Oct. 28, 1996

Statement by Mr. S. Syargeeu representative of the Republic of Belarus

Mr. Chairman,

[...] We commend the results of work accomplished at the sessions of the Preparatory Committee. My delegation would like to pay tribute to Dr. Adriaan Bos, under whose leadership this group has made good progress. The choice of options, however, is still extremely wide.

The Committee was unable to carry out a discussion of the texts for their incorporation into the draft convention on the establishment of the ICC. Therefore, this task has to be taken up again by the Committee and i is hoped that it may be accomplished in 1997-98.

The delegation of Belarus believes the General Assembly will take a positive decision on convening a diplomatic conference to adopt the ICC statute in 1998. We also salute the invitation of the Government of Italy to hold this conference in Rome.

We are convinced that the decision to establish this Committee can be taken at the current session of the General Assembly.