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

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“As I have said, there has been progress in the last year; but we need to go further and faster if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to have the armed forces it can afford and if it is to develop the State-level dimension of security in defence matters so that the country can fulfil its commitments as a sovereign State and play its part in regional security, particularly within the context of Atlantic structures. On refugee return the story is one, I believe, of quite remarkable, if unsung, success. We have to keep up those efforts through, and during, the course of 2003 if we are to be in a position, as I am determined that we shall be, successfully to hand this burden over to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the end of next year. We need continued support and funding in the coming year to make that happen.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The Office of the High Representative, with the executive power it wields, should focus on the first, and not the second. Our job now is to complete what we have set our hand to and to focus on the core remaining tasks. Justice, jobs and making Bosnia and Herzegovina work will be the core agenda, as I have described. We will also need to press ahead with downsizing and reorganizing the armed forces to ensure that they become a force for stability, not for instability.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“These structural reforms, coupled with aggressive economic reforms, are the key steps to answering the question of how to make Bosnia and Herzegovina work. Whatever the makeup of the new Government, which is yet to be decided, my message will be the same: we will judge you not by what you said on the campaign trail, but by what you do in office. If you are serious about reform, as you say you are, now you have a chance to prove it. Seven years after Dayton, Bosnia and Herzegovina is entering a crucial phase. The job we are trying to do can be done, but only if we remain committed and stay fiercely - and maybe even uncomfortably - focused. My approach as the High Representative will be to distinguish ruthlessly between those things that are truly essential and those that are simply desirable.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“But there is no point giving more funds to weak central institutions, which is why we are also proposing changes to Bosnia's central Government, the Council of Ministers, to end the system of ethnic rotation, which produces a bizarre ministerial merry-go-round and institutionalizes instability where we can least afford it. We also propose giving the Chair - let us call him or her the Prime Minister, for the moment - a professional civil service to support the work that he or she does to complete that vital job. Here again, we will have to ask the international community to lend its assistance. Relatively small resources here will yield huge dividends in increasing the efficacy of the Bosnian Government later.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The equivalent of the entire annual budget of the State Border Service, around 30 million euros, is lost in just over a month through sales tax evasion. If the international community is to maintain its commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina, that simply cannot continue. That is why we have proposed replacing the corruption-prone sales taxes with a modern value- added tax system, operated, as it must be, at the State level. And that is why we have asked the European Commission to recommend how we must work with the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities to reform the customs system to cut fraud and to boost revenue yield.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“None of it will make one iota of difference if the whole way in which the Government operates destroys jobs instead of creating them, or if the way in which the Government collects its revenues impoverishes public services and enriches criminals. If the international community - and here I speak to my Bosnian colleagues - is to be expected to continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina, and if the world's taxpayers are to continue to build new hospitals and schools, then they must know that they are subsidizing reform, not racketeers. Present estimates - conservative estimates, I am bound to say - are that around 600 million convertible marks - 300 million euros - are lost every year in customs fraud. That is one and a half times the entire State budget lost to corruption and smuggling.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Some important laws have been enacted in the past few months, including an amendment to the State law on civil aviation, laws on entity electricity, the Federation law on concessions, the entity law on banks, and the State veterinary law. But we will have to push even faster. Among other things, we need a single-budget, one-stop business registration system, driving a bulldozer through the tangle of bureaucracy that prevents businesses from being established in the legal sector and forces them into the grey economy. But no amount of legislation will make people better off unless it is implemented.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Aid is tapering off and debts are mounting, and foreign private investment is not increasing to fill that gap. A glance at the economic indicators shows that the patient is hovering between the serious and the critical lists. So we have no option but to sharply - I use the word again, perhaps even painfully - steepen the gradient of economic reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will have to do things quickly, perhaps even roughly, to get the economy going. At this stage, speed will matter more than perfection. Our motto will have to be "The best is the enemy of the good". We are making some headway already.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Let me remind the Council that Bosnia and Herzegovina is now the first State in the region to have taken the step - so essential to a modern democracy - of separating those who make the laws from those who administer the laws. We will also need substantial international support if the local judges, prosecutors, police and court officials and defence bar are to be trained in the use of the new criminal code that we will be introducing shortly. And that is the kind of assistance that only the international community can provide. But now we also need to open up a further front of reform: economic reform. Again, time is not on Bosnia's side. We will have to move quickly - painfully quickly - if we are to reform Bosnia's sclerotic economy. I shall put it another way: time is now Bosnia and Herzegovina's enemy.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The centrepiece of our efforts is the new Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will have to have the tools it needs to do the job, such as a new State criminal code and criminal procedure code, which we are about to present for enactment. There are other tools that the Court will need as well, for which we will have to look to the international community - tools such as the experts and the resources to implement the witness protection programmes, money-laundering programmes and asset forfeiture programmes that we need to put into operation, and the judges and prosecutors to mentor and guide local judges and prosecutors as they implement this new system of justice.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Once again, I am deeply grateful to Jacques Paul Klein and to UNMIBH for all they are doing to make sure that that happens as smoothly and as efficiently as possible. We have tough times ahead. But, thanks to my predecessors and to the immense work done by the United Nations, we have solid foundations upon which to build. So we are making headway. But there is much more to do - and we must do it faster - before Bosnia and Herzegovina has a justice system that works. We now need to ratchet up our efforts by establishing in law the key outstanding pieces of legislation central to the pursuit of justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But if that is to be a success - and here comes the appeal - we need your Governments to provide us with the practical support that we will need to make it a success.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“We have begun, with the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the long-overdue process of restructuring the country's court system at all levels and of ensuring that only honest judges and prosecutors administer the law. We had promised to have the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council established in the autumn, and I am pleased to say it has been established and is now in place. We have established a special chamber in the State Court in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a special department in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutor's Office to tackle organized crime. I am determined that, whatever happens, it will be in place, operating and trying criminals by 31 December. That is fast progress, but it needs to be done. In January, the European Police Mission will take over from the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH).”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“They are set out in the document that we have agreed on jointly with the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities. The document is called "Justice and Jobs", and it identifies in precise terms what steps now need to be taken to give the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina the rule of law and a chance for employment. We have made a start in establishing the rule of law. We have reorganized the international community presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina to reflect that priority, and we have begun to assemble the tools that we will need to assert the rule of law. We are setting up a new unit to tackle crime and corruption. We have established a new legal reform unit, headed and almost entirely staffed by Bosnians, to rewrite the Bosnian law.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Because, whatever the precise makeup of the new Governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the challenges facing the country are the same today as they were before polling day, the same this month as they were last. We still face the huge challenge of establishing the rule of law. We still face the huge challenge of creating jobs. We still face the immense challenge of delivering effective government and stable institutions and of raising standards in public life. In other words, we still face the challenge of "making Bosnia and Herzegovina work" - my slogan for the next period of my mandate. The only thing that has changed is that those challenges have now become even more urgent. I said when I took up my post that my priorities were to be "first justice, then jobs, through reform", and they still are.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I travelled the length and breadth of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the run-up to the elections. I heard the message from the voters myself at public meeting after public meeting, on radio talk show after radio talk show. First, let me tell the Council what that message was not. It was not "Give us nationalism". It was "Give us a future". Unlike their counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not punish their leaders for delivering too much reform; they punished them for delivering too little and not fast enough. These elections were a cry for help. Bosnia and Herzegovina's new Government, whatever it is, needs to hear that cry very, very clearly, and so do we in the international community.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“"Back to the Future", read one; "Forward to the Past", said another. I just do not think that is accurate. Of the three nationalist parties, the votes of two did not go up; they went down. And the party that did best of all, the SNSD - the Independent Social Democratic Party - is a validly non-nationalist party. It was the big winner of the night. So I appeal to the Council, just as I have appealed to the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not to misread the outcome of these elections. What we witnessed was a protest vote - or, given the low turnout, perhaps we should call it a protest non-vote - against politics and politicians in general and against the slow pace of reform. Again, I would say that one does not have to go to Bosnia and Herzegovina to find low turnouts, because people are fed up with politicians. I know; I was one.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Those elections were not only conducted efficiently, but were also carried out with less violence in a Bosnian election than, perhaps, in elections in, again, my own home country of Northern Ireland. Secondly, I do not dispute that the turnout was disappointing. It was, which reflected, I believe, a widespread frustration with the political process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and - perhaps we in the international community should look to ourselves for this - a certain fatigue born of six major elections in six years. I wonder what the turnout would have been in our countries if we had had an election every two years for the last six; perhaps it would not have reached even 55 per cent. As to the results, I have read many newspaper headlines announcing a return to nationalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Which is why I, how shall we say, raised an eyebrow at some of the commentary, much of it offered from several thousand miles away, on the results of our recent elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Let me say a word about those elections. First, I think it is a shame that it was not more widely acknowledged that these were the first elections to be run by the Bosnians themselves. It should also be noted that they did a first- class job, quite as good - some would argue, perhaps even better - than was previously done by the international community. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has testified to the way the Bosnians carried out that task, one of the most difficult jobs any State has to do, let alone a mere six years after a terrible war.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“It is high time - it is beyond time - seven years after Dayton, that they are caught and brought to justice. So don't get me wrong: the region is still fragile, and parts of it are still prone to topple into crisis. Bosnia and Herzegovina is still fragile. The process of reconciliation is far from over. Healing after war, as we know in Britain, in my own home country of Northern Ireland, takes time. Progress in the Balkans is often frustrating - two steps forward, one step back. But we must not mistake slow progress for no progress. If you could take a snapshot of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, and compare it to now, you would see the difference; and you would see a further improvement in the years 2003, 2004 and 2006. So we need to keep our eye on the big picture. And we need to understand it clearly.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Ah, said the sceptics six years ago, but you will never have real peace in Bosnia without democracy in Belgrade and Zagreb, and there is little prospect of that, they warned. But we now do indeed have democracy in Belgrade and Zagreb. The Tudjman regime is gone, and Croatia is making great strides towards integration within the European Union (EU) and is playing an increasingly constructive part in the creation of a stable peace in Bosnia as well. Milosevic is on trial in The Hague, and some of us have been there to give evidence against him. It is a great pity that Milosevic has not been joined in The Hague by Karadzic and Mladic. Their continued liberty, needless to say, seriously undermines our efforts, not least to establish the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Thanks in very large measure to the work of the United Nations, through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly a million refugees - let me repeat this, because it is sometimes misunderstood - nearly a million refugees have returned to their homes, over 350,000 of them minority returns, and around 60 per cent of locally-registered property claims have been resolved. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that we invented a new human right in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Perhaps it should be known as the Bosnian right. Wars will never be the same again as a result. It is the right of refugees to return home after war. Thousands of homes have been repaired. Electricity generation is now at 90 per cent of the pre- war levels.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“As peace has taken root, the number of Stabilization Force (SFOR) troops needed to protect it has fallen steadily, from 60,000 then to some 18,000 today. It is about to fall still further, to around 12,000. And let me just say that those troops continue to do a vital job and to do it superbly. They deserve all our gratitude. We could not have made the progress we have on civilian peace implementation without them. We have made progress in downsizing the local armed forces, something I shall touch on in a moment: 430,000 men were under arms locally when the Dayton Agreement was signed. Today that figure is in the order of 22,000 - still too high, but a remarkable drop.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The refugees would never go home; were we not stupid to even suggest they might? Belgrade and Zagreb would exercise a baleful influence as far ahead as anyone could conceivably see. Bosnia, they said, like the rest of the Balkans, was a basket case. We were doomed to fail. Well, no one would claim the job has been done completely. There is a lot more to do, and we have to move a lot faster. But it is worth reminding ourselves just how far we have come since those days when Bosnia loomed all too large in the business of the Council. Within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the agreement has held. The peace has now lasted nearly twice as long - let me remind the Council - as the war. Come to Sarajevo today, and you will find in many places a lively European capital in place of the hellhole of 1992 to 1995.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“I, for one, would like to pay tribute to the work of those who have served Bosnia and Herzegovina under the flag of the United Nations, and - and here I know I speak for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Whole - to the immense and incalculable contribution that Jacques Klein personally has made through his leadership, his tenacity, and his sheer ability - his sometimes frightening ability - to get things done. I would also like to use this occasion, if I may, to thank him personally for the wise advice and unfailing support he has given me. Next month it will be seven years since the Bosnian war ended: an age ago. At the time, members will recall, the sceptics were legion. The agreement would not hold, they warned. Our peacekeepers would be sucked into a guerrilla war.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“The departure of UNMIBH will mark the end of a decade-long effort to keep the peace in a small European country, an effort which has cost the lives of 272 United Nations personnel. It has been, I am sure all around this table know, an intensely difficult and tough task. But when the United Nations leaves, it will do so, I believe, with its duty done and its head held high. In my judgement, this is one of the unsung successes - or too little-sung successes.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source
“Lord Ashdown: Thank you, Mr. President, for providing me this opportunity. This is my first report to the Security Council since I took over as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of May from my predecessor, Wolfgang Petritsch. I would like to set out for the Council this morning my impressions of my first few months, my priorities for my term of office, what the Council can expect of us, and what we would ask of the Council and of the Governments which support and pay for our work. But, before I do so, let me say how pleased I am to be able to appear here alongside my good friend and close colleague, Jacques Paul Klein, whose last report this is before the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) departs in a few weeks' time.”
2002-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4631 (2002) · source