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Ambassador Charles English: The Future of BiH Twelve Years After Dayton
November 21, 2007
Thank you very much, Dean Dizdar, for your warm welcome.
I also want to thank the rest of the leadership of the Faculty of Philosophy for arranging my visit here and for being such good hosts.
Thank you also to the entire University leadership for extending this invitation to me.
Dean Dizdar, University representatives, members of the academic community, professors and, most importantly, students:
I am honored to commemorate the 12th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords here at the oldest and largest university in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is also fitting that I address you here in the Faculty of Philosophy, which has a close partnership with Smith College in Massachusetts.
I know that Dean Dizdar was instrumental in launching the partnership with Smith College. I am very pleased that the U.S. Government has sponsored that partnership for the last three years.
I just now had the privilege to inaugurate the newly-refurbished American Studies resource room. The U.S. Embassy was able to fund new computers and equipment for the room, which we hope will be a great asset to the American Studies program. Please, ladies and gentlemen of this university, make the most of that facility.
I am honored to be addressing you today. You are indeed the brightest hope for the future of this country. Your ideas and dreams will determine the course of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the twenty first century.
Over the past twelve years, we have all observed this day as an opportunity to take stock of the year’s achievements and to look to the future with optimism. Seven years ago, Richard Holbrooke commemorated the 5th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords on the premises of the University of Sarajevo. The situation here at that time was optimistic, and Bosnians and Herzegovinians were enthusiastic about the prospects for the country. Only two years ago, Secretary Rice used the 10th anniversary to call on the citizens of this country to seize the opportunities available to them and, with the support of the United States, take their place in a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.
Yet today is a very different occasion. Looking back over the past year, there are no new milestones achieved for us to celebrate, no new progress to report on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s road to Europe and its prosperity and security. Indeed over the past 18 months, through their pursuit of short-sighted, divisive agendas, political leaders of all ethnic groups and from both Entities have plunged this country into a political crisis that directly challenges the goal of a prosperous and peaceful Bosnia and Herzegovina. In doing so, these leaders have undermined the most cherished aspirations and dreams of the citizens of this country. They have driven Bosnia and Herzegovina unnecessarily to its most difficult situation since the end of the war.
As we look back from this vantage point today, we must understand that Dayton was a document of its time. It was a remarkable accomplishment – but all parties understood it was, in and of itself, incomplete. It realized the most precious achievement possible in 1995, a lasting peace. But today everyone with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s best interests at heart agrees that the document must be reformed to provide for a minimally functional state necessary to lock this country into a self-sustaining path to Euro-Atlantic integration. Despite its limitations, Dayton has allowed slow and steady progress towards the goal, which was articulated by Secretary Rice and shared by us all: Bosnia and Herzegovina firmly and irrevocably incorporated into the family of Euro-Atlantic nations.
Dayton recognized that the divisions in this society were profound, but, given the circumstance of its negotiation, it could only begin to build a peace that acknowledged those rifts while looking towards the future. Over the years we have built on its foundation. Slowly, Bosnia and Herzegovina had begun to incorporate those elements of statehood and a more rational system of government that will eventually allow it to take its place within Europe.
The immense efforts required to achieve the Dayton accords, including the personal intervention of the President of the United States, are a testament to the enormous reservoir of goodwill that the people of the United States, and the international community in general, have towards this country. I want to remember here especially those three Americans – Robert Frazure, Jozeph Kruzel, and Nelson Drew – who gave their lives to help bring peace to Bosnia and Herzegovina. And let me recall for you the years of dedication by tens of thousands of U.S. military and government personnel and the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars spent for stabilization and in assistance that further demonstrate the depth of our involvement here. Our commitment to your country remains firm, and we will do whatever we can to assist you in your journey. However, we cannot do this alone.
Since 1995, my government has always been confident that the ultimate resolution of this tragic chapter in your history will feature a multiethnic and harmonious Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Euro-Atlantic community. We hoped to see in you a shining example of the values of equality and coexistence. That is all at risk now. The hard work of twelve years is being undermined by a resurgent nationalism and a return to the failed and empty strategies of division and victimhood. This cannot be allowed to happen. You must defend the hard won achievements and demand more from your leaders. This is the only way forward.
At the core of any functional democracy is the ability of various interest groups to reach compromise that allows the country to move forward. This country is being tested on this ability, and it is failing. Police reform, more than simply an initiative to reorganize security structures, was an opportunity for your leaders to demonstrate their ability to come to grips with difficult political choices and compromise on issues of substantive importance.
The blame for this failure falls equally on all political parties and leaders. The hollow rhetoric of ethnic division that has shaped the political debate in this country since last year’s elections has lead to its inevitable outcome: national paralysis that builds nothing but mistrust and fear. No political party or ethnic bloc is exempt from the responsibility for this setback.
What must change? Let me address each constituent people in turn.
I say to the Croats: you must accept that further ethnic division of this already divided country can never happen. I say to the Bosniaks: you must understand that building a policy based on majority rule can only result in a deepened mistrust and continued ethnic strife and cannot lead to the stable democracy you say you cherish. And I say to the Serbs: you must accept that secession of any kind -- political, economic or symbolic -- will not advance your interests. The international community will not tolerate it, and it will ultimately fail. To the Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs alike, I say: you must accept an identity, both Bosnian and Herzegovinian and European, that will be as much a part of you as your ethnic heritage.
It is clear that your country’s future should lie in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens are demanding their rightful place within that community of nations. However, you must remind your leaders that, every day, the member states of the European Union engage in difficult debates on contentious issues. In the end, they compromise for the sake of the greater prosperity of the union. Your leaders must also demonstrate this ability in order to prove their entitlement to a seat in Brussels. Europe is waiting for Bosnia and Herzegovina to show that its leaders have developed the maturity to reach consensus and have abandoned the strategy of insisting on maximalist positions or holding the government hostage to boycotts. Your leaders’ efforts at police reform were a test of their ability to do this. And thus far they have failed.
Many commentators have speculated that if it continues on this path, Bosnia and Herzegovina could become the black hole of Europe. The United States and your friends in the international community are resolute in our determination that this cannot be allowed to happen. However, without citizens who believe in this country, and who are willing to make the difficult choices that will lead to reconciliation and healing, we can only do so much to prevent this outcome. I cannot believe that you will allow this to happen. I do not believe that the parents of this country will throw away their children’s future chasing an empty dream of vengeance, or that the students of this country will relinquish their futures for the vacant promises of nationalist ideology.
In these difficult times, it is important to remember how much progress has been made since Dayton and the critical importance of protecting those achievements. The success of Defense Reform is a testament to that progress. Over a three-year dialogue that proceeded at a measured pace, Bosnian and Herzegovinians slowly built the understanding and trust required to form the basis for a single military that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. Think of the magnitude of this achievement: where once there were perhaps 400 thousand men and women fighting under three flags and in three armies, now ten thousand serve in one army under one flag. At the beginning of the process, many skeptics claimed that the undertaking was a lost cause. Yet today Bosnia and Herzegovina’s armed forces are a pillar of stability for this country. Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks are serving honorably and courageously together side-by-side with the men and women of America’s armed forces in Iraq. Everyone here should be proud of how well your integrated armed forces are representing their country.
Let me be clear. We recognize that this is a society that has been beset with fear and suspicion. The United States accepts its responsibility, as part of the broader international community, to do its part to assuage those fears and to promote a climate where all citizens feel secure and empowered in any corner of this country. We will do our part to support the checks and balances necessary within government to ensure that the country continues to move forward. That’s why we so strongly support the High Representative’s October 19 measures. They are designed to facilitate decision making in state-level institutions, which is critical to your country’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. And they preserve the carefully-crafted balance among Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constituent peoples. I have a message for your country’s political leaders: do not challenge the High Representative. When you do so, you are challenging the United States, and you are taking Bosnia and Herzegovina off the road of Euro-Atlantic integration and onto a path of isolation and instability.
We will continue to help build trust and confidence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to help build the institutions your country requires to secure a brighter future for all of its citizens. Each of you in this audience will also share a responsibility to build and nurture this trust. So I ask you, who will step forward to be our partner in this process? Those who answer the call must be mindful that they will need to trust their counterparts, to understand their anxieties, and to work to accommodate their points of view. Those who answer this call will need to choose leaders who will not betray this vision of a functional and harmonious Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The United States has always insisted that justice must be central to the reconstruction process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This principle remains at the core of our efforts here. Those who are responsible for the greatest crimes of the war, for genocide committed at Srebrenica and elsewhere – Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic – must stand before the International Tribunal and face justice for those crimes. Zupljanin and Hadzic must also be surrendered. Those accused of war crimes here must also stand before the State Court and be judged. These are the basic elements of justice, and justice cannot and will not be denied. But while justice must be pursued, so must reconciliation and forgiveness. Much, much remains to be done to advance these critical goals.
I have had the opportunity in my short time here to meet with a wide cross section of Bosnian and Herzegovinian society. I have been impressed with the entrepreneurial skills of your country’s young businesspeople, the creativity of your country’s artists, the courage of the men and women serving in your unified armed forces, and the intellectual energy of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rising generation. These people talk to me about their hopes for a better life for themselves and their children.
Students, ladies and gentleman, people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, you must not allow your leaders to sacrifice your future to short-sighted, nationalist agendas. These agendas are rooted in the past. If you make them your agenda, you will have no future.
Let no one deny you that which you deserve: to be part of Europe whole, free, prosperous and at peace. Settle for nothing less. Honor your past, grieve for your loss, but embrace and cherish your future. Take it. Seize it. Live it.