THIS IS ABOUT PEACE AND PEOPLE’S LIVES
Press conference of the President of the Republic of Slovenia Milan Kucan on the 5th day of Yugoslav Army's aggression on Slovenia

Ljubljana, 2 July 1991



Ladies and gentlemen, representatives of the press

You have been here for several days now. You have been able to follow everything that has happened and is still going on. Here with us is Mr Mesic, President of the Federal Presidency, and also commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav Army (YA). The fact that he is here and not in Belgrade, and that he is talking to us and not to the army, speaks for itself. In Belgrade there is Ante Markovic, Federal Prime Minister, who was here a few days ago, and who was talking to us, not to the army.

You heard General Ad¾iæ on television. I trust that you, ladies and gentlemen, who are not from this region, and who not only do not understand the language but cannot comprehend the customs practised here, have nonetheless understood what the message was in his appearance on TV. You have seen and witnessed what the army did in Slovenia today. This was no clash with the Slovene Territorial Defence (TD). This was the destruction of civilian targets and the lives of our people. Adzic said: all means, all the way.

And I ask myself again, whose interest does this serve? These are the facts now. You have seen what this army, until recently our common army, and still with some of our own people in it, is prepared to do. The four points of the agreement we reached are in essence the same as those we proposed on Sunday in our talks with Prime Minister Markoviæ. He proposed the immediate formation of a parity commission which would bring the agreement into effect. But it was all just words. The basis for this position is our commitment to Europe. A commitment which has been formulated through three points of the agreement proposed by the troika of European foreign ministers and which was duly debated and adopted by the Slovene parliament.

The immediate cessation of hostilities is our primary goal. Peace, this is the only way to prevent the threat to people’s lives. And not just our own lives, but those of people who have been sent here against their will. It was said here, that the Slovene TD would immediately and under its own initiative halt all activities and provide a guarantee that, as it has done so far, it would continue to refrain from any offensive action; and that our forces would withdraw and would remain at their defensive positions only for as long as it took for the other side also to show a readiness to cease firing. This is the aim of the second point: separation of the YA and TD forces, removing the blockades and returning them to their original barracks. This is also the first point of the agreement with the troika. That agreement states: cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of armed forces to their barracks. This first point was also signed on behalf of the Federal Executive Council, i. e. agreed to by Ante Markovic. The release of all prisoners and talks on the highest level, for these points I have said that they are based on, or rather that our guideline has been the agreement reached with the Twelve. This also presupposes the border regime as agreed with the troika.

Tomorrow, after all the guarantees, we expect following discussions in Prague and following today’s intensive consultations with numerous foreign ministers, defence ministers and other politicians in the West, a resolution to be issued from those meetings that observers are coming to Slovenia and Yugoslavia. Then of course this situation will no longer be possible without international supervision. Tomorrow the mechanism of the Conference on European Security and Cooperation will come into operation.

And I would like to tell you: we will achieve our sovereignty. This is about peace and about people’s lives now. All democratic people and all democratic countries are behind us. After this war, when it’s over, nothing will be the same again. Nothing. Then a new time will come and we will talk about new things.