Address of the President of the Republic of Slovenia at the ceremonial session of the Advisory Committee of the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance

Ljubljana, 11.4.2008  |  speech

Address of the President of the Republic of Slovenia at the ceremonial session of the Advisory Committee of the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance
Ljubljana, 11 April 2008
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
members of Advisory Committee,
your excellencies,
dear guests.

First I would like to stress how pleased I am to be able to address your chairpersons here today. I had the opportunity to witness the establishment and development of your organisation in the field of demining in the period which has lasted for over ten years. Important events have taken place in this process, there has been a lot of progress and the subject matter or issues of demining have been accepted by the international community as one of the most important priorities for the processes of post-conflict normalisation in all parts of the world.

Thus it has been accepted at the global level by the UN, and this important task is nowadays a generally shared priority. As a former ambassador to the UN and a former UN Assistant - secretary - General, I had many opportunities to follow the course of activities in the field of demining, and it was a great pleasure to realise how effectively and efficiently Slovenia participated in these efforts. It has been over ten years since ITF began offering assistance to its neighbours in the restoration of economies of countries or cultures and in the normalisation of life in general. Your generosity helped achieve important successes in Macedonia, which has mostly eliminated the risk of mines. We hope that by the end of 2009 this process will have been completed in Serbia and Albania, too.

Of course, Slovenia will participate in these activities with great willingness, great commitment, appropriate expertise and organisational skills. The outcome, too, would not be what it is if there was not a broad international support and a broad international network which helped make these achievements. Important tasks are still ahead; despite of the great and long-lasting efforts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina we need decisive action for territory cleaning leading to the removal of mines and the creation of conditions for further economic and social development in these countries. We will continue to cooperate with you, the donors, with the intention to help these two countries, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, where this problem is rather crucial, thus developing all necessary capacities in these countries for anti-mine activities and elimination of this risk.

The activities we develop are not geographically limited: they include the Transcaucasian region, the Middle East, especially Lebanon, and in far away countries, for example in Colombia, in areas where armed conflicts have been stopped and demining is one of the important priorities. Demining is a process lasting decades. Unfortunately, laying mines does not take much time, whereas demining requires efforts over an extended period.

Demining must be linked also with some other priority activities concerning the situation of people in today’s armed conflicts and in post-conflict periods. In this respect, I would like to place a particular stress on the efforts in the field of limitation and possibly abolition of the trade in small arms and light weapons. This has been a priority of the UN for quite some time, but so far without tangible results. Most victims of modern conflicts are victims of light weapons, anti-personnel landmines and small arms. This is the reason why the international community must pay special attention to these means of warfare and commit itself to eliminating them.

Mentioning all these risks and priorities I am well aware that it is the type of cooperation enabled by this fund and its advisory committee which essentially contributes to raising awareness necessary for effective international activities. And it is precisely for the awareness you raise, the awareness you help create, that UN and other international actors may count on its future success. As the President of the Republic of Slovenia I would like to seize this opportunity to express the gratitude of Slovenia for your work, to thank for the contribution you make to the promotion of international peace and security. I would like to stress that this is a truly significant contribution, and wish you successful work in the future.

Thank you.