BOSNIA FOR THE FIRST TIME WITHOUT A PLATFORM AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 21,2007) - Considering the fact the Bosnian Presidency at its 23rd session on Wednesday, did not reach a Decision on adopting the Platform for the Bosnian Delegation’s appearance at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Bosnia will appear in this gathering without a platform for the first time.

The reason for not adopting this Decision lays in the fact that a member of the Bosnian Presidency Nebojsa Radmanovic was against the Draft Platform that referred to the International Court of Justice Verdict, brought on a charge of genocide by Bosnia against Serbia, while the Bosnian Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic was withdrawn. Considering that due to this, the necessary majority of votes did not take place – the platform has not been adopted.

According to the rules and instructions of the United Nations, each country’s platform should contain facts related to the relations between the respective country and the United Nations in the previous year.

Considering that the International Court of Justice is an organ of the United Nations, operating under the UN Charter, it was impossible to exclude the most important and the most influential fact that marked the relations between Bosnia and UN in this period,a member of the Bosnian Presidency Dr Haris Silajdzic said.

Dr Silajdzic said that the Draft Platform contained facts only, i.e. the quotations from the very Verdict – such as:

“The International Court of Justice, with its main office in The Hague, gave a verdict on February 26, 2007 that genocide was committed against the Bosnian Muslims, and has proclaimed Serbia responsible on three items for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Specifically, the Court has decided that “the acts committed in Srebrenica, falling under the Article II (a) and (b) of the Convention (on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide) were committed with a specific intention to partly destroy a group of Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina being as such, and that they, in accordance with it, these acts of genocide were committed by ARS in and around Srebrenica…”

Considering that the indisputability of these quotations and the fact that they were quoted directly from the Verdict, the refusal of two members of the Bosnian Presidency to vote for this Platform is, above all, surprising and most disappointing,a member of the Bosnian Presidency Haris Silajdzic stated.