Two Different Visions
The world has changed in fundamental ways since 1997, when our colleagues died here.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has moved forward – too slowly in important areas, but real progress has been achieved.
Yet, just as things change, things remain the same.
Today, as fourteen years ago. Today, as during the conflict. Today, as in the years before the conflict, there are two visions of what this country can be.
One vision is mired in the conviction that Bosnia and Herzegovina can never break free of the chauvinism and spite that has burdened it for so long.
The other vision is quite different.
In this vision, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are exactly like people anywhere else. In this vision, BiH citizens think and act in just the same way as other Europeans. They care about their families and about their future. They want their country to be safe and prosperous – they want it to be a normal, decent place to live.
The twelve men and women who gave their lives on this mountainside subscribed to this positive vision – that is why they were in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They believed that this country could succeed and prosper, because its people are decent; because its people are talented; because its people have the capacity to reject failure and reach for success – just like people in any other country.
There are some today, unfortunately, who remain stuck in a gloomy vision of failure. But that must not mean that the rest of the population has to fail with them.
The twelve colleagues we remember here were working for the success of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s recovery. They believed in that success and so do we. In us, in our commitment to their cause their memory and their vision lives on.
We honour the memory of Peter Backes, Livio Beccaccio, Andrzej Buler, David Kriskovich, Leah Melnick, Charles Morpeth, William Nesbitt, Marvin Padgett, Thomas Reinhardt, Jurgen Schauf, Georg Stiebler and Gerd Wagner.
We honour their sacrifice by honouring their cause.
It is the cause of every decent citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the cause of recovery, of reconciliation, of prosperity and peace.
In this place and on this day we renew our commitment to that cause and we remember our colleagues and their families who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country and its people.