LETTER TO MR. BERNARD LANDRY

Translation

August 28, 1997

Mr. Bernard Landry
Deputy Premier and
Minister of State for the Economy
and Finance
12 Saint Louis Street, 1st floor
Quebec City, Quebec
G1R 5L3

Dear Deputy Premier:

A man of action such as yourself needs to have accurate information.

Yesterday, you described my assertion that no state created by secession has been admitted to the United Nations without the approval of the predecessor state as a "fundamental historical error". You claimed that, "to use one example out of fifty", Germany recognized Slovenia as an independent state within hours of its declaration of independence.

Here are the actual facts on Slovenia:

On December 23, 1990, the Slovenian government held a referendum on a crystal-clear question: "Should the Republic of Slovenia become a sovereign and independent state?" The "Yes" side won, taking 95.7% of the valid votes cast, and voter turnout was 93.3%.

- On June 25, 1991, Slovenia declared its independence.

- On November 29, 1991, the Arbitration Commission appointed by the European Community concluded that the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was in the process of dissolution.

- On December 5, 1991, the President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mr. Stipe Mesic, resigned, declaring that the Republic no longer had any legitimacy.

- On December 16, 1991, the Ministerial Conference on European Political Cooperation called on all Yugoslav republics that so wished to submit their request to be recognized as independent states.

- On December 23, 1991, Germany officially recognized Slovenia, thus six months after the declaration of independence.

- On January 15, 1992, Canada and the European Union recognized Slovenia.

- On May 22, 1992, Slovenia was admitted to the United Nations, not against the will of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but after the Republic had ceased to exist.

In short, despite the almost unanimous support of its population, Slovenia had to wait until the international community had determined that the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation was irreversible before obtaining international recognition.

The case of Slovenia shows how difficult it is to obtain international recognition. Our fellow citizens have the right to know that.

I am at your disposal to talk about the forty-nine other cases of international recognition you had in mind.

Yours sincerely,

Stéphane Dion

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