Speeches

2003 marked a turning point for the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2004, we risk turning back to the past again. Most international observers, and many in BiH itself, didn’t believe we could come so far in 2003. But as a result of the reforms this year, we now enter the year ahead daring to hope that BiH can finally look to a real future w [...]

The International Community has been engaged in the returns process for eight years and is now transferring responsibility into the hands of the BiH authorities. Setting up the regional centres in Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Tuzla and Mostar, to coordinate return efforts in the field and monitor reconstruction carried out by the MHRR with the support [...]

In recent months I have been able to meet with mayors from all over the country – leaders of the largest municipalities and the smallest. I have learned that you know what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. So we have the right group of people here today if we want to draw up practical, effective ways of making BiH work better. You ha [...]

In Brussels last week the political directors of the Peace Implementation Council noted with approval that the BiH Development Strategy, approved by all three prime ministers in early December, has been drawn up through a process of exhaustive consultation with citizens. This is a Made-in-BiH document; it encompasses the main elements of the near- [...]

Rebuilding a country is like rebuilding a house. You have to put a huge amount of effort into things that are necessary but won’t show when the work is over. Solid foundations, naturally. Wiring and plumbing: also essential – and to put these in, you have to take other things out, like walls and windows. There will be weeks of plastering and lay [...]

There has long been a school of thought that derides the idea of peace implementation, of nation building, of democratisation, call it what you will, as the worst sort of international fad, social work and busy bodied do-gooderism – Hackney Council on global scale. It is they say, a hopeless task, beloved of naive idealists, incapable of adapting [...]

I would like to begin by thanking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for inviting me to this meeting of the ‘Diplomatic Forum’. We meet today at an opportune time. Because, it seems to me, this country has reached, as all countries do, one of those decisive moments; a moment at which it is the actions of its people [...]

Let me begin by conveying the apologies of the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, who is unable to be with us today. On both his and my own behalf, I would like to thank the organizers, the Geneva Institute for Democratic Control of Armed Forces and Sarajevo’s own Centre for Security Studies, for inviting me to speak to you. In particular, I sh [...]

A year ago when the Bulldozer Initiative was launched we wanted to support efforts break up bureaucratic blockages in the system. We still do. The object of Bulldozer, as you know, has been to eliminate the pointless bureaucracy that stifles economic growth in this country. Phase I produced 50 reform proposals – 50 obstacles on the road to pros [...]

As you know, the genesis of today’s meeting lies in the findings of the Special Auditor’s reports into the public utilities corporations. We and the BiH authorities reached a consensus that the Special Auditor be asked to look into these companies. These were not financial audits, nor is the Special Auditor’s team particularly large. What the audit [...]