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

“That has strengthened the State as a functioning organ in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has also provided a way for the three people working together in constructive dialogue to turn the golden key that unlocks the door of the Dayton prison. In this way, the foundations of Dayton are finally being built on - through consensus, not by imposition of the international community - by the Bosnian authorities, through the Bosnian institutions, so as to build a more rational, more affordable and more sustainable State. Dayton is being used, not as in the past to block reform, but to enable it. We have started to amend Dayton within Dayton by agreement between the peoples. In a real sense the constitution of the country has now become the property of its people, not of the international community.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“The Mostar Commission has just been established and is expected to report around the end of the year, but the other three commissions have all operated in an atmosphere of genuine, constructive debate, produced high-quality, European-standard legislative reforms, and forwarded them to Governments and Parliaments for adoption in the next couple of months. I argue that these reforms are in many ways the most significant since the end of the Bosnian war almost eight years ago - significant because, for the first time, they have begun to break out of the Dayton prison. For the first time, they have used a previously neglected clause in the Dayton Peace Agreement allowing entities to pass some competencies from the entity level to the State in areas such as tax, defence and intelligence.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Those commissions have been tasked to tackle four of the most intractable issues facing the country, issues that until very recently we all considered to be too neuralgic, too difficult, to discuss: the creation of a State-level tax administration, which I referred to a few moments ago; the introduction of a unified State-level command and control for the armed forces, parting company with the strictures of Dayton; the creation of a modern, democratically-accountable State-level intelligence service; and the political and administrative unification of the still terribly divided city of Mostar. It is too early to say with absolute certainty whether these will all meet with success, but the early signs are very encouraging.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Nevertheless, the events of the past year, I think, do give cause for some guarded optimism. Let me explain why. Since the turn of the year, we have established four commissions, each composed - let me underline- entirely of representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina, under international chairmanship. We may chair, but they do.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“It would be easy, of course, to overstate the case, but there are now the first signs that the Bosnian authorities are beginning to move beyond the old, sterile, confrontational politics of the immediate post-conflict period and towards a more rational, more pragmatic politics focused on the bread-and-butter issues of everyday concern to their constituents and citizens. That is not to say, of course, that the old enmities have died away or that deep-rooted suspicions do not remain. Of course they do. It would be remarkable if they did not, given that we are a mere seven years away from a war in which 250,000 people were killed- a higher proportion of Bosnia and Herzegovina's population than most European countries sustained in the Second World War.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I would not underestimate the task that is ahead of us, but we are nevertheless broadly where I hoped we would be when I spoke to the Council a year ago. Perhaps more encouraging even than this, the Council may find, is a less measurable but more important shift that I think we can say we have started to detect. It is relatively easy relatively quickly to change the "hardware" of the State - its institutions. It is much more difficult to change the "software" of the State - people's attitudes and their sense of belonging- but here, slowly, changes appear to be coming, too. There has been a shift in the political culture, a shift in the political mindset.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Securing the revenue base is only part of the picture, of course, which is why the authorities have agreed to further bear down on public expenditure, reform the public administration and reduce the Size of the public sector. This is a major, central and urgent task for the year ahead. As the IMF has recently stated, the benefits of such changes are already beginning to make themselves felt. As we bear down on public expenditure, we believe, savings equivalent to about 1 per cent of the gross domestic product could be expected in next year's budget. We should be able to return those savings to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I think I can say that the agenda I outlined last year has begun to take shape and that the reforms have begun to bite.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That is why the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities began this summer to reform the revenue system by creating a single, State-level indirect tax authority to replace the two rotten, corruption-prone entity customs and tax administrations that we have in place at the moment. This reform will also lead to the introduction of a modern, European-standard value added tax (VAT) system for the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our target date is 1 January 2006 - two years after we believe the legislation will be passed at the end of this winter. If we manage to achieve that, the introduction of a VAT system in such a fractured country in such a short period of time will, I think, be remarkable - about two and a half times faster than any other country will have done it - but that is our aim and we are determined to stick to it.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Now we are tackling the other great structural reforms, starting with the public finances that affect the ordinary citizen. Bosnia and Herzegovina's elaborate, excessively decentralized governmental structure was designed to protect group political interests, not to meet individual citizens' needs. One of the changes that Bosnia and Herzegovina has to make is from a structure designed to protect groups to a structure designed to protect individual citizens. That system - the result, of course, of the Dayton Agreement - means that Bosnia and Herzegovina has 13 Prime Ministers, 10 cantonal assemblies, five Presidents, four levels of Government, three Parliaments, two armies and one vast administrative structure that can no longer be afforded if money is to go to ordinary citizens rather than to governance and bureaucracy.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Again, there is still a very long way to go, but, as noted in the recent country report on Bosnia and Herzegovina from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - not well known for handing out easy praise - the macroeconomic framework of Bosnia is being strengthened at commendable speed. Indeed, the report says that the macroeconomic framework over the past year has been strengthened at a faster pace than the IMF had previously known for similar countries in a similar position. Meanwhile, for some time now we have also enjoyed low inflation and a stable currency, thanks in no small measure to the excellent work of the Central Bank and its Governor, Peter Nicholl, one of the primary architects of Bosnia and Herzegovina's economic stability and one of the unsung heroes of the peace implementation process.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Bosnia's business community has come together on what has become known as the "bulldozer committee", a panel of local business representatives - I stress "local" - that prepares concrete, practical reforms and, in the first - ever civil society dialogue with Government, puts them to Governments and Parliaments for adoption. It has proved highly successful. The authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Governments and Parliaments have risen to the challenge that is put to them by the country's business community. Fifty economic reforms that make it easier to form businesses and start enterprises have been passed in 180 days and another 50 are in the pipeline. There surely cannot be many countries represented in this building that have reformed their economies to liberalize their markets with such aggressive speed.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“By taking aggressive action to block their bank accounts and investigate their businesses and by restricting, through European Union and other visa-ban processes, their freedom to travel, we are slowly tightening the noose around the likes of Radovan Karadzic and those who helped him to evade justice, so making it inevitable that they will soon be brought to justice. There is a long, long way to go - of course there is - and I do not wish in any sense to be complacent about the journey that has still to be travelled. Nevertheless, bit by bit, Bosnia's lawless rule is being replaced by the rule of law. On the economic front, we have started to drive a bulldozer through the mass of red tape and regulations that entangles businesses, prevents enterprise and deters investment.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That structure was introduced last January and the Court is now engaged in trying and convicting criminals. The Special Chamber will shortly hear the biggest human-trafficking case in Bosnian history - a case which has not just involved the illegal trafficking of women, but one in which those who are charged, if found guilty, will prove to have been among those people who have held to ransom a certain area of Bosnia and Herzegovina for far too long. It is not just organized criminal networks, however, that we are after. In the past year, we have begun systematically to attack the networks that provide sustenance and support to war criminals as well.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Thanks to that work, I am proud to be able to tell the Council that, as a result of the efforts that have been made, not least by the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina themselves, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now the first country in the Balkans to have the archetypal prerequisite of a modern State: complete separation between the judicial branch and the executive. We have now created independent high judicial and prosecutorial Councils to ensure that that separation is properly maintained. Meanwhile, the new State Court, with its special panels for organized crime, has been created from scratch. It is staffed with international as well as Bosnian prosecutors and judges, who, working in partnership, are armed with new criminal codes and criminal procedure codes written by Bosnian lawyers.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“The European Union Police Mission, which picked up where the United Nations left off, monitoring and mentoring the police officers that the International Police Task Force trained and certified, has continued. The Herculean task of reforming the entire judiciary and court system continues apace, and is on track for completion in the next five to six months, thanks in large measure to the exceptional work done by my colleague Bernard Fassier, Senior Deputy High Representative who, with your agreement, Mr. President, may add a word or two later, particularly on domestic war crimes issues.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I am well known, I fear, by my staff and by some in Bosnia and Herzegovina alike, as being a deeply impatient man. I think, by the by, that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs more impatient people. But although I remain impatient, I am happy to report that I believe that real progress is now being made. Under the slogan with which we started my mandate - "Justice and Jobs" - we have maintained our primary focus on the two key priorities: establishing the rule of law and reforming Bosnia and Herzegovina's weak and aid-dependent economy. It might be argued that those are priorities that we should have been pushing earlier, but they are now being pushed ahead fast 4 for some uncomfortably fast. The process of bringing Bosnia and Herzegovina's police forces up to European and international standards goes on apace.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“I shall then turn to what we in the Office of the High Representative believe are the challenges that still lie ahead of us. I am conscious that the Council's time and attention have, for obvious reasons, been taken up by events elsewhere in the world since I last reported. The Balkans are - thankfully, let me underline - no longer at the centre of the international agenda of problems. In so far as there is a renewed interest in the Balkans, it is because what has happened there as a result of the United Nations having taken the lead in peace and stabilization issues now offers us more opportunities than difficulties. Out of the glare of the media spotlight, the slow, unglamorous - but vital - work of entrenching Bosnia and Herzegovina's peace has continued. I remain impatient with the speed of that work, as indeed I must.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“First, I would like to give the Council a more general view of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. My report to the Secretary-General, annexed to document S/2003/918, which has been distributed to members of the Council, covers the period 12 October 2002 to 31 August 2003. That report will be the basis of my briefing today. When I was here last I had been in office for just over four months. If I recall correctly, I spoke then about my priorities, my intentions and my plans for the future. Today I would like to update the Council on what we have actually done in accordance with those original intentions, and on the concrete achievements of the past year. Let me stress that they are not my achievements; they are the achievements of the international community working in partnership with the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“Lord Ashdown: Thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me here today. It is a special pleasure to be here - and not just with my colleague Judge Theodor Meron, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, with whom we have worked extremely closely. We shall both speak about our joint plans to create a domestic capacity for prosecuting war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also express my pleasure at being here with my colleague the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the features of the last year has been an increasingly close partnership between the Bosnian authorities and us. I pay tribute not only to the Ambassador, but also to the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities for all they have done to make that possible.”
2003-10-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4837 (2003) · source
“That can be done, but it can be done only if the international community continues to apply the same will and resources to make things happen that is has applied over the past six years.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“If you had sat in the shattered city of Sarajevo, and someone had said that this country, in a mere six years after the war, would have the most stable currency in the Balkans, that there would be complete freedom of movement right across the country, that there would be more than a quarter of a million people moved back to the homes from which they were driven in blood and terror only six years earlier, and that completely peaceful, violence-free elections would have been conducted, then you would have said that that was impossible. But that is what States have achieved. It is a dangerous thing for me to say this, but I think that the worst is now behind us in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The easier task is now ahead. It is not going to be easy, but it is going to be easier.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The things that have been done as a result of the remarkable support of the United Nations, the international community and Bosnian institutions - and, if I may say, the extraordinary courage of the Bosnian people themselves - have ensured that this country has advanced further from one of the most terrible wars of the second half of the last century in six years than my own country of Northern Ireland has managed in 30. Some of the things that have been done there are simply miraculous and ought to be understood.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“One of the things that has made my job immeasurably less difficult, apart from the tremendous foundation laid by Jacques Klein and all my predecessors, is the fact that we have now seen - from Croatia for a longer time, but from Yugoslavia more recently - a kind of regional cooperation that makes it possible for us to solve problems more easily and more quickly. That regional cooperation, which was clearly symbolized by the meeting between the three Presidents, to which the representative of Yugoslavia referred, is one of the most hopeful signs for the future. I apologize for having taken so long before I hand over to my colleague Jacques Klein. May I sum up simply by saying this. There are those who still regard Bosnia as being a black hole in the Balkans. It is not.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“That is the great act of closure that will enable us to begin to build our future. I am impatient for that to be done. I understand how difficult a military task that is, given the wild nature of the Bosnian countryside. I take comfort in a single fact, and that is that, although the arrest of those two men and their being brought to trial is necessary, and although when it happens the process of reform will speed up, their power is no longer such as to be able to create a complete block on the process of reform. They can slow it down, but they cannot stop it. I want, finally, if I may, to pay tribute to the point made by the representative of Yugoslavia.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The less support there is, the longer it will take for Bosnia and Herzegovina to try war crimes in its own backyard. The European Union asked about the formation of the new Government. Here is the problem: the election has given us a precisely balanced number of seats held by what you might call the nationalist parties and all the rest. That means that, although it is possible for a Government to be formed by the end of this year, I am rather doubtful that it will be. We are probably looking towards January, February or even March before a Government is formed. Croatia asked, whether there was anything that the Security Council could do on Karadzic and Mladic. Well, the answer is, the sooner we capture and bring to trial both Karadzic and Mladic, the sooner Bosnia will be able to put its past behind it.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But there is room, in my view, to move towards further military reform in order to enable Bosnia and Herzegovina to join Partnership for Peace. I think that it is not an unreasonable target for us to set to say that that could be done within 18 months, provided that there is a willingness to carry out those reforms, again I stress, strictly within the Dayton construct. I mentioned the debt crisis, which was raised by Mauritius, but, let me just say that there is a need to fund effectively the State court. Part of its role will be to provide Bosnia and Herzegovina with a domestic capacity to try war crimes. That can be done next year or the year afterwards. What separates those two achievements will be whether or not, and to what extent, the domestic war crimes capacity of the State court is supported by the international community.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But I have to say that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have time to waste, if lives and businesses are not to be threatened and if social services and teachers are to continue to be paid. The representative of Bulgaria mentioned customs. I think I said earlier how important that was. We lose huge sums of money - one and a half times the State budget - through failing customs revenue. That, too, is a regional problem. A few other questions were put to me. The representative of Syria asked about the military. I will ask Jacques to deal with the police. There has to be military reform. It has to stay, as the Russian representative clearly said, within the requirements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But, so far, the scleroticism of the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina has not made it attractive for international investment. The only way to fill that gap of the domestic debt crisis is by international investment. That debt crisis will start biting very hard by about the spring of 2003. It is unlikely that we will have a Government formed until January or February. It may happen earlier, but I do not believe it necessarily will. It is very probable that we will have to take the steps necessary to reform the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to attract international investment before the new Government is formed. Now we will seek to do that as far as possible on the basis of consensus, because that is the kind of reform that will stick.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Let me, however, say to him that I do not think that he would disagree - and I have discussed this many times with his Ambassador in Sarajevo, to whom, incidentally, I pay tribute as a very close colleague and wise adviser - that we have allowed Dayton to be used by the obstructionists to obstruct too much in the past, and what we have to use are the provisions of Dayton which allow the kind of reforms we are talking about. Secondly, he talks about the importance of consensus. He is again right. It must always be right to build up consensus. Can I, however, tell the Council what my problem is? I think the representative of Mauritius identified it when he talked about the debt crisis. The reason for the debt crisis is that international aid is on a glide path downwards - and so it should be six years after the war.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“We need, as the representative of China said, to carry out the economic reforms to create a single economic space with uniform economic rules, so that we can generate an internal market, before we begin to tackle the question of whether we can pull in external investment. The representative of Russia mentioned the Dayton Agreement. I can only say to him what I have said previously: that none of the proposals I am making and none of the proposals I intend to make part company with the provisions of Dayton or the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Now it may be that the "nationalist" Governments are committed to reform. But I think it is legitimate for us to say we are rather sceptical in view of what has been seen in the past. We are not dismissing that claim. But we will judge it according to what actions they subsequently take. What I am clear about is that the process of reform cannot now be impeded, though it could be slowed down. The representative of China mentioned the single economic space and he is absolutely right. Here is a simple fact. If you are a wine grower in Citluk, in Herzegovina, you will find it easier to sell your wine to Berlin than to Banja Luka.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I think we should be taking that as a message to speed up the process of reform. That is how I have read it. That is how others have read it, and that is what we shall now do. The representative of the United Kingdom asked me two questions: was it possible to put together a "non-nationalist" coalition in the Republika Srpska? The answer is yes. It does depend on, I think Mr. Mladen Ivanic, the ex-Prime Minister of Republika of Srpska. But, numerically, it can be done. Does it matter who forms the new Governments? Of course it does. I look at the manifestos of all the parties, including the most nationalist, and I can find strong commitments to reform in each of them. But that reform will proceed more quickly if those who are known by their actions as reformers are in Government, rather than if those who are not known as reformers are in.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“If we have inflicted, as we have, on Bosnia- Herzegovina, six elections in six years, giving a Government only two years to conduct the reforms in a massive programme that required radical reform, without giving it time to deliver the dividends of that, then we should not be too surprised if, at the end of the day, people are getting fed up with elections, because they do not see their Governments delivering progress. My argument remains, and it is not a new one - I said it six years ago when the war ended in Bosnia - in countries in which we try to establish peace after war our priority should always be the rule of law first and democracy second. Only if you establish the rule of law can you have decent democratic practices. But the United Kingdom delegate is right.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I have gone all around the country day by day, exhaustively, in order to try to improve turn-out. At 55 per cent, I merely reflect that it is still rather higher than normally found in some of the countries around this table. But let me enter as a thought for the international community. If we descend on nations in the chaos after war and we believe that the first thing we should establish is democracy, and we measure democracy by the number of elections there are, rather than saying that the first thing we should do is establish the rule of law, then do not be surprised if when elections are held every two years or more frequently, the nationals are rather bored with it when they do not see results.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The representative of the United States asked me two direct questions, would I be prepared to use the so- called bond powers to counter Dayton-obstructionists and those who break the sanctions on Iraq set up by the United Nations Security Council? The straightforward answer to him is yes, though in the latter of those two it is rather more a matter, it seems to me, for SFOR at the moment, together with the United Nations authorities, to establish whether or not there has been a breach in such sanctions. I stand ready to use my powers to back up any action that they require to deal with a case of a breach of international law as may be revealed. Jacques Klein will cover the question of whether or not UNMIBH is ready. On the question of low turn-out, can I just say that this is disappointing to us all, the low turn-out.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But here is a point that I think it is important that the Council might like to fasten on - and I put it in the blunt, undiplomatic terms of a representative of a country that makes a major contribution in terms of resources to Bosnia-Herzegovina - why should we continue to provide our taxpayers' money to help their country if they hand so much of it over to criminals, so there is inefficiency in their systems? And our taxpayers are saying that if we are dealing with a new Government of whatever colour and calibre, then a little more direct approach that links the resources that we provide with the reforms that have to be made to tackle corruption and criminality, to set up a value added tax and to reform the customs system might be an appropriate way forward.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But it remains a hard and unavoidable fact that the people who are now more powerful are those who come from the "nationalist" parties. I am not sure nationalism and non-nationalism is necessarily the only criterion by which you can judge Bosnian politics any longer. I think we are moving to a rather subtle and more complex structure. But let me just make this point, that I think that we ought to judge the next Government by its actions, not by who is in there or what label they have. All of their manifestos are committed to reform. This is where they have to prove it.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“You would have seen then that the heart- breaking thing is that whatever their commitment, whatever their courage, the thing that keeps them from coming back is that there is not the money to put a roof on their house, that we cannot provide them with a cow, that we cannot provide them with a herd of sheep to get their economy restarted. Now that is what this means to keep that funding up, and I beg the Council to make sure that continues to happen. There are some who think it is the time to cut back our funding. It is not. We are on the edge of a miracle here, but it has to be kept going. The representative of France mentioned the fact, as indeed have many others, that they did not regard the vote as a vote for nationalism. That is correct.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I wish that Council members could have come with my wife and me, a matter of weeks ago, when we went to stay with people moving back, unbelievably, to the hill villages above Srebrenica. These were devastated farm lands that had not been opened up for six years and were being cleared by women, because all the men had been killed. Those women have had the courage to return to their communities, to clear their farm land by hand, to sit patiently beside their ruined and burnt house in the very community where their father their grandfather and their sons had been slaughtered.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“It operates completely disregarding borders and ethnic differences. It has to be tackled regionally. And it can only be tackled regionally with the specific, practical measures of the sort that have been outlined and which, we hope, will be put together at the London Conference. On the question of refugees raised by Ireland, Mexico and the representative of the EU, the key thing that is stopping refugees returning in most areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina - leaving aside perhaps a tiny handful, three or four I could name, where the problem remains security - is lack of economic activity, lack of social provision and lack of jobs above all. But, nevertheless, there are many areas to which people would wish to move back but they are now prevented from doing so, because there simply is not the money to put a roof on their house.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The representative of Denmark asked me a direct question: "What can best come out of it?" And the answer is: "That practical help that we need." And may I stress, perhaps speaking on behalf of my colleagues who have already spoken from the region, that organized crime is not just a Bosnian problem, it is a Balkans problem. Nor is it a problem that is unique to the Balkans. Organized crime, corruption and the black market stalk after war like a black shadow. Those of us who remember what happened after the Second World War in Europe will remember that this is an inevitable consequence of war and dislocation. But it must be beaten. There is not a single civil space, not a single political space, not even a single economic space in the Balkans. But there is a single criminal space.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“If we are now to seriously tackle, as I am determined we will, the networks of serious, large- scale organized crime in Bosnia-Herzegovina, then some people will be, indeed already are, putting their lives at risk to clean up the space in Bosnia- Herzegovina. Practical help, practical assistance with judges, with prosecutors that can help us train, with witness protection programmes by those who have experience in dealing with organized crime, will be hugely important to our success. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose. And in this context, I think the point made by the representative of Denmark on behalf of the European Union (EU) is extremely important. The London Conference of 24-25 November on organized crime throughout the Balkans is a very important milestone for us.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Lord Ashdown: I am very conscious, Sir, of your proper requirement to be brief, so I will try, if I may - whilst, I hope, covering most if not all of the points - to be as swift as I can. First of all, may I say how much I personally appreciated - as will, I know, my staff - the very widespread expressions of support that we have received here. They are heartwarming and provide us, I think, with a huge sense of confidence about the support that comes from the Council, and for that I am deeply grateful. May I say that, very welcome though they are, we need alongside them - and members may think these are even more important - the practical help that was referred to properly by the representative of Colombia, in the support programmes, for the judges and the prosecutors, and in the witness protection programmes.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Ultimately, of course, it will be up to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to seize that chance, to make the transition onto the path to Europe and to reach the point of no return. To do all those things will require continued funding; it will require a continued, though diminishing, military presence for some time; and it will require the continued commitment of qualified and dedicated people from the international community. It will require, above all, one other commodity: political will. That political will will be necessary to see this job through to success, success that is now, I believe, in our grasp, but only if we can find the measures and the political will, in the face of other crises in the world, to stay the course.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“We learned that lesson in the Balkans, and we must continue to show, in the Balkans and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that we have not forgotten it. But we have learned something else too from elsewhere on our European continent. In Central and Eastern Europe countries have remarkably transformed their prospects, by their own efforts, and with very considerable international support and involvement. Those countries now stand on the very threshold of joining the European Union. We, together with the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, have the chance to set Bosnia and Herzegovina firmly onto that same road and to give its people a second chance at the brighter future that they so cruelly missed a decade ago.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“That, if I may say, places a special obligation on Bosnia and Herzegovina's neighbours - especially on Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - to work actively for stability and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to show that full respect that Croatia has certainly shown, and that Belgrade increasingly does as well, to Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In conclusion, even before 11 September 2001 the recent tragic history of the Balkans had reminded us of the dangers that failed, or failing, States could pose to the wider international community; how instability could be contagious; and how quickly someone else's problems could become everyone else's problems.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I very much welcome the fact that the European Union is taking on a steadily greater share of the burden within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as in the rest of the Balkan region. That is an important fact, and one that is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that I am, so- called, "double-batted" to both the European Union and to the Security Council. But Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a team effort in which the entire international community is engaged and must stay engaged if we are to see it through, as I believe we now can, to success.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“We have to remember - and I think that sometimes some of my international colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not remember - that our task is not to create a first-world country in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but to bring the country to the point at which its peace rests on firm foundations; it no longer poses a threat to itself or its neighbours; and it becomes a dependable international and regional partner operating within the structures of a modern European State and firmly on course for integration, over time, into the European Union. Once we have achieved that it will be time for us to hand over that task to the people who should be doing it and who, I believe, have more than the capacity to do so, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina themselves.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“In order to provide the necessary focus and discipline to the efforts of the Office of the High Representative, I have instructed my staff to draw up a mandate implementation plan - the author of which, in terms of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), was Jacques Klein, whose lead we are following. The purpose ofthat plan will be to set out clearly and concisely, in language everybody can understand and with measurable benchmarks, what the core tasks of the Office of the High Representative are and how we propose to accomplish them. That document will be ready in time for the Peace Implementation Committee Steering Board meeting on 21 November. It will also drive not only our actions but also our internal structures.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“In particular, we need to build the capacity of local institutions as they prepare to take over the main responsibilities for managing return. I therefore cannot hide from the Council that it worries me that some countries, including some that have been our largest contributors in the past, are, in my view, prematurely scaling back their funding for refugee return next year, just as sustainable success is in sight. Let us be careful not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I am determined, however, that we in the Office of the High Representative move towards handing over tasks to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina at a much faster pace.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source