Sarajevo, Monday, 13th May, 1996 Press Briefing, Holiday Inn [Closed societies and distorted history]

"I would like to tell you a little of how the High Representative sees things at this stage, what we have been up to of late, and where we see ourselves.

As many of you are aware we have just completed a week in Banja-Luka.

Various interpretations of that week have been advanced and I will simply add a few words of political comment and explanation.

In B-L last week — and I have been there on several occasions before — I saw sunny tree-lined avenues, clean streets and friendly people who received us warmly.

These same people cannot travel abroad—as they are denied pass¬ports. They do not haw easy access to free ,and independent  media and let us not forget that they live in a city that was brutally ethnically cleansed.

 And yet the High Rep is reaching out—extending the hand of friendship to all people at every level within the RS-except to those indicted for war crimes.

That is how it should be—how it is. That is the spirit of Dayton.

This hand of friendship is extended to every level—political-economic—social—legal and so on.

It is genuine and sincere and the ordinary people living within the RS can believe in the honesty of this gesture.
Closed societies are not healthy. Neither are they new. History is replete with examples—from Plato's Republic, to the Sparta described by Thucydides, to the communism of the old Soviet Union.

Controlled people, controlled media and so on, are not conducive to peace and prosperity and certainly have no place in a democratic system. So we reach out to the people of the RS to fully join the community of free debate and free markets.

There are however still leaders at large within the RS who seek to remain within a closed society—for their own purposes rather than for the welfare of their own people. Rather than quit the scene as required by Dayton, they prefer to dance around the fires of myth and distort¬ed history, fanning the embers of fear and conflict, and hinting at the spectre of renewed war.

All around them is a forest of modern opportunities for peace and prosperity but they choose to see in that forest only shadows and monsters of their own making. Irresponsibly they urge their people along the path to a false security in a primitive collectivism and togeth¬erness that submerges reason, corrodes human rights and obliterates individual liberties and ethnic tolerance.

This leadership technique—as a means of clinging to power—is as old as time. It is out of sync with the age and leads to nowhere.

Now these same leaders would have us believe that they are full of sweetness and light, that they love children and dogs and butterfly collecting. That the war that shattered so many families, Serb-Croat—Muslim---was an illusion, that the longest siege in modern history never occurred, that ethnic cleansing never happened and that the efforts of the international community to bring those responsible to justice in the Hague are < a farce >

We are not buying it !!!!

We are not selling anything either! We are offering, free of charge, a helping hand—and very substantial aid, economic and otherwise, to an open, plural society that can retain its identity within a single Bosnia.

So the nature of our activities from the beginning of the year and last week in B-L is concrete action that we will continue to steadily develop. They are the kinds of measures we have pursued with vigor on both sides of the IEBL—the hand of friendship with no strings attached apart from a commitment to peace, reasonable dialogue and a move towards more democratic methods.

We think of democracy as focusing on the individual and including freedom of expression, freedom to travel, access to open media, the concept of a loyal opposition, the protection of human rights and ethnic tolerance.

But we are realistic. In this region there has been not only a tragic war but a painful separation and divorce of peoples. After such a war it is perhaps natural that people should want to live apart at this time.

That is why we are not actually surprised that there is, as we expected, little freedom of movement or return of refugees and displaced persons. The wounds of war are still fresh and deep, and healing takes time. In politics the analogy is always more farming than mechanics. The excellent seeds that are being sown by, let us say, the UNHCR, will take root over time. IFOR have done a magnificent job, under Admiral Smith's leadership, in separating forces, seeing the return of troops to barracks and many other things. Now the high representative will sustain the political momentum without forcing issues that need not be forced. The future is multi-ethnic. Of that we are sure. The present is what it is—an end of war and a separation.

The harvesting of a full peace is not yet at hand. We must still bend to the hard task of planting.

But the High Representative does not believe that the partition of Bosnia is the answer. He believes instead that partition would lead to an endless series of Balkan conflicts.

We will continue to implement the Dayton agreement faithfully and assist in the building of the necessary common institutions. We have a coordinating role with our colleagues in the international community. We work closely with our friends in the UN, NATO, OSCE, UNHCR, donor countries and many others.

The camp fires of our enemies—war itself and distrust— that we have seen too often even on the hills around here, must be fully doused. The determination of the outside world will provide a beacon. One or other organization may choose to return home but the tasks will remain urgent.

The international community will not be abandoning Bosnia."