Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary-General, Distinguished Delegates,

I wish to address my first thanks and congratulations to the Government of Italy for its serious engagement in the successful organisation of this Conference, which will make of Rome in the recent history of international relations, the founder capital of the International Criminal Court. I would also like to congratulate the Preparatory Committee for its tenacious and deeply professional work accomplished in the course of several years on the Statute and the Rules of Procedure of the International Criminal Court. This work made possible not only the convocation of this Conference, but it also makes a virtuous contribute to the International Law.

The present conference, which aims at the establishment of the International Criminal Court in order to inquire and punish the crimes against humanity, is obviously one of the most important events in the life of the United Nations. The international community has invested a lot of hope and trust in this conference, and this same fact gives us the responsibility to fulfil these expectations.

The today's dynamic and progressive developments in the world are inevitably accompanied by a lot of negative phenomena and conflicts, and also by serious violations of the international humanitarian law. We are often witnessing monstrous crimes produced by criminal governmental policies and practices.

The public opinion is growingly concerned by the insufficiency of action from the part of the international community towards the prevention of these crimes and the punishment of their perpetrators, and their direct political responsibles.

The most convincing example are the Serbian massacres in Bosnia, the perpetrators of which are still left unpunished. We see such crimes being repeated today following the same scenario and with the same scale of gravity in Kosova. We are deeply convinced that the genocidal massacres of the Serbian authorities in Kosova are a consequence of an institutionalised policy of genocide, of the state terrorism realised through the military, paramilitary and police machinery against Albanian elders and minors. The Albanian people of Kosova, who are the only people of former Yugoslavia of non-Slavic origin, is becoming a victim of a policy of ethnic cleansing. The self-defence resistance of the Albanian population against this policy can never be identified with the so-called terrorism.

Sometime the delay or the impotence of the international community to punish publicly the genocide, the ethnic cleansing and the institutionalised state terrorism,, which constitute a much greater danger than the blind and spontaneous ethnic or racist violence, can bring along a feeling of mistrust towards the effectiveness of the international institutions.

In this context we would like to recall the recommendations of the Security Council for the Prosecutor of the International Court to gather information on the cases of violence committed from the Serbian authorities against the civilian Albanian population in Kosova. These recommendations not only could not prevent the violence and the terror in Kosova, but at the same time they created room for the Serbian authorities to get more time and to start later on a large scale action of ethnic cleansing against the Albanian people of Kosova.

For the above reasons we strongly support the stand of the public opinion and some countries, of the international organisations, and some governmental and non-governmental organisations which intends to vest this Court with the universal jurisdiction against such crimes as the genocide and the ethnic cleansing, the war crimes, international or domestic ones, against the crime of aggression and other crimes against humanity.

Mr. Chairman,

In our view, the era of globalization we are living nowadays puts us in front of the challenge of a growing range of crimes which could fit into the category of the crimes against humanity, against international peace and security, and which also include the institutionalised state terrorism and certain global aspects of the criminal organised activities, that threaten seriously the international order and coexistence.

We support the idea of compiling a nominative list of those crimes which could fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The international community should face this challenge in order to discourage all criminal abuses against human rights, creating thus the conviction that such crimes can not be committed without punishment. We consider that this would be a way of supporting the efforts for the maintenance of international peace, security and stability.

My country is in favour of the idea to establish an International Criminal Court which will materialise the aspirations of the sound international opinion for a fair, active and effective court) able enough to safeguard and re-establish the justice, to rehabilitate the victims of the above crimes and to assist in the establishment of normalcy. With this intentions in view, we are of the opinion that this Court must be vested with the following necessary attributes: integrity, autonomy and an independent jurisdiction, based upon the already known international guaranties and means of coercion like those provided by the Charter of the United Nations, and also other complimentary guaranties. We deem that this is of an imperative necessity particularly in those cases when the principle of complementarity with the national law and judicial system does not work.
It seems to be a matter of common understanding that the efficiency of the International Criminal Court will largely depend on the political willingness and the collective co-operation of the countries. It will depend, in the first place, on the constructive co-operation and agreement of the Permanent Members of the Security Council to involve this Court in their efforts to maintain international peace and security, and to empower the Court and to guarantee its jurisdiction in judging the crimes against humanity and their perpetrators, as well as to assure the follow-up of the Court's recommendations for post-crisis situations.

As a concluding remark, Mr. Chairman, I would like to stress again our deep conviction that the international institutionalisation of the judgement and the punishment of the war crimes and other crimes against humanity is of great benefit for the democratisation and the normal functioning of a civilised and human order. I would like to assure you, as well, of my country's modest support for the efficient functioning of the International Criminal Court.