10th anniversary of Dayton

I see many familiar faces around the room – some of them have become particularly familiar in recent weeks, as our paths have crisscrossed in the course of a remarkable series of conferences – in different cities, and indeed on different continents – devoted to the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The endorsement of the decision on the start of Stabilization and Association negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina , which is expected to happen today in Brussels , represents a historic day. This is a day for which many of us have been working long and hard. BiH should be proud that it has passed this road in such a short period of time. This [...]

It is no coincidence that the tenth anniversary of Dayton has been marked by a flurry of constitutional initiatives. This is not, as some of the recent media stories would have us believe, some grand new idea.

High Representative Paddy Ashdown confirmed exclusively for “Večernji” that BiH politicians gathered in Washington would be offered to sign a “statement” committing themselves to implementation of constitutional reforms. “Večernji” wrote about this several times, but there was no official confirmation of that.

How do you prevent failed states from becoming launch pads for terrorism? How do you turn them into functioning democracies? How do you intervene effectively to serve the citizens of those states and the citizens of the global community? A decade of peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the U.S.-brokered agreement signed at Dayt [...]

I believe that the Dayton agreement was an extraordinary agreement. Today BiH is acknowledged as the most successful large-scale peace mission in the world. This is how Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative in BiH, evaluates the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina ten years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Since I took up my duties as the International Community’s High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina three and a half years ago I have often remarked publicly that the days when the future of BiH could be discussed and decided at an air-force base in Ohio have long since passed.

Over the two days of this conference, friends from, and friends of, Bosnia and Herzegovina are engaged in a dialogue that is firmly based on experience and expertise.
This would not have been – could not have been – a worthwhile exercise had BiH not already reached a strategic vantage point on its long hard road to stability and prosperity.< [...]