Li Peng Urges U.N. Security Council to Help End NATO Airstrikes
BANGKOK, April 18 -- Visiting top Chinese legislator Li Peng has expressed
the hope that the U.N. Security Council would take effective measures to
bring an end to the NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia.
"China has always maintained that the Kosovo issue can only be solved by
peaceful means and political negotiations," Li Peng, Chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, said
here late Saturday.
He urged the Security Council to help bring all parties concerned back to
the negotiating table to defuse the Kosovo crisis.
But he added that only through the acceptance and cooperation of the
Yugoslav government can all proposals for a peaceful solution be
successfully implemented.
"Of the various proposals aimed at solving the issue, we are aware of
Yugoslavia's position that calls for an end to the airstrikes prior to the
start of negotiations," Li Peng said.
Li Peng said the argument advocating "human rights over sovereignty" was in
fact providing an theoretical excuse for aggression and interference in the
internal affairs of other countries.
Such an argument was totally ridiculous, he told Chinese reporters at a
press conference before ending a four-day official goodwill visit to
Thailand.
The Kosovo issue, despite its complexity characterized by ethnic
contradictions, was an internal affair of Yugoslavia and should be left for
the Yugoslavian people to solve by themselves, he said.
While expressing sympathy with the large numbers of Kosovo people driven
from their homes by the NATO airstrikes, Li Peng reiterated China's
opposition to the NATO airstrikes.
"China staunchly opposes NATO's military interference," Li Peng said,
accusing the alliance of launching military strikes against a sovereignty
state without U.N. authorization, setting a very bad precedent.
Ethnic problems in some Balkan countries have been left over from history
and should be resolved on the basis of respect for each country's
sovereignty, Li Peng said, stressing that " sovereignty cannot be violated."
Li Peng pointed to the facts that NATO, despite its strikes by
sophisticated weaponry, has failed to force Yugoslavia to submit. "This is
out of NATO's expectations," he said.
Thailand was the last leg of Li Peng's six-nation tour which also took him
to Greece, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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