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

“Closely aligned to a number of the European Commission feasibility study requirements, this process involves the close cooperation of the Government, the legislative bodies and the international community in such areas as business registration, accounting, corporate governance, auditing standards and uniform contracts for law, to mention just a few. The second phase of the so-called bulldozer initiative to sweep away some of the restraints to business has been launched. The innovative programme is designed to help Bosnia and Herzegovina's business community tear down roadblocks and cut through as much red tape as possible so as to free up the economy for growth and job creation. It also represents the first real example of civil society - in this case the business community - finding its voice in a direct dialogue with Government.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“All that said, some truly significant successes on the economic front have been achieved over the last six months, which provide optimism that a brighter economic future stands within Bosnia and Herzegovina's reach, if not yet within its grasp. As I described, we are concentrating on getting the indirect taxation authority up and running and the introduction of a value added tax. Here, I think, things are moving, but not yet fast enough. A key objective in stimulating much-needed job creation is to improve the business environment by introducing a legal and administrative framework that encourages foreign and domestic entrepreneurs to invest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“But I worry that if Bosnia and Herzegovina - a country where in the region of 50 per cent of citizens live close to or below the official threshold of poverty - continues in a parlous economic state or deteriorates further, that could have implications for the social stability of the country. The bottom line is that Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to wrestle not just with the bitter legacy of wartime intolerance but also with its communist past and its cumbersome Dayton structures as well. Those three factors combine to make a very heavy burden on those who wish to see reform, especially on the economic front.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“In December, I wrote to the Republika Srpska President and Prime Minister, stating that any attempt to obstruct the work of the established Commission would be regarded as a clear effort to obstruct the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republika Srpska authorities owe it to the families of those who died in Srebrenica to do all in their power to ensure that the facts are brought to light and that the guilty are brought to justice. We intend to ensure that they are held to that. My main worry - if you like, the source of my nightmares - remains the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Frankly, I have little fear of a return to ethnic conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I do not think that is the mood of the people.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“We hope that chamber will be fully established by no later than the end of this year. At the same time, we continue to press the Republika Srpska authorities to do their part in establishing exactly what happened at Srebrenica. Last week, the Srebrenica Commission, created by the Republika Srpska Government in December upon our urging, was in the process of gathering information on the massacres committed there in 1995, it is committed to providing a final report. The Republika Srpska Government recently paid the first half of its 4 million konvertibilna marka commitment to the Srebrenica- Potocari Foundation to compensate the families of the missing persons there for having denied them information about what happened to their loved ones.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“I am determined to make life as difficult as possible for the indictees who are on the run and for those who support them, including by tackling the networks that support those indictees and keep them from justice. We are also paving the way towards establishing a domestic capacity to try and prosecute war criminals. As the Council knows, shortly after I last addressed the Security Council with Judge Theodor Meron, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, we organized a donors conference hosted with the ICTY in The Hague, which resulted in pledges amounting to some â‚¬16 million to set up a domestic capacity to try war criminals. My Senior Deputy High Representative, Bernard Fassier, is now working on the practical details of establishing a chamber as rapidly as possible.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“We are beginning to show that even the highest in the land must be subject to the rule of law and may be brought to account before the courts for crimes that may have been committed in the past. At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to crack down on the support networks of indicted war criminals. On 9 February, in liaison with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR) and the United States Government, I enacted the necessary legal orders to freeze the bank accounts of 10 individuals supporting Mr. Karadzic and removed several of them from office, including the Vice- President of the ruling party in the Republika Srpska, the Serb Democratic Party. That followed similar steps which we took in March and July last year.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Five of the six main laws on the agency have now been passed by the Council of Ministers and sent to Parliament - a welcome sign, again, of local ownership. I am happy to report that since I was last at the Council, we have seen real, practical progress in tackling the networks of organized crime that have for far too long held Bosnia and Herzegovina to ransom. Almost as we speak, the main defendant in what is probably the biggest single human trafficking case in the country's history has been pleading guilty before the newly established State Court. More recently, the one-time Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ante Jelavic, who was removed by one of my predecessors, is now in a Sarajevo jail awaiting trial before the State Court on serious corruption charges.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“It will serve as the foundation for a new Bosnian and Herzegovina judiciary that is entirely independent and capable of meeting the highest European and international standards. At this point, I must tell the Council that I am worried about certain moves in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the moment - partly political and partly from newspapers - whose aim, it seems to me, is to undermine the independence of the judiciary. It is important that we make it clear that that is an issue upon which there can be no compromise. The Office of the High Representative has also continued to oversee the creation of a State information and protection agency with enforcement powers and abilities to address money-laundering and other organized crime.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“The next key step will be taken on 15 March. The work of the key reform commissions - on indirect tax policy, defence, intelligence and Mostar - has gone well. The commissions are a means to bring the key players together, under international community chairmanship, in a relatively non-political, low-key way. They have more than proved their worth as a way of finding middle ground among the key parties and achieving agreements in areas many had thought impossible. In the meantime, of course, reform continues in other areas. The rule of law remains right at the top of our list of priorities. We are working hard to ensure that a single, State-level High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council is in place by the end of this month.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“The Commission reached agreement on a wide range of issues - perhaps 90 per cent of the key issues confronting the reunification of Mostar. But agreement on a couple of important outstanding questions, such as the election system and the future of city municipalities, proved elusive. At the end of January - something like a year after the process started - I therefore decided that it would be appropriate to use my powers to impose, as it were the keystone in the bridge of the draft statute. My Senior Deputy, Mr. Werner Wnendt, was appointed as my Special Envoy to Mostar, and we have established a small implementation team down in Mostar. I am happy to report to the Council that, thus far, the new statute is proceeding on track, and the process of reunifying at last the great city of Mostar is a reality.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Intractable though the problems of that city have proved, it was important for the sake of the future stability and security of Bosnia and Herzegovina that this most intractable of all the country's problems should be tackled and solved. Last year, a commission was formed by the local authorities to reform the city of Mostar. Unfortunately, it failed to make anything but the most minimal progress. I therefore decided to establish a further commission in the latter part of last year; it is chaired very skilfully by Mr. Norbert Winterstein, a former German mayor, and comprises representatives of the citizens of Mostar themselves. Mostar citizens made up 99 per cent of the Mostar Commission, and that is as it should be.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“But I am pleased to announce that just last week the lower house of the Parliament adopted in full a bill establishing that agency. And we expect the upper house to complete the process tomorrow. Another key challenge for us has been the so far intractable issue of the divided and tragic city of Mostar and the attempt to provide that city with a single, permanent statute that will serve the interests of all its citizens. Divided cities breed resentment and tension. There were spreading far wider than the city of Mostar itself. We were clear - as were my colleagues on the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council - that we could not just allow the issue of Mostar to sit there and fester.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“But alongside the defence reform, let me bring to the Council's attention the fact that for the very first time, article III, paragraph 5 (a) of annex 4 of the Dayton Agreement, which allows entities to pass competencies to the State, has been used. For the first time, Dayton is being reformed by the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the construct of Dayton itself. Likewise, on intelligence reform, Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken a difficult yet decisive step towards creating a unified State-level intelligence and security agency, in place of the dysfunctional, corrupt, fractured and deeply scandalous entity-based intelligence services. I had to submit a draft law developed by our expert Commission directly to the Bosnian and Herzegovina Parliament.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“The Defence Reform Commission, chaired by former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense James Locher, reached agreement on the establishment of State-level command and control over Bosnia's armed forces, thus using Dayton to amend Dayton. This includes the creation of a single State- level defence ministry, a joint chief of staff, and collective - not individual - command authority vested at the State level in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency. These are huge steps forward that, when implemented, will go a long way towards helping Bosnia and Herzegovina qualify for the PFP. Progress on this scale simply would not have been conceivable a few years ago.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“That organization is far from fully operational at this point, but once it is, it will go a long way towards providing Bosnia and Herzegovina with a reliable revenue stream and an instrument with which to crack down on the fraud and corruption to which the current fractured and dysfunctional arrangements are very prone. Once this is fully established, Bosnia will have, for the first time in its post-war history, a guaranteed source of income to the State treasury, based on a value added tax that is levied nationally. As the Council knows, a major breakthrough was achieved last September in the area of defence. I again pay tribute to the statesmanship of the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities who enabled that breakthrough.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Our overarching objective, of course, remains exactly as it was when I took up my post 18 months ago: to ensure that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a peaceful, viable State on course to European integration. Since I was here last, in October, substantial progress has been made in several key areas, based on the work of the four reform commissions launched last year. As members may recall, the first commission I established focused on indirect taxation and customs reform. The process of setting up and establishing the State-level indirect tax authority and establishing a value added tax has already begun.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Let me sum up simply by saying that, thanks in very large measure to the high degree of statesmanship and leadership evidenced within the Bosnia and Herzegovina political community, 2003 was a remarkable year of progress in the reforms that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs. It remains to be seen whether the same pace can be matched in the year ahead. I hope so. We stand ready to assist to make it so, and I remain convinced that the Prime Minister is committed to ensuring that it will be so. Allow me now, if I may, to briefly recap some of the main developments in the period covered by my latest report to the Secretary-General, that is, from 1 September to 31 December 2003. This will be the basis for my introduction, before giving my assessment of prospects for the months ahead.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Bosnia and Herzegovina, at this crucial and historic moment, simply does not have time to waste on that kind of activity. I fear, however, that the process is likely to be somewhat exacerbated in the coming months, as Bosnia and Herzegovina slips into election mode prior to the municipal elections of October 2004. There is already some evidence that this period will not be characterized by a renewed focus on reforms, but by a return to the old practices of competitive claims of victimization, which offer the nationalist parties in particular the best opportunity for filling their ballot box. These are only worries.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“This has helped enormously in dealing with the more thorny and difficult issues through the Bosnia and Herzegovina domestic institutions rather than at the hands of outsiders. Those issues, which held up many of his predecessors, have now been pushed forward. Nevertheless, the reform process remains hamstrung, in part by an overburdened agenda, and sometimes by residual obstructionism or, at best, lethargy on the part of the entities - as well as, let us recognize, by the dysfunctional aspects of the Dayton structures. These burdens can be overcome and I hope they will be overcome; but they can only be overcome by a ruthless focus on the reform agenda. All too often, recently, this has been subject to the distractions of inter-coalition or intra-party tensions within Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“That is not to say that they will not be achieved, but it is to say that we will need to accelerate considerably if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to clear these two crucial historic hurdles. In saying that, I do not doubt the personal commitment of Prime Minister Terzic and that of - at least - most of his colleagues on the Council of Ministers. I believe that they are genuinely and powerfully committed to the prospect of PFP membership and the next stage of European Union integration this year. There has also been a change, which I would wish to mark: the new collegial atmosphere that exists within the Council of Ministers is a personal achievement of Prime Minister Terzic, and one for which I pay him tribute.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Now, these are extremely ambitious targets, but Bosnia and Herzegovina needs ambitious targets. I commend the Prime Minister for having set them, and I especially commend the Bosnia and Herzegovina Government for having, entirely on its own behalf, negotiated with the European Union 45 key actions that take them through those gates into the negotiation process. These constitute our joint action programme. Let me underline the fact that they were initiated not by the High Representative but by the Council of Ministers, under Adnan Terzic's leadership. I very much hope these can be met. However, I must say, since it is my duty to report frankly, that the rate of reform so far this year is too slow to achieve those targets.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“If it is to join those two structures, it must do so by its own decision and through its own actions, not through mine. Time is very short for Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet the conditions set for membership in the PFP and to qualify for the launch of a Stabilization and Association Agreement. NATO has made it clear that it hopes Bosnia and Herzegovina will be ready for PFP membership in time for NATO's summit in Istanbul in June this year. If that were to happen, nothing would be more certain to assure every citizen in Bosnia and Herzegovina that there would be no future war. The Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities have set themselves the target of making sufficient progress on the European Commission's parallel 16 key points by the end of June. Indeed, Prime Minister Terzic has said that he hopes to do so by the end of May.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Together, these twin objectives - the PFP and the start of negotiations on stabilization and association - provide a key context in which reform can take place and an incentive for authorities at every level to make progress. The key point, of course, is that both the European Union and NATO want to see clear, hard evidence that Bosnia and Herzegovina is making the necessary reforms to integrate into Euro-Atlantic structures of its own accord. These reforms cannot simply be imposed by me using my Bonn powers; they cannot be imposed by outsiders. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot join the European Union or NATO by fiat of the High Representative; if it could, that might make life simpler for both the Prime Minister and myself, but it cannot, and that is only proper.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“In the past six months, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has made it clear that Bosnia and Herzegovina will be eligible to join the Partnership for Peace (PFP) if a number of clear conditions relating both to defence reform and to cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are met. Also in the last six months, the European Commission has, in its feasibility study published last November, set 16 clear and practical areas in which progress needs to be made in order for Bosnia and Herzegovina to take the next historic step towards Europe and begin negotiations for a Stabilization and Association Agreement.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“It has been a busy period, and I apologize if my report to the Secretary-General is a little more lengthy than I might have wished it to be. But the period has been extremely busy. In partnership with the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities, we have notched up some real achievements, above all in the fields of defence, intelligence reform, customs and indirect tax reform, to which I shall return in a moment. Crucially, Bosnia and Herzegovina now has two clear goals to aim for: two clear goals that are within sight, if it keeps up and indeed steps up the pace of reform.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“I am particularly pleased to be doing so alongside my colleague the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister, Adnan Terzic. I think the innovation of the pair of us appearing before the Council exemplifies the stage which Bosnia and Herzegovina has now reached, in which the international community's presence in the country needs to work in increasingly close partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina's elected authorities. I am happy to confirm that that partnership - both professional and personal - between myself and Prime Minister Terzic is close and, in my view, very constructive. It is therefore a pleasure to see him here today. It is almost six months since I last spoke to the Council.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“Lord Ashdown: Thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me once again to address the Security Council. I hope you will not think it an abuse of that privilege if I draw very brief attention to the sombre thought that, soon before this meeting, the mortal remains of President Trajkovski of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and his delegation left Sarajevo on their last journey home to Macedonia. I wish to take this opportunity, on behalf of the international community - and perhaps my Bosnian friends in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well - to mark that sombre occasion, and to pass on our condolences and our prayers to his family and to the people of Macedonia on this terrible loss. I am pleased once again to have the opportunity to brief the Security Council on developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2004-03-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4920 (2004) · source
“But, as someone who considers himself a passionate European- Atlanticist - and by the by, I see no contradiction there - I believe Europe should take more of a lead, provided that it can be done in the right way, a way which reassures the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina that their security will be properly dealt with and which, crucially, allows other third parties - especially the United States and Canada - to feel that they have a part to play in the process. In my view, that should happen sooner or later. My final point is to reassure the representative of the Russian Federation that his Government's View is my view. My powers stop at Dayton; they cannot go further. That is the legal basis and limit of my powers. If Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to amend Dayton, it can do that only through its own people, by the process of consensus.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That is why I should like to say - making the point made by the presidency of the European Union - that increasingly, as we track down the next two years, Bosnia and Herzegovina's future lies in the hands of its own Government and its own people, not in those of the High Representative. The pull of Euro-Atlantic institutions is now more important to Bosnia and Herzegovina than the push of the Bonn powers. Spain asked when and how NATO might give way to the European Union leadership. That, I fear, it is beyond my pay grade to pronounce on; it is up to the international community to decide.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That is why the Minister for Human Rights and Refugees, Mirsad Kebo, and I went to Geneva to speak to all the major representatives there and appeal for a continuation of the flow of those funds. Ownership - mentioned by the representatives of Germany; France; Russia; and Italy, speaking on behalf of the European Union - now comes from the fact that I cannot use the Bonn powers extensively if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to get into Europe. That is the self-defeating factor: if I use the Bonn powers, Bosnia and Herzegovina automatically disqualifies itself from getting into Europe.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“It set a very high bar, but Bosnia and Herzegovina jumped over it. It is now important that that fact be recognized, and I hope it will be. The representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic, Cameroon and Chile mentioned the question of refugees, and they are entirely right to do so. On 1 January, we hand over from the international community to the Bosnian authorities what is arguably the most difficult task of all: refugee return. Here there has been a remarkable success, with a million returned to their homes. For the first time in history, the theoretical human right of refugees to return to their homes after war has become a practical reality; it is now becoming a competence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It would be a disaster if that success was not supported by the funds for the job's continuation and completion in Bosnian hands.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Prime Minister Terzie and I have agreed that, with respect to the Defence Reform Commission's recommendations, now passed by the Government to Parliament, our target - a very tough one to meet - will be that the legislation should have passed through the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the next North Atlantic Council meeting, on 17 December. If it is through by then, Bosnia and Herzegovina will have met what many regarded to be the impossible deadline of achieving PFP membership conditions this year. Then 4 Bosnia having made itself a credible PFP candidate - it will be up to the North Atlantic Council to decide when that should happen. The North Atlantic Council may well decide that, legislation having been achieved, it will be necessary to achieve implementation. But I hope that that will not be a long time off.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“It is very difficult to be the Prime Minster of a country when you cannot choose any of the ministers. They have no loyalty to you; they have only loyalties to their party; and you cannot sack them and take the difficult decisions that you must take in the light of some of the problems Bosnia and Herzegovina faces. Nevertheless, I think more must be done to increase the functionality of Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutions, at the top and at every lower level. On that measure, I think the representatives of France, the United Kingdom and Angola are entirely right: we now judge by implementation, not by words. One of the slogans I use is that I do not judge people by what they say; I judge them by what they do. In that respect, the representative of Spain asked when we would join the Partnership for Peace (PFP).”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“The representatives of the United Kingdom, Mexico and Bulgaria are entirely right: the Council will know when we have succeeded, because I will no longer be here making reports to it. My job is to get rid of my job, and the closer I get to that, the more I will count it a success. I merely say this: as we now track towards the tenth anniversary of Dayton, that moment should not be very far away. Dealing with the dysfunctionality mentioned by the representatives of Germany, Guinea and the United Kingdom is one of our big tasks in the year ahead. I must say about the present Government that I do not detect any ill will, any lack of determination or any lack of genuine sincerity about the need for reform. There is, however, a desperate dysfunctionality in some of Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutions, some of it inherited from Dayton.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“But if you had been with me only two weeks ago at the opening of Srebrenica-Potocari, if you had watched 20,000 Muslims - Bosniacs - burying the first thousand of their 7,000 dead from the Golgotha of Srebrenica, in the presence of Serb policemen from Republika Srpska, in the middle of a Serb majority area, all done with unbelievable dignity on both sides, I must say, and absolute peace, you would, I think, believe that although certain areas of Bosnia will not retain their prewar ethnic tapestry, the nation as a whole will remain a multi-ethnic nation - something that I think cannot be said of the other countries of the former Yugoslavia, unhappily, after the war. I believe that that essential quality will remain, owing in large measure to the extraordinary courage of the people.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“My earliest childhood memory was, at the age of five, driving through what is now Pakistan, as my family left the Indian subcontinent after 200 years. I can still recall, in my mind's eye, what tortured me in nightmares as a child - an entire station covered with the dismembered bodies of people who had been killed because they were of the wrong religion. As an Irishman of mixed parentage - Protestant and Catholic - and as a soldier who has fought in campaigns against ethnic wars and ethnic Cleansing around the world and now has this task to do, I understand only too well how difficult it is to construct ethnic tolerance after such an event.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I am the Council's servant, but I am also their servant, and it gives me great pleasure to record that the real heroes of this peacekeeping are the ordinary people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have borne their terrible pain with such dignity and, I must say, such courage. To watch them reconstructing their lives and their houses in shattered communities is to understand that, although the international community is close to having a success in hand, the real heroes of this operation are the ordinary, decent people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The representative of Pakistan said that he wondered whether we would be able to reconstruct the prewar tapestry. An unhappy fact of ethnic wars is that areas become more ethnically pure after them.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Lord Ashdown: I hope that members of the Council will have found that helpful and useful. I am very conscious of the time and have no wish to keep representatives here, so I will try to make my comments extremely brief. I am very grateful indeed for the support that we have received from the Council. It is a huge bonus for us, and, believe me, I am extremely grateful for its generous support. May I in particular thank Pakistan and China for making a point I would have wished to make - that that support does not go to me or to my colleagues in the international community, but that it goes, as the representatives of Pakistan and of China said, to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Lord Ashdown: I am very conscious of the time. I have a few very brief comments I should like to make, but, on advice, I gather that it may be in order if I were to ask my colleague Bernard Fassier to respond to a few specific questions which were raised in the discussions.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“We are close to our first, historic success in this relatively new but very difficult business of peace implementation. We cannot, however, bring closure to Bosnia and Herzegovina's terrible war, and we cannot bring peace to the relatives and loved ones of that war's 250,000 victims, until those who bear the guilt for that suffering are brought to justice. We owe it to them to make this project succeed. And I believe that we will.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I simply invite those who find that expensive, to compare it to the costs of running the Tribunal at The Hague. But at the start, these two projects will have to be run in parallel. Some of that extra money will, of course, be met from the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But it will inevitably require substantial international funding too. We have already received pledges for funding from several Governments, and in this respect I am grateful and pay tribute to the Governments of Germany, the United Kingdom the United States and Italy. But we are nowhere near the targets yet. That is why I appeal to all members to exercise maximum influence for maximum attendance at the donor's conference in The Hague at the end of this month. To sum up, I think that we are close to finishing the job in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Another issue that will need to be dealt with in the months ahead is the current lack of a State-level detention facility to serve such a capacity. The Implementation Task Force will need to address this, as well as the myriad of other problems involved in this project. So we are making progress. But let me stress - I know that Judge Meron and Bernard Fassier will do likewise - that all of this is dependent on sufficient funding being found. If we will the ends, we have to will the means. I would like to remind the Council that the project has been costed at 28 million Euros for the first five years, plus - if we choose to follow that route - an additional 11 million Euros for the construction and operation of a State-level prison.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That Task Force has, in turn, established a number of working groups to deal with specific issues relevant to the project, such as the renovation of the buildings where the trials will take place, the preparation of the legal framework, the review and transfer of ICTY cases and other related issues, not the least of which is witness protection. My Office is also in the process of establishing a functioning State-level police force with investigative and law-enforcement powers. A witness protection department is also envisaged, and should become operational early next year. That department will need to expand over the course of the year if it is to provide protection for witnesses in war crimes cases.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“At the behest of the Security Council and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), the Office of the High Representative and the ICTY have, together with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe and the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, produced detailed recommendations for the creation of a War Crimes Chamber within the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within my Office, that effort has been led with great skill and dedication by my friend and colleague, Ambassador Bernard Fassier, who is sitting behind me. I was tasked by the PIC Steering Board to establish an Implementation Task Force, co-chaired by my Office and the Minister for Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“First of all, let me underline the commitment of my Office, and of all the other international agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ensuring the success of this project. We are only too aware of the pernicious influence that indicted war criminals like Mr. Karadzic are still able to exert over Bosnia's political environment. Mr. Karadzic may no longer be able to block the process of reform, but he remains a baleful curse over the whole country, and the sooner that that is removed, the better. We know that peace cannot be described as fully entrenched until the perpetrators of the unspeakable crimes are finally brought to justice. But there is little point in willing the ends unless we are also prepared to will the means. We have, collectively, made a good start.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I need not remind members of the Security Council that resolution 1503 (2003), adopted on 28 August, noted that the establishment of a War Crimes Chamber within the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an essential prerequisite for achieving the objectives of the ICTY Completion Strategies and for pushing forward the process of peace and reconciliation. I would argue that it is also essential in the task of investing Bosnia and Herzegovina with the attributes of statehood. I wholeheartedly agree, of course, with that resolution, and I am proud that I will shortly be able to hand over to my colleague, Judge Meron, the Tribunal's President, who will speak on this subject from the perspective of the ICTY. But before I do so I would like to make a few brief comments.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“The green shoots of the new type of politics that I have described may have started to appear, but I must stress that they remain fragile and could still be easily killed off. The new institutions that we have created are weak, under- funded and too often dysfunctional. The forces of criminality, obstruction and disintegration in Bosnian politics may be on the retreat, but they remain very powerful. The enemy is still there. That brings me, finally, to the substantive topic of our discussion today: the unfinished business of bringing the war criminals of Bosnia and Herzegovina to justice and the need to develop a local capacity capable of taking over from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Not only are we able steadily to tick the boxes of the Mission Implementation Plan of the Office of the High Representative - our guiding document as we track towards a change in that Office's mission - but we are able to do so increasingly without resorting so often to the use of the extraordinary and - let us face it - draconian powers invested in my Office. Indeed, I am glad to say that I have had to impose only half as many laws and amendments this year as I did last year - a trend that I hope and anticipate will continue into 2004. That is a trend that we planned should happen, and it is happening. That is the good news, and I would submit that there is a fair amount of it. There is, of course, bad news, and it would be wrong of me not to outline the task ahead. The pace of reform remains too slow.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I would like to stress that this has happened not because of the coercive power of the High Representatives, the threat of imposition or removal, but because of the magnetic pull of the Euro-Atlantic structures - NATO and the European Union. That magnetic pull has now become as powerful as - and, in my view, it will become more powerful than - the scourge of the Bonn powers. That has started, genuinely, to take hold. It was that factor, far more than any threat from me, that resulted in the real changes that have taken place through the four commissions to which I referred earlier. The significance of this fact is, in my View, already becoming apparent.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source