons to return to their homes. Each entity will be self-governing, with its own constitution. While the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue, additional joint institutions at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina are envisioned. Clearly much remainst to be done. The hardest work stil lies ahead. The entities have yet to develop a design for a central connecting structure to oversee the agreed cooperative efforts and to elaborate other joint efforts in areas where cooperation is the only way to solve common problems. In addition, the parties need to define their internal borders within Bosnia in accordance with the 51-49 principle. We should be under no illusion that these will be easy tasks; they can be solved only through intense negotiations backed by a genuine desire to achive peace. Finally, any agreement must be implemented by all sides, and this could be hardest part. The attached Basic Principles have been agreed upon today by H.E. Muhamed Sacirbey, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina); H.E Mate Granic, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Croatia (Croatia); and H.E. Milan Milutinovic, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), and witnessed by Representatives of France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and by the European Union Special Negotiater for the Former Yugoslavia. AGREED BASIC PRINCIPLES 1. Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue its legal existence with its present borders and continuing international recognition. 2. Bosnia and Herzegovina will consist of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as established by the Washington Agreements, and Republica Srpska (RS). 2.1. The 51:49 parametar of the territorial proposal of the Contact Group is the basis for a settlement. This territorial proposal is open for adjustment by mutual agreement. 2.2. Each entity will continue to exist under its present constitution (amended to accommodate these basic principles). 2.3. Both entities will have the right to establish parallel special relationships with neighboring countries, consistent with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2.4. The two entities will enter into reciprocal commitments (a) to hold complete elections under international auspices; (b) to adopt and adhere to normal international human rights standards and obligations to allow freedom of movement and enable displaced persons to repossess their homes or receive just compensation; (c) to engage in binding arbitration to resolve disputes between them. 3. The entities have agreed in principle to the following: 3.1. The appointment of a Commission for Displaced Persons authorized to enforce (with assistence from international entities) the obligations of both entities to enable displaced persons to repossess their homes or receive just compensation. 3.2. The establishment of a Bosnia and Herzegovina Human Rights Commission, to enforce the entities' human rights obligations. The two entities will abide by the Commission's decisions. 3.3. The establishment of joint Bosnia and Herzegovina public corporation, financed by two entities, to own benefit of both entitites. 3.4. The appointment of a Commission to Preserve National Monuments. 3.5. The design and implementatiton of a system of arbitration for the solution of disputes between the two entities. YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER MILUTINOVIC: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RECOGNIZES EQUALITY OF BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC G e n e v a, Aept. 8 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said on Friday that the international community has recognized the Bosnian Serb Republic as an equal entity. At the Ministerial Conference in Geneva the international community 'has finally and officially accepted in everything the equality of both entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which directly means that the Bosnian Serb Republic has been put on an equal footing with the Muslim-Croat Federation,' Milutinovic told Tanjug at the closure of the talks. Milutinovic said that this is also evident from the adopted document according to which Bosnia-Herzegovina will be made up of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, created under the Washington agreement and the Bosnian Serb Republic. Milutinovic said that this is why the Geneva talks (attended by the Foreign Ministers of Yugoslavia, Croatia and the Sarajevo Muslim Government, as well as the representatives of the Contact Group), although they are preliminary, represent a turning point and even are of historic importance. The basic principles which were adopted are that both entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina will continue to live according to their current constitutions, and that both will be entiteled to establish special relations with neighboring countries. This creates the basis for their confederal linking with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia, Milutinovic said. According to him, the final territorial divisions will be determined during the next stage of the talks and during the peace conference itself. In this, the formula which gives 51 percent of Bosnia to the Muslim-Croat Federation and 49 percent to the Bosnian Serbs will remain a basis for negotiation. Milutinovic said that this will remain open to changes based on mutual agreement and coordination, and in keeping with the priorities and the need for maintaining a single territory. 'The maps have not been discussed, but they will most certainly be different from the current ones,' Milutinovic said. Milutinovic said that the basic principles which were adopted include the agreement that both sides, wither jointly or reciprocally, will set up certain agencies, of which the most important will be that for the return of the displaced persons, the return of property and just compensation, as well for the preservation of national monuments and the arbiration system. Milutinovic underscored that of special importance is that all sides have agreed with these arrangements. He said that this gives rise to hopes and optimism in the successful end of the entire peaceprocess, the war and the start of cooperation and life in peace. WORLD ACKNOWLEDGES EXISTENCE OF BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC, SAYS OFFICIAL G e n e v a, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - A high-ranking Bosnian Serb official said that the document adopted at a key international meeting in Geneva on Friday meant that the world had for the first time recognised and acknowledged the existence of the Bosnian Serb State. The document recognises to the Republika Srpska the vital rights to have its own constitution and form a union with Yugoslavia, said Koljevic. Although this was only a preliminary meeting at which the parties voiced their consent to the agreement without actually signing the document, it was repeatedly stressed that the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska enjoy the same legal status, he said. Vital guarantees were also given that no document would be considered adopted until a definite agreement had been reached about all questions concerning Bosnia's future, explained Koljevic. The agreement has also paved the way to the earliest possible holding of an international summit conference on Bosnia, he said. =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================