- Title: CROATIA: EU MEDIATOR DOES NOT FORESEE A WITHDRAWAL OF UNPROFOR
- Date: 21st June 1995
- Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA (JUNE 21, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SCU EUROPEAN UNION (EU) MEDIATOR CARL BILDT TALKING ABOUT THE RAPID REACTION FORCE (ENGLISH) 0.37 2. SV UN MEDIATOR THORVALD STOLTENBERG TALKING ABOUT THE WAR BECOMING MORE COMPLEX (ENGLISH) 1.48 3. SV BILDT AND STOLTENBERG GETTING INTO UN VEHICLES 4. SV UN VEHICLE DRIVING OFF 2.02 SEQUENCE 1 transcript: BILDT :"WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW OF COURSE IS THAT I UNDERSTAND TODAY WE HAD THE FIRST CONTINGENT OF THE MULTI-NATIONAL BRIGADE ARRIVING, THE FRENCH, AND WE ARE NOW SEEING A BUILD-UP OF FORCES THAT IS GOING TO CONTINUE FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS AND THAT I THINK IS A SIGNIFICANT MOVE IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE SECURITY OF UNPROFOR FORCES , IN ORDER TO MAKE IT MORE POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO FULFILL THEIR MANDATE AND I THINK IT ALSO GAVE THE SUPPORT TO THE POLITICAL PROCESS WHICH IS REALLY THE ESSENTIAL ONE, I MEAN THERE ARE NO OTHER SOLUTIONS OTHER THAN POLITICAL ONES TO THIS" SEQUENCE 2 transcript: STOLTENBERG :"IT IS MORE DIFFICULT TO GET THE PARTIES TOGETHER AND NEGOTIATE IN JUNE '95 THAN IT WAS IN JANUARY ' 94. I HAVE A LOT THOUGHTS ABOUT WHY THAT IS AND I EMPHASISE THAT THE BACKGROUND OF THE WAR IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN MOST PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE AND I THINK THAT DEMANDS ARE SO MUCH .. " Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 6th July 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZAGREB, CROATIA
- City:
- Country: Croatia
- Reuters ID: LVA47J2HZFUGV1W4HU3FYCDXMJAD
- Story Text: The European Union's new peace envoy Carl Bildt said on Wednesday (June 21) he did not foresee a withdrawal of United Nations (U.N.) troops from Bosnia.
Speaking after meeting U.N. special envoy to former Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi, and U.N. commander Bernard Janvier, Bildt said they were currently seeing a build-up of U.N. (Rapid Reaction) forces and that would continue for some weeks.
"That, I think, is a significant move towatrds greater security of UNPROFOR forces and will help them to carry out their mandate", he said.
Asked about the situation in Bosnia, Bildt agreed there was an unwillingness by both sides to compromise to reach a settlement.
But he added the the new Rapid Reaction Force "will help a political solution to the problem to prevail rather than a military one and shows the determination of the countries contributing the troops." U.N. mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg said it was now much more difficult to get the warring parties around the negotiating table.
"The war is getting more and more complicated here. I just hope that we will not have a Middle East kind of situation here", he said. "We must be able to assist the parties to solve this urgently. I emphasised the word assist here because we are only mediators - we cannot solve the problem." The Bosnian Serbs have refused to accept the plan to divide Bosnia roughly equally between themselves and a federation of Moslems and Croats drawn up by the five-power Contact Group, which is leading efforts to find an end to the 38-month war.
The Bosnian government has warned that it could not agree to any move by the Contact Group to drop its insistence that the Serbs accept the plan in principle before fresh negotiations can begin.
Heavy fighting in the last week between the Bosnian government and Serbs besieging Sarajevo has given Balkan peace diplomacy a renewed urgency.
Bildt is due to report back on his visit to EU leaders at a summit in the French Mediterranean resort of Cannes next week.
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