David Miliband

Foreign Secretary

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Wednesday 11 November, 2009

Visit to Bosnia

Last week I made a brief visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a country with a clear Euro-Atlantic perspective, but it’s struggling to make progress on a range of reforms to help deliver progress on EU and NATO membership. My meeting with political leaders provided an opportunity to reiterate UK support for the 'Butmir' process - an ongoing EU/US initiative to energise the reform agenda. This includes working towards completion of the conditionality set by the International Community for closure of the Office of the High Representative in BiH, as well as reforms to make the structure and decision making processes within government more effective.

Although there are currently stark differences between some political leaders on their vision for future governance arrangements, I remain convinced there is enough common ground to reach an agreement.

The ongoing trial of Radovan Karadzic shows that the legacy of the conflict remains prominent. I saw the remarkable work that the International Commission on Missing Persons are doing to identify the remains of those missing and support the ICTY and regional courts. This is helping bring justice and closure to victims of the conflict from all ethnic groups. 

 

Posted at 11:18 11 November 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

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Dear Mr Miliband, you are very young, so you will be still a long time in politics. Remember you will see the next war in this country. You must be very blind if you did not see the three worlds in these countries. The Serbs prefer to be a part of Serbia, they hate Muslims for the 500 Year ottoman rule. The Croats wish to live without these muslims. And the muslims pretend to be modern, democratic, but they support islamistic terror and their elite dreams of a islamistic republic. You cannot be a good politician if you cannot feel these tensions.

Posted by Kate on November 11, 2009 at 06:30 PM GMT #

If you think there's enough common ground to reach a settlement with Dodik that doesn't involve him continuing to protect war criminals and hanging on to land that was stolen through genocide, you're living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Posted by OwenE2 on November 11, 2009 at 06:44 PM GMT #

Sir, the political settlement in BOSNIA is tough BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE. To hate with any community and religion is not the permanent solution; there needs religious and cultural hormony for love, peace and unity in the region. ONLY UNITED BOSNIA WILL BE POWERFULL, NOT DISTRACTED BOSNIA.

Posted by Prabhat Misra, District Savings Officer, Etawah, U.P., India on November 14, 2009 at 05:37 PM GMT #

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