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Bosnia-Herzegovina

rose to ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the current situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I start by paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, who will soon be retiring and leaving Bosnia as the High Representative. After a decade of conflicts—Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo—with a devastating impact on what used to be the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with hundreds of thousands killed, ethnically cleansed and made refugees, it seems that this part of the Balkans region is finally making progress and looking to secure a stable future on the path to full European integration. Slovenia is today a member of the European Union and NATO. Croatia is starting negotiations to join the EU and is already integrated into NATO’s Partnership for Peace. Kosovo’s final status is expected to be resolved through imminent political negotiations. Bosnia-Herzegovina is taking steady steps from Dayton on the road to Brussels. Ten years ago, when some 60,000 NATO troops flooded into the country, rebuilding Bosnia looked like an impossible task: 2.2 million refugees—half the Bosnian pre-war population—were waiting to go home. More than 250,000 Bosnian citizens were killed and Srebrenica was, to use the phrase coined during the Balkan wars, ““ethnically cleansed”” of all its non-Serb population. The atrocities committed were on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II. Ten years since the signing of the Dayton peace accords, which brought the war to an end, the success of the international community’s involvement is undeniable. The NATO force has been replaced by a European Union force, one of just over 6,000 soldiers. More than a million people have returned to their pre-war homes. The Bosnian Parliament has voted to create a single, unified army and defence ministry. It has agreed on the need to reform the police institutions consistent with EU standards. This has enabled the European Union to recommend launching negotiations on a stabilisation and association agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina this year. The Partnership for Peace should be the next step. However, there remain major issues that will need to be addressed if Bosnia is fully to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic institutions and finally become a fully-fledged democracy and a stable European country. There will be no real peace in the Balkans until the countries of the region bring the most notorious war criminals to justice. Ten years after the massacre at Srebrenica, the two Serb leaders directly responsible—Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic—remain at large. Accountability helps prevent future crimes; impunity only encourages further crimes. The fact that Karadzic and Mladic continue to evade justice is a sign of the international community’s impotence. Will the Minister clarify who is responsible for the apprehension of these fugitives? What is the role of NATO/EUFOR in bringing these brutal war criminals to justice? The US has been clear that Belgrade and Podgorica must comply with their obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The US will not agree to Serbia’s and Montenegro’s participation in NATO’s Partnership for Peace until Mladic is turned over to The Hague. What recent representations have been made to the leadership of both Serbia and Montenegro on this issue? The Dayton accords were never meant to be set in stone. A majority of people in Bosnia-Herzegovina have already recognized the need for reform if they are to join NATO and the EU. When the Bosnian war ended in November 1995—exactly 10 years ago—the ethnic divisions in the country were frozen in place. For Bosnia to join the Euro-Atlantic Structures these divisions must be removed. Does the Minister agree with the US officials who recently stated that it is now time to remove the,"““Berlin Wall of separation between Bosnians””," and strengthen the institutions that will make Bosnia a truly unified state in the future and that the time may have come for the revision of the Dayton peace accords? Does he agree that the ethnic principle governing the country’s division into ““entities””, which underlies the Dayton accords, in fact constitutes the surest guarantee of the continued dominance of the nationalist parties? The Bosnian lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro for genocide and aggression has become another important issue. Certain Western countries are seeking to solve this problem through arbitration, without recourse to the International Court of Justice. However, is it not imperative that the suit be dealt with by the court? Serbia’s aggression towards non-Serbs must be addressed and legally established. Does the Minister agree that only by deconstructing and demystifying the project of a Greater Serbia in relation to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia can the region achieve stability and peace? Can the Minister shed any light on recent reports of attempts by Her Majesty’s Government to use the anniversary of Srebrenica to call on the leadership of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia to issue a common declaration of ““reconciliation and apology””? The long-term Bosnia peacekeeping mission has been successful. This was the result of consistency of purpose, clarity of mission and national support. The peacekeeping phases were clearly defined, allowing leaders periodically to re-evaluate the mission and adjust as the environment allowed. SFOR’s success could be transferred to other similar situations. The number of peacekeepers is now being reduced as the international community expands its focus on economic and political progress. I hope that this will further contribute to the long-term stability, not only of Bosnia-Herzegovina but of the region as a whole.