Letter from Foreign Minister Dr. Rupel to Foreign Ministers of CSCE

Ljubljana, 2 September - Minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia Dr. Dimitrij Rupel has sent a letter to the foreign ministers of CSCE member states, in which he maintains, that he is pleased to find that a significant number of countries have already recognized the sovereignty and independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. At the same time, he asserts, the Yugoslav crises is deepening. The war in Croatia, which Serbian nationalist circles supported by the Federal Army, are waging against the Croatian people and the new democratic government, is becoming a symbol of the incompatibility of democracy, which had prevailed in almost all of Europe, and totalitarianism, in which lives a part of the population of the former SFRY. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia therefore demands the recognition of Slovenia as an independent and sovereign state. Immediate recognition, says the minister, would help stop the violence in Yugoslavia. After the fall of the communist regime in the Soviet Union, and in view of the development of the situation in Yugoslavia, the main obstacles - which the international community considers the reasons for delaying the recognition of Slovenia - no longer exist, says the letter which Minister Rupel sent to the ministers of the CSCE.