S/PV.3257 Security Council

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter from the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which he requests to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite that representative to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Charter end rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure, There being no objection, it is so decided. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Sacirhbey (Bosnia and Herzegovina) took a place at the Council table.

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Security Council is meeting in accordance with the understanding reached in its prior consultations. Members of the Council have before them document 8/26107, which contains the text of a letter dated 19 July 1993 from the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council. Following consultaticns among members of the Security Council, I have been authorized to make the following st@etement o1: behalf of the Council: (The President) "The Security Council has noted with grave concern the letter of 19 July 1993 from the President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/26107, annex) about the Bosnian Serb military offensive in the area of Mount Igman, close to Sarajevo, a city which has stood for centuries as an outstanding example of a multicultural, multi-ethnic and piuri-religious society, which needs to be protected and preserved. “The Security Council renews its demand that all hostilities in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina cease and that the parties and others concerned refrain from any hostile acts. It supports the call from the Co-Chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia in this regard, designed to facilitate the peace talks. "The Security Council reaffirms its resolutions 824 (1993) and 836 (1993), in the first of which the Council declared Sarajevo a safe area that should be free from armed attacks and any hostile acts, and from which Bosnian Serb military or paramilitary units should be withdrawn to a distance wherefrom they cease to constitute a menace to its security and that of its inhabitants. It condemns the offensive by the Bosnian Serbs on Mount Igman aimed at further isolating Sarajevo and escalating the recent unprecedented and unacceptable pressures on the Government and people of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the forthcoming talks in Geneva. It demands an immediate end to this offensive and to all attacks on Sarajevo. It also demands an immediate end to all violations of international humanitarian law. It demands an end to the disruption of public utilities (including water, electricity, fuel and communications) by the Bosnian Serb party and to the blocking (The President) of, and interference with, the delivery of humanitarian relief by both the Bosnian Serb and the Bosnian Croat parties. "The Security Council calls on the parties to meet in Geneva under the auspices of the Co-Chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia. It calls on the parties to negotiate in earnest with the aim of achieving a just and equitable settlement on the basis of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the principles agreed at the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia in London on 26 August 1992 and supported by the Council in its statement of 2 September 1992 (8/24510). In particular it reaffirms the unacceptability of ethnic cleansing, or the acquisition of territory by the use of force, or any dissolution of the Republic of Bosnia an Herzegovina. "The Security Council emphasizes that it will keep open all options, none of which is prejudged or excluded from consideration." This statement will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol 8/26134. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on the agenda. The Security Council will remain seized of the matter. The meeting rose at 7.50 p.m.