STATEMENT
by the High Representative, Carl Bildt
Sarajevo, 25 March 1996
Our efforts to secure the release of all those prisoniers that should have been released by January 19 have met with some success over the weekend following the Moscow Ministerial of the Contact Group. I naturally welcome this. But we cannot yet give the go-ahead for the Donors Conference April 12-13.What is required is not partial and conditional compliance with the Peace Agreement, but total and unconditional compliance. Without release of all prisoniers we are likely to see a continuation of the pattern of arbitrary arrests of the past few weeks, and there will be no chance of achieving real freedom of movement and the return of the refugees that is crucial to the peace process.
The last week has demonstrated that there are teeth in the civilian implementation efforts also. Eager as we are to fund reintegration and reconciliation we are unwilling to fund reluctance or refusal to implement the Peace Agreement. The international community can provide the framework for reconciliation to take place. But it is only the parties themselves who can make reconciliation a reality.