Remarks Following Holbrooke Meeting with Bosnia Presidency
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Friday, October 27, 2000
REMARKS BY UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS RICHARD
HOLBROOKE AT THE PRESIDENCY
INTRODUCTION: Ladies and gentlemen, the Presidency of
Bosnia-Herzegovina today met with the permanent representative of the
United States of America to the United Nations Ambassador Holbrooke.
And I would like to invite the Chairman of the Presidency Mr. Radisic
and Ambassador Holbrooke to give brief remarks on what took place,
what the discussion was about. Please I introduce President Radisic.
PRESIDENT RADISIC: Mr. Ambassador Holbrooke, Ambassadors, your
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the Presidency of
Bosnia-Herzegovina had the pleasure and honor today to meet with the
individual who has built himself into the peace of this region. And,
to talk about the implementation of Dayton Peace Accords five years
after and to say what we did and what we plan to do.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is a reality as is the Dayton Peace Accords. No
matter how much all of us want it more, we nevertheless concluded that
progress, significant progress was made, not only in the
interpretation but also in the implementation of the Dayton Peace
Accords. The citizens and residents of Bosnia-Herzegovina today live
free lives, they walk more freely around and dream about the future.
We have established the institutions of the authorities starting with
the local level all the way up to the joint institutions of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. We are working on the resolution of priority
issues as is the (inaudible) refugees and displaced persons and
creation of pre-conditions for a contemporary economy. We are
undertaking efforts to build a rule of law in which all citizens and
peoples will enjoy rights and freedoms in accordance with
international standards. We once again confirm today that Dayton is a
long-lasting commitment for Bosnia-Herzegovina and that there is room
for upgrading some of its basic principles and messages.
We carried out a critical analysis of the plans that we had with
regard to implementation on the entity level and on the level of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. We reached a joint conclusion that we are but a
year or two behind in implementation of Dayton. This points to the
presence of backward-looking forces who are looking towards the past
and not towards the future. Of course, we did not forget to mention
the objective difficulties because the resolution of the problem with
refugees is a very complex and difficult issue and especially the
strategic and systematic reforms in this view of economy and market.
We have achieved certain progress in the establishment of the rule of
law. Corruption and crime was something that has happened here,
something that is a phenomenon here and unfortunately, they are
present on the ground. We have also noted progress in the functioning
of the common institutions in the engagement of the Presidency of the
Council of Ministers and the State Parliament especially with regard
to the implementation of provisions of the New York Declaration. We
have also noted that there was progress with regard to the
implementation on the annex of military issues. However, we met today
here because of our future. We spoke concretely about priorities and
we reached full agreement on these issues.
We expressed the readiness of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina to
undertake more intensive efforts in accordance with its constitutional
responsibilities and authorities. Conflicts, intolerance and hatred
are behind us. We believe in the lasting and stable peace and in the
overall democratic and economic progress. The democratic changes in
the Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia have given a great contribution to our internal
efforts. The Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina has given strong support
to changes in Yugoslavia and the recent visit of President Kostunica
here to Sarajevo spoke on its own. The Presidency of
Bosnia-Herzegovina is ready to go Belgrade the moment that the new
federal government if formed. That is, it is ready to receive a
delegation of the newly formed government of Yugoslavia here so that
we can talk about the defining of the relations for the well-being of
the citizens of the two countries. We are assured that this will be a
positive contribution to the strengthening of the stability pact for
southeastern Europe, for regional cooperation, European cooperation
and international cooperation.
We paid special attention to the problems of refugees and displaced
persons and we stressed some direct opportunities with regard to this
issue. We believe that the international community and the United
States of America will continue providing significant support in the
construction of housing and revitalization of the economy. And we
believe that the elections in both the United States and in
Bosnia-Herzegovina will be an additional stimuli for efforts in this
region.
And in the end, allow me to use this opportunity to stress that the
Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina has used this meeting to once again
reiterate its gratitude to Ambassador Holbrooke for his overall
contribution to the establishment of peace and stability in the
region. And I'm convinced the every next meeting that we have with
Ambassador Holbrooke, we will have an opportunity to speak about new
achieved results and new encouragement for further implementation of
the processes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honor to ask Ambassador Holbrooke
to take the floor.
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: We have come here today just before the fifth
anniversary of Dayton to see what has been achieved and what remains
to be done. This evening I will give a formal report to the Bosnian
people in detail on these issues. But we can see clearly that the
Dayton Agreement has succeeded in its fundamental goals: it ended the
war and it established the nation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an
internationally recognized sovereign state. On the internal goals of
creating a viable economy, a multi-ethnic society and allowing the
refugees to be able to return home regardless of where they lived
originally, the record is more mixed.
I am pleased that this meeting today took place in this building and
that the three Presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina work in the same
building. That symbolism gives us a clear direction of where we hope
that this country will go. But the forces of darkness, the crooks, the
racists and the separatists are still out there, trying to create
hatred for their own personal economic gain. It always amazes me when
I see that the people who pretend to be the nationalists, in fact, are
robbing the very people who follow them into policies which only
enrich the leadership of these extremist groups.
And yet the year 2000 has already been a historic year for the
Balkans. Change of leadership in Zagreb has brought a democratic and
positive and less nationalistic but still patriotic leadership to the
Republic of Croatia. And the events in Belgrade last month constitute
nothing less than an earthquake that will rock the entire region and I
believe in a very positive way. I congratulate President Kostunica on
his victory and I congratulate the Serb people on their peaceful
revolution which brought it about. I was pleased with his trip, brief
though it was, to meet with the Joint Presidency in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. I am delighted that the last impediments to
Yugoslavia's full membership in the United Nations appear to have been
removed. And we can look forward to Yugoslavia's entering the United
Nations on an equal status with the other successor states of the old
former Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the
very near future.
The end of the dictatorship in Serbia should be a clear signal to
those forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina that their day is done as well.
There are many people who still obstruct progress, most notably the
SDS political party but there are also others as well. Though I
recognize that there are within the SDS elements that are trying to
move forward, but we saw in Srebrenica yesterday at the local level
remnants of the old SDS who still stand for racism, intimidation and
even murder. People who blow up and burn the houses of Bosnian
citizens who simply want to return home and bomb them because they
happen to be of a different religion. These thugs in Srebrenica who
are supported by political elements of the SDS besmirch the good name
of the entire country. They look backwards when this country needs to
look forward. They are cowards and the country should celebrate the
bravery of the families that are returning to Srebrenica and all over
this country in the face of these last gasps of racism and separatism.
With Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia moving forward now
to join the institutions of Europe, Bosnia should be along their side.
And they can only get there if the results of the November 11 election
and the actions of their people bring them into harmony with the
standards of the European Union and the Council of Europe and the
International Community of Nations as defined in the UN charter. The
Co-Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina with which we have just met has
committed itself to these same principles and I hope the rest of the
people of this country will support them. I'll be happy to take just a
few questions. We are running behind, two or three questions.
QUESTION: What do you think about the future role of the international
community and US role in Bosnia especially if we are talking about
military presence? There are some ten thousand peacekeepers including
some four thousand from the States.
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: Well, I can only speak for this administration
which does not have many weeks left in office but I will give you my
own personal opinion. I will, I think it's very clear, that the United
States change of policy starting in August of 1995 changed the history
of the Balkans forever. And I am confident that the American people
and the Congress and the next administration will not walk away from
their obligations in this part of the world both to the people of this
country and to our NATO allies.
QUESTION: Ambassador, Dayton Peace Accord is your personal
contribution to a peace and stability in the region. Five years after
that, there are many people in this country who still think that this
agreement should be changed or revised, upgraded. What is your final
opinion, should the Dayton package be finally re-opened and could it
be improved not only in implementation but in its written version.
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: Well, my position on that has been very clear
for five years. The Dayton Peace Agreement is a solemn international
undertaking, signed by all the parties, witnessed by the leaders of
Europe and the United States in Paris a month later and then approved
by the Security Council. It does not need to be changed, however, it
can be improved with additional agreements that supplement it such as
the New York Declaration which President Radisic referred to a moment
ago.
We've had many agreements since Dayton which augmented it. I came here
in August of 1997 and negotiated at the National Museum all night long
to arrange the distribution of Ambassadorships within the country.
That agreement has now been implemented. A common passport has now
been implemented. The State Border Service, agreed to in New York, is
not yet fully established but it will be and it must be. Many other
agreements have followed Dayton all of which were within the framework
of Dayton and are completely consistent with it.
QUESTION: Ambassador Holbrooke, five years after the Dayton, I would
like to ask you what should be done as far as priorities in the future
in order to move to an international integration?
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: I would say four things, at least four things:
strengthen the Central Presidency, accelerate the return of refugees
no matter which ethnic group to their original homes, and this very
much includes the right of Serbs to return to Sarajevo but I would
remind you that the Serbs who left Grbavica and Ilidza in March of
1996 were driven out by there own leadership in Pale and should come
back if they were original residents here but they should not pretend
they were driven out by the Muslims when it was their own leadership
in Pale that forced them out. Now is the time to put that behind us.
And because many of their apartments are now lived in by Muslims who
took them when they, in turn, were dispossessed, one of the most
urgent priorities is more housing for people in the cities of
Bosnia-Herzegovina including Mostar and Banja Luka and Sarajevo and
elsewhere.
Third: the elimination or weakening of the extremist parties who
preach hatred and division and they will hold Bosnia back economically
and politically and culturally from becoming a full-fledged member of
the larger European community of nations.
And fourth, the continued search for and apprehension for indicted war
criminals including an increase in the number of people that the
Tribunal has indicted. They have indicted only ninety-four people and
there are far more than ninety-four war criminals in this country.
They must be brought to justice not simply because it's a nice thing
to do but because you cannot move forward when war criminals are
actually running the local structures in places like Bratunac.
So those are four things. I could give you another fifty but I'll stop
there but I will add one other thing. The world will be watching the
election here on November 11 particularly in light of what happened in
Belgrade last month. Belgrade was a dramatic step forward for the
forces of democracy and stability in this part of the world. This vote
will be a test of the Bosnian people, all the Bosnian people. It's
time to move beyond ethnic politics and towards an integrated,
democratic nation which can take its place in Europe.
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: Thank you very much.
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