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Presenting his regular report to the United Nations Security Council, the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, today addressed this senior international body in New York for the fourth time since he took office. He warned members against redrawing borders in southeastern Europe and called for continued international pressure on all Balkan states to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague (ICTY).
Later today, the High Representative is due to meet the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan. He will then travel to Washington where he is scheduled to meet U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on Friday. In his speech to the U.N. Security Council, the High Representative argued for continued engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the International Community, saying that the billions of dollars spent and years of hard work invested were producing real results. He pointed to the election of reform-oriented governments, which share the priorities of the International Community, improved returns of refugees and displaced persons, and successful economic reforms, such as the closure of the payment bureaux, as signs that Bosnia and Herzegovina is truly on the mend. "You can read our continued engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina both ways -- as a moral imperative or simply as self-interested common sense. Either way, the international community would come out the loser if we were to give up with the job half done," he told the U.N. Security Council. "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. We must build on our success." The High Representative outlined his reasons for the removal of Mr Ante Jelavic from political life in BiH, saying that he and his hardline associates aimed to tear up the Dayton Accords. "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 war," he said. "But overall, the sources of fear and the cash it raised to fill nationalist party coffers are starting to fade. The nationalists don't like how the rule of law and market reforms have started to chip away at their once powerful economic fiefdoms and the institutionalised banditry they once took for granted." The High Representative also issued a strong call not to consider redrawing borders in southeastern Europe: "The redrawing of borders in the Balkans, trying to meet the impossible demands of exclusivist nationalists, pursuing a mono-ethnic ideal which can only be realised on a remote island, leads only to more killing -- and prolonged international engagement. Chaos only benefits the 'ratni profiteri' -- the war profiteers." The High Representative said that the common desire throughout the Balkan region -- for EU membership -- was already being used to promote democratic reform, the rule of law and a civil society in BiH. He added that implementation of the Dayton Accords showed the importance of the rule of law, which had also been essential to achieve prosperity in the United States and Europe. "The journey will be a long one," he said, "but it must be more than a vague hope. We must continue to present this - as we are through the Stability Pact and elsewhere - in concrete terms."
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