YouSaid · the spoken record

Ashdown

lines on the record: 276
first: 2002-10-23
most recent: 2005-11-15
sittings or episodes: 7
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Lord Ashdown: I am conscious of the time and of the fact that the Council has extremely important consultations yet to take place, so I will keep my responses, in most cases, rather brief. First of all, I would like to comment on Minister Colak's point about refugee return. Refugee return is now an issue that is out of the hands of the international community and that has been entirely handed over to the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities. Of course, that return process has not yet been completed, but it is a miracle that a million people have returned home in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are more yet to return; I concede that case. Minister Colak mentions the 10,000 Croats who have not yet returned to Banja Luka. How many of them wish to do so? They may well now be settled in other countries.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Once Bosnia and Herzegovina has passed through those two gates, I think it is our job, as the international community, to consider what steps we should take to make sure that our engagement with Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a sovereign State, is proper and, if necessary - and I think that it should be necessary - conducted on a basis that is less heavyweight, less interventionist, less intrusive and more like the structures in other international transitional democracies. But the next few months will be decisive.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“The opportunity is now available to Bosnia and Herzegovina: the chance to show that, a decade after Dayton, it is a viable State, irreversibly on course for European integration, with politicians at the helm who accept the duties, obligations and standards expected of high office. If that happens, it should, I suggest, open the way very soon for a new kind of engagement for us, the international community, as well.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“More than that, I want this to be a year in which Bosnia and Herzegovina makes a decisive break with that past by meeting the requirements for stabilization and association for the European Union and membership in the NATO Partnership for Peace, and so starts to embed itself firmly into the Euro-Atlantic structures which are its rightful home. Those structures are the best guarantee of the long-term stability, security and prosperity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Once that happens - once those two gates are passed, as I think they can be in the immediate months ahead - then Bosnia and Herzegovina will really be into a new era. The era of stabilization under Dayton is drawing to a close. The next phase - integration and Brussels - is beginning.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“But there are nine months left between now and then, and we need to make full use of every single day. Because this is a crucial year for Bosnia and Herzegovina: the tenth anniversary of Srebrenica; the tenth anniversary, later in the year, of the Dayton Peace Agreement itself. Like most people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I want this to be a year, I hope this will be a year and I think this can be a year in which Bosnia and Herzegovina remembers its past, of course, but increasingly concentrates on its future.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“In that context, let me say that the Federation Government has failed to live up to undertakings and promises it has given to the World Bank on cutting back on veterans' benefits. Unless that is addressed very quickly, then the whole country, grindingly poor, will lose about 130 million marks of World Bank programme aide. In that sense, while the Republika Srpska has held the nation to ransom on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, the Federation is now going to hold the nation to ransom, unless that is addressed, in terms of the support given by the World Bank, and subsequently by the International Monetary Fund in its stand-by arrangements as well. This will be my penultimate report to this Council as High Representative and European Union Special Representative. I will relinquish my post at the end of the year, my wife says.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“It is absolutely essential that we now look at the need for functional reform in order to increase the efficiency of governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At present, the State spends something between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the citizens' taxes simply on governance, and only the remainder - 30 per cent or so - on services for the citizens. That is why there are poor health services, inadequate pensions and the lowest-paid police in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina has to spend significantly less on government, politicians and bureaucracy so that it can spend significantly more on its citizens. Unless it does that, it will be unable to build up loyalty to the State among its citizens, which is an essential requirement of Statehood.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“I am happy to report that this ground-breaking change of responsibility has passed off extremely well; that, I guess, is the definition of a seamless transition. The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have not noticed the difference of command, profound though it has been. Today EUFOR is operating effectively, as is the new NATO headquarters, and the two are working well together. So much, so good. I think real progress continues to be made. Before I finish my report, however, let me identify one area which gives me immediate concern for the future. We are now reaching a point where we must address the financial sustainability of the Government structures of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both of the entities will face massive and unsustainable deficits this year.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“I accept that we are asking a lot of the Republika Srpska authorities; indeed, the reforms so far have been arguably more painful for them then they have been for the federation entity. I accept that we are asking a lot. But they must be clear about what is at stake, both for them and for the country as a whole. Just as we are, at last, making progress on the hitherto intractable issue of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, it would be foolish in the extreme to go backwards on other key requirements on the reform agenda. Finally, there has been one other significant development since I last spoke to the Council: the switch from the NATO-led Stabilization Force to the EU-led force; from SFOR to EUFOR.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to make progress on schedule on those objectives if it is to satisfy the requirements of the NATO Partnership for Peace and if it is to rectify, as it must, the systemic weaknesses in security structures which both NATO and Carla Del Ponte have highlighted as a primary cause of its failure to cooperate effectively with the Hague Tribunal. If it does those things, it will have made huge strides forward - not just towards membership of the Partnership for Peace, but in due course towards membership of the Atlantic alliance itself. It pains me therefore to report that there have, however, been signs in recent days of backsliding on defence reform - again, I regret to say - by the authorities in Republika Srpska.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Overall, preliminary information reveals that the revenues it is collecting are up compared with the same period for last year by some 5 per cent to 6 per cent, reflecting both greater efficiency and a greater capacity to be able to collect taxes which had previously been avoided. On defence reform, NATO took over the leadership of the international community on the issue of defence at the turn of this year. The goals for 2005 include amalgamating the functions of the entity Ministries of Defence into a single State-wide Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Defence, establishing a single defence budget and creating single personnel, logistics and training commands.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“The new War Crimes Chamber and maximum- security prison facilities were opened in Sarajevo earlier this month. It is one of the attributes of sovereignty and statehood that a State should be able to try even the most egregious crimes within its own domestic institutions. Bosnia and Herzegovina is now the first country in the Balkan region to have set up its own domestic procedures for trying its own war criminals to international standards. I want to pay tribute here to Judge Theodor Meron, President of the Hague Tribunal, who has been such a powerful advocate and a dynamo driving that process forward. Meanwhile, the Indirect Taxation Authority, which will deliver the value added tax on a State-wide basis, started full operation in January this year. The single account operating State-wide is now working.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“There is neither policy nor intent on the part of anybody in the international community to alter that arrangement. It is not correct to say that police reform is part of a general policy aimed at that outcome. Nevertheless, police restructuring must happen, in line with the European Commission's principles, if Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to get the green light from Brussels in May and embark on that historic road to Europe. Whether or not that happens now lies, once again, with the authorities in Republika Srpska, who are the only significant body now blocking that reform. Thirdly, we are continuing to move ahead with the rest of our reform agenda, in line with the four core tasks set out in the mission implementation plan of the Office of the High Representative.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Most citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina believe that there is too much political influence in policing, and they are right; that they receive poor service from their police, and they are right; and that the criminals get away far too often in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they are right in that too. But there is, I must admit, a great if unfounded anxiety in Republika Srpska that an end to poor policing arrangements is really part of a clever ploy to abolish Republika Srpska itself. Let me state categorically again, before this body, that that is not the case. The position of Republika Srpska is protected by Dayton, and my job as High Representative is to protect and enact Dayton. The position of the Republika Srpska within Dayton is guaranteed.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“The Commission - which is the greatest concentration of security and police experts ever drawn together in Bosnia and Herzegovina from domestic and international resources - recommends the creation of a single state-level policing structure, but with operational policing delegated to the local level. It proposed a map drawing up the new police areas based on operational efficiency, not political control. What that means is that, where it is necessary for police and security reasons that police areas cross the inter-entity border line, then that should be done where it is operationally expedient. The Commission's proposals are currently being widely debated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most agree that the system needs to change.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“In addition to ICTY cooperation, he made clear that the other cardinal issue on which the European Commission expected to see significant progress before mid-May was police restructuring - the creation of a single national, statewide policing structure for policing in Bosnia and Herzegovina - in line with the three principles that the Commission has repeatedly espoused and has required the country to conform to. The Police Restructuring Commission, under the chairmanship of former Belgian Prime Minister Martens, finalized its work in December 2004 and presented its recommendations in January 2005.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Those two steps - the Partnership for Peace and the beginning of the long road that leads to European Union membership - are a watershed for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a moment when, once those gates have been passed through, everything within the country changes, and the international community's relations with the country ought to change as well. On Monday, European Commission Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn met with Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Adnan Terzic in Brussels.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“For both organizations, cooperation with the Hague Tribunal is non-negotiable, as the European Union's recent decision on Croatia has shown. NATO, I know, is keeping the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Partnership for Peace application under close review, and it may well be that, around the third week of April, NATO will again consider that question. For its part, the European Commission has made clear that it hopes to be able to form a view as to whether Bosnia and Herzegovina is ready to begin negotiations on a stabilization and association process as early as mid-May. So these are crucial weeks.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“This process will not end until Karadzic and Mladic and all of the other main indictees are in custody. The sooner that day comes, the sooner Republika Srpska will be able to discard dishonour in this matter and the sooner Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to begin to discard the chains of history and concentrate on its future. This process has only started; it is not yet completed. Nevertheless, I commend the Republika Srpska authorities for the progress of the past few weeks. The crucial thing now is that it continue. We cannot tolerate any slackening of this effort; there is no scope for that. Because - and this is my second point - as winter gives way to spring, Bosnia and Herzegovina faces some fundamental decisions by the European Union and NATO about its future.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“General Mladic might take a moment now to reflect on the fact that it is a curious military code in which a general lets his subordinate officers carry the can for actions carried out in his name while he scurries from safe house to safe house like a common criminal. A question on which he might reflect is whether or not he might have the courage of his own generals and do the right thing - submit himself to The Hague - which he has so far failed to do. Now, I do not claim that the events of the past few weeks yet constitute the full cooperation that the Tribunal requires and that the international community demands. Ten years after Srebrenica - and we commemorate the dismal tenth anniversary of that terrible event this year - the call of justice does not fade away and must not be allowed to fade away.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Thanks to that, we have been able to make the progress we have seen over the past two months. In the past two months, the Republika Srpska authorities have transferred, either on their own or working with the authorities in Belgrade - and that itself is a step in the right direction - five of the major Hague indictees to the Hague Tribunal, whereas in the nearly 10 years previous they had not transferred a single one. Four of those transfers have taken place in the past two weeks. Earlier this morning, Vinko Pandurevic - arguably the third most senior indictee, after Mladic and Karadzic - who has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity at Srebrenica, arrived in The Hague. Pandurevic and the other generals have handed themselves in, but their commander, Ratko Mladic, remains on the run.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“I am happy to tell members that now, at last - 10 years after Dayton - the Republika Srpska has started to hand over indictees to the Hague Tribunal. It is early days, and it is only natural that seasoned observers - many around this table - of events in the Balkans should remain sceptical; that is the default position until this has been properly opened up. But, since I am here to make political judgements, I now believe that we may be seeing a change in the attitude of the Republika Srpska authorities and an acceptance that the way to Brussels, to the European Union (EU), to NATO and to the country's future must lie through the Hague Tribunal. Here, let me pay a tribute to the Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, for her implacable, iron determination to ensure that this process begins and ends in full.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“A few weeks later, regrettably, the NATO Ministerial had to reject for the second time Bosnia and Herzegovina's application to join the Partnership for Peace. I followed that announcement with further measures, adding to those I took in July of last year, to address individual obstruction of the ICTY - the Hague process - and to address systemic changes to Republika Srspka's security structures that had been identified by NATO and the Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, alike. Shortly afterwards, Foreign Minister Ivanic, together with his colleague Prime Minister Mikerevic of Republika Srpska, resigned briefly in protest. Foreign Minister Ivanic has now had a change of heart, and the Government in Republika Srpska has changed its leadership, but not its makeup. But now it seems that I am able to report to the Council rather more hopefully.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“First, perhaps the Council will recall that, when I was last here, just 16 weeks ago, I wanted to warn in rather stark terms of the threat posed to Bosnia and Herzegovina's future by the failure of the Republika Srpska authorities in particular to honour their obligation to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Republika Srpska being, of course, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I warned the Council bluntly that that failure was now the biggest stumbling block to a brighter future for Bosnia and Herzegovina - an obstacle that risked bringing to a complete halt the country's progress towards the European Union and NATO, that being the only future the country can have.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“Lord Ashdown: It has been just four months, I believe, since I last spoke to the Council. As the President just indicated, members have before them a detailed report on developments in the second half of 2004. So, given that our time is somewhat constrained this morning, I hope the Council will forgive me if I do not intend to cover in detail all the ground in that report. Let me just pick out the main highlights.”
2005-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5147 (2005) · source
“The representative of the United Kingdom made the point that it is progress on the ground that enables us to move to the next stage 7 as we must in due course 7 of handing over full sovereignty to the Bosnian and Herzegovinian people. Mr. Chairman, I am grateful for the chance to answer those questions.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“They are his views, and I have my views, and perhaps they are not as far apart as you might imagine in terms of the existence of the High Representative and the Bonn powers. But those are not matters for me, they are matters for the Peace Implementation Council, as the representative of the United Kingdom rightly said. Whatever steps we take in the future to ensure that we alter the nature of the international engagement, either in respect of the future of the High Representative and my Office or the future of the Bonn powers, has to be decided by the international community in the first place, although of course the views of our colleague from Bosnia and Herzegovina are very important. Secondly, as the representative of the United Kingdom very correctly said, they have to be measured against progress on the ground.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“It seems to me that economic reform and justice reform are essentially part of the same reform package: each feeds off the other and each is necessary. Therefore, those two threads, which have been almost the central threads that we have followed, need to be followed not sequentially, but in parallel. Finally, the representative of the United Kingdom made a point, which I think is important, about the Bonn powers and the existence of the High Representative. Mladen Ivanie, whom you heard from earlier on, has his views. They are his personal views and he put them forward in a very straightforward manner, as usual; they are not, I think it would be fair to say, necessarily the views of his Government.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“If people - and in this case it is the Serbs again - should argue that their rights under the Constitutional Court amendments have not been adequately delivered, I would encourage them to go, at least initially, to the Human Rights Chamber, to the Constitutional Court in particular, to ensure that those rights are delivered. I will certainly back up and support that process. But ifI were to act in place of the courts, I would be undermining the courts. France asked me whether or not I believed that the rule of law and the economy ought to go hand in hand or operate sequentially. The answer is they must go hand in hand. The rule of law is essential for economic growth. Once the rules have been established, not least the business rules and business courts, only then will the economy begin to grow.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“But, the one immediately in front of us, The Hague, is obviously an issue for the Republika Srpska more than for any of the others. The Russian representative also asked me to ensure that the Constitutional Court amendments to which he referred were enacted. I agree with him that that is a piece of unfinished work that has to be addressed. Could I make the point to him, however, that, when it comes to enacting those amendments, the roles of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, above all the Human Rights Chamber, ought not to be overlooked. If the High Representative does everything, rather than the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina that are there to resolve those issues, then we will be in effect undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutions.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“But, as I am sure the Russian representative will understand, the fact nevertheless remains that the one barrier that now stands between us and opening those gates to success is the barrier of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In that regard, it is a tragedy to me that the Serbs, having contributed so much to delivering the country to the point it is at now, are the people responsible for the barrier that now remains between us and success. I can give my absolute assurance that we will follow, as we were rightly requested to do, a balanced approach to the matter. It is simply not true to say that the Serbs or Republika Srpska are the only barriers to reform. We have had cause to overcome barriers to reform put up by the other people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were equally large.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“The representative of the Russian Federation asked me, I think, for assurance that we were not in the business of attributing all the problems of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Serbs. I can enthusiastically give that assurance. I actually believe that, arguably, the Serb people and the Republika Srpska have made a greater and more difficult contribution to the whole reform process than any of the other peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I have always sought to go out of my way to recognize that. It was more difficult for the Republika Srpska to agree to the reforms on defence and to the reforms for the Indirect Taxation Authority than for any of the other peoples. If we now stand at the gates of success, it is in very large measure because of the statesmanship and courage shown on a wide level in the Republika Srpska.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“But there is not enough money to be able to ensure that the chamber can be sustained beyond the middle or the third quarter of next year. We do need that kind of practical assistance to make the war crimes chamber actually work. It would be a disaster, I am sure you would all agree, if we set up the war crimes chamber and it starts to try war crimes domestically, relieving the pressure on The Hague, and then it falls flat on its face because there are not sufficient funds keep it going. Lastly, that is not an imminent prospect; it is one for the longer-term future. Japan's assistance in tourism, which we have begun to build in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also extremely important. It seemed to me that I was asked to respond to three key questions.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“It adds a different dimension to my job, but one which I welcome and which I think is important as Europe takes the lead in this process, although it is not the monopoly deliverer of the international community's assistance in peace implementation matters. May I especially thank the representative of Japan. Japan's support for the peace implementation process, even though it is probably the country, along with Canada, that directly benefits least from this, being on the other side of the world, has been remarkable. In particular, the support that was offered to the war crimes chamber by the representative of Japan is extremely welcome. The formation of the war crimes chamber, a very important moment, is on track and on time.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“I think that what he hinted at is correct - that when you look at deficiencies in terms of cooperation with The Hague, these are about personalities who have failed to fulfil their individual duties. They are also about systemic failures, and that is one of the reasons why the reform of the police and defence structures which is taking place is so important. The representative of the Netherlands wished me luck as European Union Special Representative. My job is to try to coordinate the European Union's assets. I am not their boss, but I am primus inter pares, and I have to try to coordinate those assets. I am grateful to him for kindly wishing me luck; I shall need it.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“I also strongly welcome, if I may, the comments that were made by almost all representatives on the importance of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska cooperating and crossing that watershed. For what it is worth, I think that there are forces in Republika Srpska that wish to see that done, and I welcome that. The United States was, ifI may say so, correct - you, Sir, were correct - in reminding us that this was about a fundamental principle of Dayton, and the infringement of Dayton is arguably the greatest failure as a result of this. My colleague the representative of France, who is sitting next to me, was correct in saying that, after so many words, only concrete results would do. The representative of Germany made a very strong point on this matter.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“The representative of Romania gave the kind of promise that everyone likes to hear - that they were considering increasing the number of troops they may be able to provide in the European Union-led force (EUFOR). That is a generous offer for which I know my EUFOR colleagues will be extremely grateful. If I may say so, I greatly welcomed also the comments of the representative of Spain, who noted the special importance of the feasibility study and the NATO Partnership for Peace agreements. Those are, indeed, the magnets which draw the compass by which we steer. I believe that, in due course, the scaffolding of Europe and NATO will provide the structures within which Bosnia and Herzegovina will make the second stage of its journey - a journey which is not about peace implementation but about transition.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“However, I think that the representative of Angola, if I may say so, was entirely correct: the real heroes of this remarkable transformation are not the international community, although I think we have done much of which we can be proud; we have made our mistakes, too, but overall I think that we are entitled to feel proud of the peacekeeping operation. The real heroes are the extraordinary, remarkable and courageous people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, if anyone should be receiving these accolades, it seems to me that it is they. Before answering the questions that were put to me, could I just warmly welcome a number of particular interventions.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“Lord Ashdown: My apologies to the Council for not having been here earlier. I had an appointment with the Secretary-General. I apologize to my colleague Jaap de Hoop Scheffer for not having been here when he spoke. I think I owe the Council some comments and responses to questions from earlier on this morning. May I first of all express my warm thanks and those of my staff for the very kind comments made by representatives this morning. They are really are very, very welcome indeed, and I am very grateful for those kind words.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075Resumption1 (2004) · source
“I believe there is now a real prospect that, if this crucial issue of cooperation with The Hague can be resolved, if Bosnia and Herzegovina can maintain its remarkable reform efforts and if the international community can maintain its interest and support, Bosnia and Herzegovina will, by then, be a country transformed in a region that has been transformed. That would be a huge prize, not just for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but for the entire international community, which the Council represents. So my final word is: let us resolve to stick at it until that job is done. We are nearly there.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“Because this is now - I have no doubt - the biggest stumbling block on the path towards a brighter future, and the longer it remains unresolved, the longer it will take for Bosnia and Herzegovina finally to make that crucial break with the past and embrace a brighter future as a modern European nation. That is what the citizens across Bosnia and Herzegovina so desperately want to see, and it is what they so manifestly deserve. I began this statement by looking back to 1994, to recall how far Bosnia and Herzegovina has come since the horrors of that war. Perhaps I could end it by inviting members to cast their minds forward 10 years and to imagine what Bosnia and Herzegovina could be like then.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“And they need to be clear that the international community - and, I hope, the Security Council - will not permit them to remain, with impunity, in fundamental breach of a cardinal requirement of the Dayton Agreement. Justice has a long memory, and Srebrenica has made an indelible impression on it. Nine years is already too long - far too long. Time is running out to take action to comply with international law. Time is running out for Republika Srpska to continue to block Bosnia and Herzegovina's path to the European Union and to NATO. Time is running out for those who think they can abuse the protections offered by Dayton. So I hope that the message will go out unambiguously and firmly from the Council to the leaders of Republika Srpska that the time has come when this must be done, and the time for excuses for not doing it is over.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“Nevertheless, the plain fact remains that, nine years on, not a single indictee has been handed over to the ICTY by the Republika Srpska authorities, and that Karadzic and Mladic remain at large. That is an affront to justice, and it is an affront to the values of the institutions which the Republika Srpska leaders claim they wish to join. They should be in no doubt that, when NATO and the European Union say that if they want Bosnia and Herzegovina to join those institutions, they must cooperate with the ICTY, those are not empty words: they are deadly serious ones. They should be in no doubt that they cannot treat this solemn obligation - which they signed on to in Dayton - as if it were written in invisible ink, when it is there in black and white.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“The work of the Srebrenica Commission itself, created entirely by the Republika Srpska Government, has elicited from Carla Del Ponte the statement that the Srebrenica Commission has provided a significant milestone on the road to truth and justice. We also saw only two days ago a formal apology offered by the Republika Srpska Government to the victims of that blackest of pages in European history. I hope that that will lead to a wider process of truth. I hope that that will incorporate other peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. Srebrenica is the worst of the crimes, but it is not the only one, and I hope that people will seize the opportunity offered by that statement by Republika Srpska to ensure that Bosnia's future can be built on a recognition and an understanding of its past.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“In nine years, the Republika Srpska has not handed over a single person indicted for war crimes - not one - at any level, senior, junior or middle-ranking. In nine years, they have failed to give the ICTY the information it needs to track down indictees or to provide cooperation in the arrest of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. In nine years, it has failed to take any significant action to do so itself, either. I must say that there have been some more hopeful signs in recent months. A speech by President Cavic of Republika Srpska in June, acknowledging the scale of the crime committed at Srebrenica, was a brave and important speech.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“The third point is the subject that gives me most immediate concern and which poses the biggest threat to the entire country, but most especially to Republika Srpska's prospects. When I spoke to the Council in March, I made clear that there was a very real risk that, despite Bosnia and Herzegovina's remarkable progress on defence reform, Republika Srpska's complete failure to meet its obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) could well scupper the country's chances of gaining entry into the Partnership for Peace at NATO's Istanbul summit in June. As we know, that is, regrettably, exactly what happened. The record speaks for itself and makes dismal reading.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“The message that I therefore bring the Council is a good one, I think, but there are some points of concern. Allow me to touch on three of them as we move into the next phase of Bosnia and Herzegovina's transition to a fully-fledged State and to membership of Euro-Atlantic institutions. The first point is economic. Bosnia and Herzegovina's economy is still not growing fast enough to relieve the pain of its suffering people, and that is an area on which we need to concentrate in the year ahead. The second, which worries me, is the financial viability of the State in its present shape. I should emphasize that this may make it necessary to consider before too long, not now, but before too long, the pressing need to make the State's constitutional structure more functional.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“Allow me to take this opportunity to pay a warm tribute to the alliance, whose Secretary-General, of course, will address the Council today, and to all those soldiers who have served under the NATO flag as part of, first, the Implementation Force (IFOR) and then SFOR. They have done a truly outstanding job. They have not only ended a war, they have helped to build a peace, and they are handing on a situation immeasurably and unbelievably better than the one they found in 1995. The fact that NATO will continue to play a vital - but different - role in Bosnia after EUFOR takes over, with a United States general at the helm of a new NATO headquarters, is hugely welcome. This role will concentrate on defence reform, but it will also work on counter-terrorism and a continued effort in the hunt for indicted war criminals.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“It is therefore essential we preserve that unity of effort and breadth of endeavour through the Peace Implementation Council, which I believe should continue operating in order to incorporate, as it does, the contributions made by the Russian Federation, Turkey, Japan, Canada and the United States of America, as well as other European Union member States. Those are extremely important contributions, and it would be wrong of us to create or to abandon the framework that allows those to continue to be made. The fact that we are able to make this transition from SFOR to EUFOR is, allow me to say, a formidable tribute to NATO and to all it has achieved in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last nine years.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source
“We will now be able to coordinate those so that they bear more effectively, as Bosnia and Herzegovina moves into a qualitatively new stage in its relations with the European Union. I say this not just in my capacity as High Representative, but also wearing my second hat as European Union Special Representative, which is a role that will grow in importance in the months and years ahead. This is not to say - and I would like to emphasize this point - that the European Union's growing role in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be at the expense of others - far from it. I think there is a broad rule about international peace stabilization: the broader the coalition, the greater the chance of success.”
2004-11-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5075 (2004) · source