YouSaid · the spoken record

Petritsch

lines on the record: 197
first: 2000-05-09
most recent: 2002-03-05
sittings or episodes: 6
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

“I very much appreciate the support of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in particular, in providing the necessary security environment, as well as the United Nations mission, for providing the financial means needed to put the multi-ethnic police in Srebrenica in place. With regard to the question on the conclusion of the United Nations mission, I must say that Jacques Klein has assured me that he will be able to keep to the timetable. So I am quite confident that the remaining tasks of the United Nations will be properly implemented. In addition to the changing role of United Nations engagement there, the role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is changing - the most recent elections were the last ones where the OSCE was fully in charge.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“In the interim, I have established a board, including the United Nations, to oversee the implementation of plans for the cemetery and the memorial. However, in parallel I have asked the international agencies on the ground to come up with a Srebrenica action plan, because I believe that it is very important to put to rest the victims of the Srebrenica tragedy. But at the same time, we should also prepare for the future and support reconstruction-in a physical sense as well as in a social sense for the people of Srebrenica. I am convinced that the Srebrenica action plan will in fact do its job, in terms of accelerated return and economic revival.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“What was so important about the visit of Mr. Vedrine was the fact that he referred to the urgency of economic reform. That is really centre-stage in my programme and in the Government programme. The European Union road map shows the way towards the "Europeanization" of Bosnia and Herzegovina - another of the key words that I would like to use in this context. I am convinced, together with the European Union, that the next year and a half will be a window of opportunity for starting genuine reform that will be truly embraced by the local Government and not just by the international community. With reference to the Srebrenica issue, I very much appreciated the statement by the representative of Bangladesh. I can give the Council a progress report.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“There are means - to which I will come back later -by which to make progress within the Dayton Accords and based upon the Dayton Accords. Basically there is the Constitutional Court, which serves as such an instrument. The constitutional commissions which I established are of an interim nature; they need to come up with proposals, in both entities, on how to improve the two constitutions, and on how to put in place Constitutional Court decisions. I very much appreciated the statement made by the representative of France. His Foreign Minister, Mr. Vedrine, on 9 March, was the first to visit the newly established authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That visit was very well received, and I would like to encourage other Governments to demonstrate support for the new Governments, both at the State level and at entity level.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“All the contentious issues were agreed upon at the recent 7 March meeting, with the exception of the status of the Croat component in the Federation army. I believe that final agreement will now have to await the selection of the new member of the Presidency, which will take place in due course. I am quite confident that very soon thereafter we will have a common defence policy paper agreed upon by all three ethnic communities - by all three constituent peoples. The next question related to cantonization. The Russian representative quoted me as saying that I had found the proposal interesting. Yes, I find it interesting in academic terms, but there is no time and no space, as I have repeatedly stated publicly in interviews; now we need to follow, and fully implement, Dayton.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Mr. Petritsch: I know that time is running short, but I believe that it is very important to try to answer the questions that were put to me, because the questions and issues raised indicate the great interest of the Security Council and its continued commitment to supporting the peace implementation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is not a small matter; it is a lot. It means a lot to me as the High Representative there, as well as to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who really count on the Council. A whole array of pertinent issues have been raised. Let me start with the Russian Federation, whose representative raised three questions. First, there is the question of the defence doctrine. I can assure the Council that solid progress has been made on getting the Presidency to agree on a common defence policy.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“This empowers people with the right to travel, trade and talk without fear, whatever their nationality, language or religion. We have a very powerful means of persuasion. The peoples of South-Eastern Europe might not agree on much right now, but they do agree on this: all want to be members of a prosperous European Union. The journey will be a long one for them, but it must be more than a vague hope. We must continue to present this in very concrete terms, as we are doing through the Stability Pact and elsewhere. The future of the Balkan region is already being shaped in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The elections showed that its citizens are beginning to see how nationalism makes them poor and isolated. We must build on our success. We must not back away from a job half done.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Secondly, we must stop paying exclusive attention to men with guns like those on the Macedonian border and in the Presevo Valley in southern Serbia. We fail when we are not clear; but we succeed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Croatia and in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia whenever the international community speaks with one voice. The redrawing of borders in the Balkans in an attempt to meet the impossible demands of exclusivist nationalists pursuing a mono-ethnic ideal that can be realized only on a remote island leads only to more killing and to prolonged international engagement. Chaos benefits only the mini profiteri, the war profiteers. What the implementation of the Dayton Accords shows is the importance of citizenship based on the rule of law, which has formed the foundations of a prosperous United States and a united Europe.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“This month, Blagoje Simic, who was indicted for crimes against humanity committed when he was a top civilian official in the Bosnian town of Samac during the war, travelled to The Hague to hand himself over for trial. He is the first Yugoslav citizen to do so voluntarily. We must not let up the pressure. The United States Government has made it clear to the new authorities in Belgrade that they must cooperate with the Tribunal or face having international aid cut off. This must not be an empty threat. We must see to it that Slobodan Milosevic', Radovan Karadzie and Ratko Mladic' face trial for their part in one of the last, grim acts of a dark century. As the writer Michael Ignatieff has said of leaving war crimes unpunished, "the cycle of impunity remains unbroken, societies remain free to indulge their fantasies of denial".”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“How does the many-voiced international community ensure that the Balkans integrate with Europe as a peaceful and prosperous region? For all the complexities, I believe the answer is relatively straightforward. First, we must continue to ensure our full support for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. This is an institution which is getting results. A landmark conviction in the Kunarac trial last month saw mass rape, as a crime in itself, punished for the first time as a crime against humanity, with huge consequences for women's rights worldwide. Many indicted war crimes suspects also see the writing on the wall. In January, Biljana Plavsic, a former President of the Republika Srpska charged with crimes against humanity, handed herself over to the Court.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“This legal mouthful means, in essence, that any constituent people in Bosnia - whether Serb, Croat, Bosniac or so-called other - have their rights as citizens fully protected in law even before the full implementation of the Court ruling. It will have a huge and positive impact in many areas of daily life, from the classroom to the workplace. The nationalists do not like this either. Furthermore, I established the Independent Judicial Commission last December to shake up reform in the courts and prosecutors' offices across the country. This should help buttress the rule of law. Positive reforms and democratic Governments that eye membership in the European Union are also now the daily fare of life in neighbouring Croatia and Yugoslavia. Bosnia has just named its first Ambassador to Belgrade.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“I did not want him around as we set about this year to overhaul public utilities such as power generation and telecoms, where efficiency and price will determine distribution, not the supposed ethnicity of their subscribers. This has sent a clear signal to officials to clean up their acts and, along with the creation of a State-level court to arbitrate international trade disputes, has done much to bolster investor confidence. It has done little for the confidence of the nationalists. Since I last addressed the Security Council, I have also taken an important decision to set up constitutional commissions in both entities. These commissions will ensure that the historical Constitutional Court ruling on the so-called constituent peoples' case is put in place on an interim basis until its full implementation this summer.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“The new Governments are very interested in putting an end to the smuggling of cigarettes and alcohol, which costs them an estimated quarter billion dollars in lost revenues each year. Part of the greater confidence is greater transparency and rule of law, something which is, again, not to the taste of the nationalists. Last month I removed Edhem Bicakcic - until recently the Federation's Prime Minister and a senior member of the Bosniac Party of Democratic Action (SDA) - from his new post as director of the power utility Elektroprivreda. Mr. Bicakcic is under four separate criminal investigations for fraud and abuse of public office.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Bosnia's outgoing Administration refused to adopt the pension reform law, risking tens of millions of dollars in badly needed aid from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. I had to impose it. But I believe that with Bosnia and Herzegovina's new Administrations in place, the country's citizens have, for the first time, leaders who want to own this process and get on with the business of government themselves. Both the new State and entity Governments have ambitious plans to further the reforms - cutting tax rates and widening the tax base, improving collection of customs and excise payments and pushing forward with privatization - to attract both domestic and foreign investors and to balance official budgets.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Commercial banks, including several Western banks, have taken their place and are providing better services and real competition. The cost of borrowing has fallen from around 30 per cent to just 10 per cent. But Bosnia and Herzegovina remains far too reliant on international aid flows, which make up an estimated 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). But real GDP growth in 2000 was a respectable 10 per cent, and inflation increased in the Federation half by just 3 per cent. Inflation slowed considerably in the Republika Srpska, to 8 per cent in 2000. Pensioners remain very vulnerable, but a controversial law to end a damaging cycle of payment arrears is working. Their angry protests of last year have stopped. Too many of these positive advances have had to be imposed by my me.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“When a Bosniac refugee has the confidence to return to a place like Srebrenica, the site of Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War, it is a fairly safe bet that the nationalist message is losing ground. I will continue to act decisively to remove any officials who obstruct the rule of law in the vital area of returns. The nationalists do not like how the rule of law and market reforms have started to chip away at their once-powerful economic fiefdoms and at the institutionalised banditry they once took for granted. In early January of this year, the payments bureaux-the old communist monopoly on financial transactions, which were under the thumbs of the three main nationalist parties during the war - were finally closed down.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“There were still criminal incidents aimed at scaring them away -house burnings in the eastern town of Srebrenica, demonstrations and daily intimidation of housing officials charged with implementing tough new property laws. But there were more than 67,000 registered returns in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000. These are people returning to areas where they constitute a minority; that figure is almost double the rate in 1999. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that there were no tent cities this winter and that returns have got off to a good start this year thanks to mild weather. There were more than 4,000 minority returns throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina alone in January of this year, against the barely 1,700 registered in January last year.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“For years, their play on fear guaranteed a good turnout at elections. But parties like the HDZ are in trouble. Overall, the HDZ's votes for the State Parliament have dipped, from 340,000 in the first post-war election of 1996, to just 160,000 last year. It is true that the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), founded by indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzie, did well in the Republika Srpska. But that party had to accept the moderate Government that I mentioned earlier. Overall, the sources of fear, and the cash it raised to fill nationalist party coffers, are starting to fade. A record number of refugees and displaced persons last year decided it was safe enough to go home.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Shortly afterwards, his party, claiming to speak for the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Croats, announced a plan for self- rule. I was forced to act decisively. Our columnist would probably say, "Well, I told you so." But what is this really about? For many years, nationalists of Mr. Jelavic's stripe got rich by exploiting fear and suspicion among a population that is still trying to get over the terror of the war. The HDZ, in an inflammatory election advertisement that was subsequently banned by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for breaching election rules, portrayed the Bosnian Croats' Muslim neighbours as bloodthirsty Saracens who put innocent children to the sword. It does not take much to convince people with limited access to balanced information that their livelihoods are in danger.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Ante Jelavic. After many provocative acts on his part, I removed him this month as a member of Bosnia's Joint Presidency. I further banned his involvement with any political party, including the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which he led up until two weeks ago. Three of his hard-line deputies are under the same ban. Mr. Jelavic worked to tear up the Dayton Peace Accords, threatening the constitutional order in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country's peace. His party has boycotted official institutions for months, leaving those who voted for it unrepresented. His party held a political rally disguised as a referendum on election day last November, despite specific warnings not to do so. He actively participated in a rally in support of two men convicted by the war crimes Tribunal in The Hague last month for crimes against humanity.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“A respected United States columnist, writing under the headline "Ethnic nationalism is still prevailing", thinks that we probably should. He wrote, "the future will probably see non-Muslim Bosnia and Herzegovina partitioned between Croatia and Serbia. Today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, forced into birth by Richard Holbrooke during the Dayton negotiations of 1995, is probably too much of an artifice to survive." Worryingly, this idea appears to be gaining currency in the halls of academe and elsewhere on both sides of the Atlantic. The only recently discredited idea of "ancient ethnic hatreds" - an excuse that the international community used in order to do nothing in the early 1990s - is gaining ground just as its nationalist proponents in Croatia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia itself are, in fact, losing ground. One of those losing ground is Mr.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“The multi-ethnic Social Democratic Party (SDP) has the strongest representation, with nine seats. This change has led, nearly 10 years after the outbreak of war in Bosnia, to the formation of the country's first non-nationalist Government at State level as well as in the mainly Bosniac-Croat Federation. In the predominantly Serb entity, Republika Srpska, a moderate technocrat heads the Government. The country's new State-level Prime Minister, Bozidar Matic has announced plans to implement market reforms, create jobs and get the hundreds of thousands of Bosnian citizens who remain refugees or displaced persons back to their homes. I regard this as an important indicator that my concept of local ownership of the problems is finally taking root. Do we want to abandon Mr. Matic now, just as Bosnia and Herzegovina is turning the corner?”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Either way, the international community would come out the loser if we were to give up with the job half done. I should like to explain why. Given the revolutionary changes last year in both Croatia and Yugoslavia, last November's general election results in Bosnia and Herzegovina were seen as a disappointment. But given Bosnia's character as a truly multi-ethnic country, where up to a quarter of a million people lost their lives in the 1992-1995 war, the shift to more moderate parties is both real and encouraging. Old nationalist parties, none of them with particularly strong democratic credentials, have seen their share of seats in the House of Representatives at the State level decline from 36 of 42 seats in 1996 to just 19 in the most recent election.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“I want to use this opportunity to show how my Office, and other international organizations that I coordinate in Bosnia, like the United Nations, are working successfully against the dangerous voices of division in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I want to show how the rule of law and market economic reforms are turning the country around and setting it on the path towards integration with Europe and how all this can serve as a model for the rest of the region. What we must not do is cower at the appearance of a few gunmen or noisy threats and give up on all our hard work and the billions of dollars that have gone into building the foundations for a stable and prosperous Balkans. Our continued engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be read in two ways: as a moral imperative or, simply, as self-interested common sense.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Mr. Petritsch: I speak to the Council at a testing time for the hard-won peace in the Balkans. The smoke over mountain villages and the angry crackle of gunfire have come back to haunt us in Macedonia and in Serbia, and the calls for ethnically based division are being sounded once more in mainly Croat parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But this time we cannot claim ignorance of the challenges we face in consolidating the peace in southeastern Europe. We see them for what they are; leaders of the past who fear the positive and very real changes of the present will see themselves disinherited, both politically and financially. This report is the eighteenth by a High Representative, and this is the fourth time that I have had the honour of addressing the Security Council.”
2001-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4303 (2001) · source
“Izetbegovic, of his own free will, stepped down and thus provided space, room and opportunity for progress in the overall peace implementation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I should like to take this opportunity to thank the United Nations agencies that are working together with us in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I should like also to thank the Security Council for its continued support, and the representatives assembled here for their respective contributions and, above all, for the support I can feel from the statements they made here.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Of course - and this is a paradoxical situation - because of the great success in returns this year, we do not have enough flexible funds where there is a lack of alternative accommodations. Of course, we also need to recognize that results are regionally quite diverse - in some parts things are working out excellently, while in others things are still not up to par. In the end, let me say that we now see fresh winds of change in the whole region. Yugoslavia and Croatia provide for a better environment that is more conducive to peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within 10 months, the three main actors in the Yugoslav drama have stepped down in one way or another. I would like also to stress here the dignified way in which Mr.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“It is true that there are quite a few ethnic features in the Dayton Accord, as was pointed out by the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at the time were necessary and which need to be successively brought down to a realistic level. But the Dayton Accords do not place any restrictions on us in terms of refugee returns, and therefore we are pushing very hard to achieve the necessary results in that area. Given current figures, together with the very comprehensive property legislation plan that is now being implemented, I am quite confident that this year and next will see the return issue become a self-sustaining one, so that the local authorities, which are primarily charged with this question, will be able fully to take over once again the issue of ownership and bring it to a happy ending.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“So, in short, there is a mixed record when it comes to economic reform, but the primary concern will remain the privatization process and the restructuring of the major utilities in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to provide for a single economic space for the country. I also see this as the one and only way to fight corruption, to strengthen the institutions and the independent judiciary, and to create a level playing field for a competitive, market-oriented economy. The next point is the return of refugees, which, as the Council is probably aware, is at the core of the Dayton Accords. I should say also that it is not something that is confined by the Dayton Accords.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“I am quite confident that with this help we will be successful in implementing the Constitutional Court's decisions. Let me turn to some other issues. Economic reform is the engine of change in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there are indeed differences between the two entities when it comes to the state of the economy. There are clear reasons for this. The first two years in the Republika Srpska were basically lost in terms of the peace implementation process because of the obstructionism of politicians such as Mr. Krisnic, who is now in The Hague. This has changed, but nonetheless the Republika Srpska is lagging behind for these and other reasons. But I must also say that when it comes to the privatization process, some of the successes are actually more visible in the Republika Srpska than in the Federation.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“They are non-negotiable, as was pointed out by Ambassador Greenstock, and this needs to be underlined and understood by the local entity governments. We will see to it that the Constitutional Court's decisions are implemented and become part of the entity constitutions. Also important is the need to continue to depoliticize judicial issues. We need to go on and do what would be necessary in any other state, which is necessary also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will solicit the support of the Council of Europe- of which Bosnia and Herzegovina will hopefully be a member very soon- and that of the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, which has already in the past helped us to find the right solutions to some of the more sticky issues.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“When we talk about State institutions, I believe that the Council of Ministers is central. We now have six ministries in place; this means that the central Government in Sarajevo is already reminiscent of a modern Government: it has six ministries and covers most of the relevant topics. Therefore, my efforts after the elections will be directed at strengthening the Council of Ministers as much as possible, to turn it into the central institution that it was supposed to be according to Dayton. Turning to the decisions of the Constitutional Court, let me say that I very much appreciate the efficiency and the professionalism demonstrated by the Court. Its landmark decisions will be of the greatest importance and will have positive consequences for the overall state-building process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“The fact that the State border service - which unfortunately had to be imposed - is in place with the strong support of the United Nations is important in terms of fighting illegal migration and transmigration. Another example, of course, is the passport. Apart from the reasons that were given here by me and by Security Council members, there are other implications of the passport, including economic implications: without valid, internationally recognized passports, businesspeople from Bosnia and Herzegovina would have difficulties in travelling and in establishing businesses. So in many ways it was a necessity - not just a political necessity, not just in terms of State-building, but also in the economic sense - that the international community and I as the High Representative came up with an early decision on this.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Basically, there is strong support for the three priority areas adopted last May at Brussels by the Foreign Ministers of the Peace Implementation Council. I would like to comment on the three priority areas and on some ofthe individual specific issues that were raised here by delegations. Let me start out with the issue of State institutions, because the issue of those institutions and of strengthening them is intimately tied to the powers invested in the High Representative, the so-called Bonn powers. Without the imposition of the State border service earlier this year, I believe we would now be in a highly difficult and critical situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the recent surge in illegal transmigration through Bosnia and Herzegovina into other parts of Europe.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Ownership, of course, also means that local authorities should, more and more, take responsibility for what they are doing. This in turn means that we need to be open to criticism and to suggestions on the part of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to come up with the best result possible. We are not there to demonstrate that the international community knows best; we are there to find a solution for the people, for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In that respect, I very much appreciate what has been said to that effect here in the Security Council. Let me express my appreciation for the highly cogent and relevant remarks that have been made here and for the positions that have been expressed, and my satisfaction at them.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Mr. Petritsch: I would like to take this opportunity first to remind members ofthe Council and others who have spoken here that it is my mandate under annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement to coordinate all the civilian agencies engaged in peace implementation. That means, necessarily, that I have to deal with a wide range of issues and topics that have been covered here today in statements by members of the Security Council and by others. Let me stress above all that I welcome and very much appreciate the fact that the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina was able to take the floor here. I deeply believe that we will be successful in the end only if we really secure cooperation with representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and if we really work to push the idea of ownership.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“As members are aware, the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst crime committed in Europe since the Second World War, have not yet been given a place for their final rest. The associations of relatives of these victims have demanded for a long time that this issue be resolved. Several agencies have since tried to tackle the issue to no avail. My decision transfers into trust a plot of land in the municipality of Srebrenica in order to bury the victims and erect a memorial. I consider this to be a first, but an important, step on Bosnia and Herzegovina's way to come to terms with its past.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“I have said this before, but it needs to be stressed time and again: Bosnian citizens themselves must create the prosperous and tolerant country that Bosnia and Herzegovina could be; they must take ownership of their destiny in order to realize their dream of a place in Europe and in the world. Their neighbours must also turn their backs on the past and look forward by helping Bosnia and Herzegovina; it should be clear that their own place in the new Europe also depends on this. But we in the international community must also continue to do all we can to hold up a guiding light to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina home. That is the end of my report. However, I would like also to inform the Council about a decision I took yesterday.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Despite the dramatic changes in the region, we need to stay with Bosnia and Herzegovina and see the task through. Our job there is unfinished. I am aware that Yugoslavia will need assistance on its way to democracy, and that there are many other hotspots in the world deserving the Council's attention. However, the international community has spent too much effort in Bosnia and Herzegovina to abandon this project prematurely. We will need the Council's continued moral, political and financial support to get it right. To quote Mr. Shawcross again, "Intervention can assist people when they are desperate. But if it is to be more than a sop to our own guilt, intervention must be commensurate and consistent; it must be followed through. That is how people can be delivered from evil and peacekeepers can prevail more often over warlords".”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“After a great deal of pressure, we have wrung an agreement out of Bosnia and Herzegovina's education ministers to ensure that both the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabets and a small, core curriculum are taught in all schools. But this is far from enough. Education must be a priority if the country is to have a future. Unfortunately, a recent report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals that many young Bosnians do not believe that they have a future in their own country: a staggering 62 per cent of those polled in the report said they would leave Bosnia if they had the chance. I want to be frank about the problems. But we are moving forward, even if, as in a sandstorm on a desert trek, one feels sometimes that one is not moving at all.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“The Olympic games were successfully broadcast simultaneously in both entities with a multi-ethnic commentating team in Sydney. Cold, hard cash- or the shortage of it - and modern management practices drive this exciting project, not ethnic quotas. The country's Constitutional Court last month gazetted a decision with far-reaching consequences for all Bosnian citizens' equality before the law. The ruling on the so-called constituent peoples' case means that Bosniacs, Serbs and Croats are entitled to the same rights in both entities. This laudable concept, however, has yet to be translated into the entities' constitutions. But State institutions such as the Presidency, the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly continued to be stymied by ethnic concerns.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“I am happy to report that Bosnia and Herzegovina's first new passports were issued yesterday. In terms of State-building, one will now be able to dial anywhere in Bosnia through the same international code, ending the ridiculous situation of having to dial Republika Srpska through Belgrade. The State border service - yet another law I had to impose early this year - has started functioning, much to the chagrin of some leaders in Republika Srpska, as they operate on the border with Yugoslavia. Full marks go to the United Nations for its work in this area. I announced at the beginning of the week the creation of a public broadcasting service. A multi- ethnic staff will provide balanced news and will make programmes that will be beamed across both entities.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Instead, they have been warned that if they do not do this, they risk losing the country hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed aid. That being said, after months of wasted debate and posturing, I ended up having to impose a law on a single travel document for Bosnia and Herzegovina. As with the new vehicle registration plates, which also have no entity markings, the move was very popular amongst ordinary Bosnian citizens. They are fed up with finding themselves at the bottom ofthe visa queue because their leaders, in their narrow-minded nationalism, cannot agree on standard, internationally recognized travel documents. This is yet another example, like the economy, of how self-interest can be made to work in favour of Dayton implementation.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“Again, I look to the elections in the hope that ordinary Bosnians will vote out nationalist forces who remain intent on keeping the returns process frozen. Since I last addressed the Security Council, I have removed 24 public officials for persistent obstruction of the Dayton Accords. I am under pressure from some parts of the international community, and from many Bosnian citizens as well, to be more interventionist. But, while removals and imposing laws send a clear message, the country's political leaders use this to avoid tough decisions. A case in point has been political leaders' refusal to adopt amendments to the pension laws, as demanded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Political leaders did, as usual, nothing. They expected me to impose them.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“A right enshrined in law to one's own property is vital to restore confidence in the country's future. The latest UNHCR figures show that by the end of August this year about 30,000 minority returns were registered - more than double the figure in the same period in 1999. The figure is much higher when non- registered returns are taken into account. But these are all dull figures. What is truly extraordinary is where these returns have taken place: in, or near, towns like Srebrenica and Foca, synonymous with massacres and rape camps during the war in the eastern half of what is now the Serb entity. But I do not want to paint a false picture. While the rule of law has begun to melt the permafrost covering the return process, there are still hundreds of thousands of people who remain either displaced or refugees.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“It is the economy - the advantages of a single economic space - that will secure Bosnia and Herzegovina's future as a functioning State. It may be anecdotal, but I know of Bosniacs and Croats who already travel to Banja Luka, the Serbs' regional capital, to buy furniture because it is cheaper there than in Sarajevo. The tough implementation of the property laws which I had to impose last year has started to depoliticize the emotional issue of refugee returns. The strict implementation of the rule of law, helped by the good work of the United Nations in Bosnia - especially that ofthe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - will have profound implications for all areas of life in Bosnia, and from this specific issue much else will follow.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“A law on State treasury has been approved that should see more funds flowing through central rather than entity institutions - a powerful glue to make the two halves of this fractured country stick. We are studying ways to cut damagingly high taxes and spread the burden. Foreign investors are loath to put their money into a country where they end up paying more than 80 per cent in taxes. International experts, together with local officials, are preparing 86 strategic enterprises in the Federation and 52 in the Serb entity for transparent tender privatization. And we are studying ways of unbundling utilities, such as electricity and telecommunications, in a way that will dismantle damaging parallel structures, making companies compete in a single economic space on price, and not on a consumer's presumed ethnic identity.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“My Office, in close cooperation with international financial institutions, has put in place clear banking laws that should enable transparent financial operations across both entities. We aim to close the communist-era payment bureaux by the end of the year. That will rid the country of an expensive, non-transparent means of settling payments, which the nationalist parties will no longer be able to milk. Local judicial and police services are clamping down on corruption for the first time. But we are still unhappy with the slow pace at which political leaders are tackling the issue. Aid and investment will come only when the country's poor record on corruption is cleaned up. Sadly, most Bosnian politicians prefer to put their heads in the sand with regard to that issue.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“But overall progress has been slow since I last reported to the Council in May, with the country's nationalist incumbents unwilling to take tough decisions, especially with a general election looming. They refuse to accept that donor money is fast running out and that there is increasing competition for that money from countries like Yugoslavia - this when the country is in serious economic crisis. Gross domestic product growth in Bosnia and Herzegovina was 7.1 per cent in 1999, but that superficially high figure is really the result of the last foreign reconstruction money going into the country's war-torn economy. The real headache is the trade balance. Preliminary data show that the country is covering imports only to the extent of 25 per cent by exports. This is, of course, unsustainable.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source
“A failure to speak clearly on this now would cost us very dearly in the future, and would destroy the five years of hard and fruitful work since the Dayton Accords were signed, especially at a time when the majority of people in the region now see that nationalism makes them poor and isolated. Europeanization is the one thing that nearly all sides aspire to, and that we use to drive reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Last May in Brussels the Peace Implementation Council approved my three strategic priorities to help Bosnian citizens achieve that dream: comprehensive economic reform; accelerated refugee returns; and the strengthening of State institutions.”
2000-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4209 (2000) · source