19 January 1994

Doc. 7003

REPLY

from the Committee of Ministers

to Written Question No. 353

by Mr FLÜCKIGER

on the conduct of the warring parties in Bosnia-

Herzegovina and the involvement of the states

(homelands) of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro

I.       Question (28 September 1993, Doc. 6940)

      Mr Flückiger,

1.       The Parliamentary Assembly is often called upon to examine questions and problems relating to the war which is being waged in some parts of former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

2.       The relevance of the opinions, recommendations and resolutions adopted by the Assembly depends on the reliability of information on facts and events in the regions affected by the war, as well as on political actions, logistical support and direct intervention by the states with which the warring factions identify.

      To ask the Committee of Ministers,

whether it is prepared to supply the Assembly, as a matter of urgency, with a detailed report stating:

a.       the circumstances of and responsibilities for the opening of hostilities;

b.       the blatant (collective) violations of human rights, identifying the groups responsible;

c.       the political responsibilities of the national states or homelands (Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro) in the development of the conflict, their direct involvement in military operations, and their logistical support for the groups which identify with them.

II.       Reply from the Committee of Ministers (14 January 1994)

      As is stressed in the Vienna Declaration of Heads of State and Government of member States of the Council of Europe (October 1993), the aberrations of territorial ambitions, the resurgence of aggressive nationalism, the perpetuation of spheres of influence, intolerance or totalitarian ideologies are "plunging peoples of former Yugoslavia into hatred and war and threatening other regions". The Committee of Ministers reiterates the vigorous condemnation of all violations of human rights and humanitarian law already expressed in its declarations on the conflict, notably those adopted in Istanbul (11 September 1992) and in the Final Communiqué of its 92nd Session (14 May 1993). It also recalls its Declarations of 9 December 1992 and 18 February 1993 specifically condemning the practise of systematic rape in the context of a strategy of ethnic cleansing, as a war crime which should be considered as a crime against humanity. It is also deeply concerned by the continuing and indiscriminate shelling of Sarajevo and other Bosnian towns which causes great losses in particular among the civilian population.

      The Committee of Ministers would indeed be prepared to supply the Assembly with the information requested by the honourable parliamentarian, if it disposed itself of such information. Reference should therefore be made to work undertaken on these issues within other international institutions, notably the United Nations, the CSCE, NATO and the European Union, and within the context of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia.

      Where the establishment of an international Court to try serious violations of international humanitarian law is concerned, the Ministers' Deputies decided at their current 506th meeting (January 1994) to communicate Assembly Recommendation 1218 (1993) which deals with this subject to the Governments of member States and to seize the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) and the Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law (CAHDI) for opinion.