Croatia welcomes UN SC membership

Croatia won't use its UN Security Council membership to settle bilateral issues, the country's prime minister says. Ivo Sanader told reporters Wednesday Zagreb will not use its newly-acquired membership of the UN Security Council to deal with bilateral issues, such as its dispute with Slovenia over territorial waters. Croatia welcomes UN SC membership Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Sanader described Croatia’s election to the Security Council as a “great achievement”. He was reacting to Monday’s decision at the UN to accept Croatia as one of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN’s “cabinet”. “We were the object of international policy and the object of the Security Council’s work”, Sanader said with reference to UN resolutions relating to his country during its war of independence from Yugoslavia and the subsequent conflict with separatist Serbs from 1991-95. “And now Croatia is becoming a country which will be deciding about important issues of the world’s future.” While stressing that Zagreb would not use its position on the Security Council to pursue its unresolved dispute with Slovenia about their rival territorial claims in the Adriatic, Sanader said that it would actively seek to find a way to ensure that the remaining war crimes fugitives from the Croatian and Bosnian wars of the 1990s would not escape justice when, under its current mandate, the UN's war crimes Tribunal completes its trials - other than appeal cases - next year. “Croatia will insist on finding some new model to make sure that (Radovan) Karadzic, (Ratko) Mladic and (Goran) Hadzic are brought to justice”. The Croatian Prime Minister said his country’s main goal on the Security Council would almost certainly be to help political stability in south-eastern Europe, in particular in Kosovo and Bosnia, where new agreements need to be concluded.

Croatia welcomes UN SC membership

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Sanader described Croatia’s election to the Security Council as a “great achievement”.

He was reacting to Monday’s decision at the UN to accept Croatia as one of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN’s “cabinet”.

“We were the object of international policy and the object of the Security Council’s work”, Sanader said with reference to UN resolutions relating to his country during its war of independence from Yugoslavia and the subsequent conflict with separatist Serbs from 1991-95.

“And now Croatia is becoming a country which will be deciding about important issues of the world’s future.”

While stressing that Zagreb would not use its position on the Security Council to pursue its unresolved dispute with Slovenia about their rival territorial claims in the Adriatic, Sanader said that it would actively seek to find a way to ensure that the remaining war crimes fugitives from the Croatian and Bosnian wars of the 1990s would not escape justice when, under its current mandate, the UN's war crimes Tribunal completes its trials - other than appeal cases - next year.

“Croatia will insist on finding some new model to make sure that (Radovan) Karadžić, (Ratko) Mladić and (Goran) Hadžić are brought to justice”.

The Croatian Prime Minister said his country’s main goal on the Security Council would almost certainly be to help political stability in south-eastern Europe, in particular in Kosovo and Bosnia, where new agreements need to be concluded.