No. 300.73/350-I.A/95

Mr. Marino Busdachin

Secretary

There is No Peace without Justice

New York

Vienna, November 7, 1995

Dear Sir,

The atrocities and cruelties commited in the territory of former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda are a matter o major concern also to my country. For these reasons, we welcomed the decision of the Security Council to establish the two Ad-hoc Tribunal and, since my country is close to the territory of former Yugoslavia, lend all its assistance to the institutions established by the United Nations to collect evidence relating to crimes in that territory.

In light of these developments we are grateful to the International Law Commission for having provided the General Assembly with the draft of the statute of a permanent International Criminal Court which will be competent to judge, inter alia, the most cruel crimes of genocide, aggression, breaches of humanitarian law and crimes against humanity. And we noted with deep satisfaction that important governments have abandoned their formerly hesitant position and now support the creation of this Court.

According to the great interest Austria attaches to the establishment of this Court, the Austrian delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee which was established last year to ponder on the ILC's draft has very actively contributed to the work of this Committee. During Both sessions of this Committee, the Head of the Austrian delegation, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hafner, chaired the Working Group dealing with matters of fair trial, the co-operation between States and the International Criminal Court as well as with general problems of criminal law. We were assured that the work resulting from this group will serve as a useful basis for the further discussions and negotiations.

At this meeting of the Sixth Committee Austria again expressed her consistent support for the International Criminal Court and, together with the other members of the European Union, underlined the importance of its creation as soon as possible.

The Austrian delegation also supported the rapid establishment of a Preparatory Committee entrusted to formulate the documents necessary for the Conference of Plenipotentiaries and spoke in favour of a maximum of time to be allocated to this Committee so that it could accomplish its task as expeditiously as possible.

However, we are also well aware that a great deal of work still lies ahead of us before the Court can be put in life. But we hope that these difficulties are not insurmountable and can be resolved in the next future so that the Court can be established as an instrument not only to judge, but also to prevent such crimes of the most cruel nature. I can assure you that also in future, Austria woll make every effort to expedite the establishment of this Court.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Franz Cede

Ambassador