Home arrow Publications arrow Sarajevo, Tuesday, 6th May, 1997 Press Conference [Strategy changes too slowly]
Sarajevo, Tuesday, 6th May, 1997 Press Conference [Strategy changes too slowly] PDF Print E-mail
"In the United States, the High Representative, Mr. Carl Bildt, has asked a number of strategic questions. How far, for instance, is it still necessary to concentrate NATO troops in Germany rather than, to some degree, in South-Eastern Europe? We certainly need a concentra¬tion of political will in and on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

To face a Soviet Union that no longer exists while ignoring dangers in Bosnia that do exist could be—to put it mildly— behind the times.

It is not the cold war in Europe but the half-peace in Bosnia that should worry us.

Strategy changes too slowly while Bosnian challenges multiply. And Dayton is not for dilution. It is a signed solemn political and legal con¬tract that must be implemented. It always requires renewed concentra¬tion of effort, along with new ideas.

Nor must we allow a military doctrine that seeks stability frighten us into a freezing of the situation: war criminals must be pursued, refugees must return.

Momentum in the peace process must, where it exists, be sustained. Where it does not exist it needs power. Diplomacy without power is empty.

In Brcko, for example, those guilty of the recent stoning of buses must be held accountable. In Brcko, as elsewhere in Bosnia, free¬dom of movement is non-negotiable, non-trade-able, and non-com¬promise-able.

But it is for those who brokered the Dayton agreement to see that it—and their own credibility—is respected."
 
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Colum Murphy witnessed the Western intervention in Bosnia — during and after the war—from the inside. His account provides important testimony, both about the dealings of the UN diplomats and military men, and about the attitudes of the Bosnian politicians in Sarajevo and Pale. Above ail, this is a deeply humane book, by someone who has not been afraid (unlike some of his colleagues at the time) to distinguish clearly between good and evil. — Noel Malcolm, Fellow of AII! Souls College, Oxford; author of Bosnia: A Short History.