Former High Representative Ashdown warns that BiH is close to disintegration

28/07/2008

LONDON, United Kingdom -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is much closer to disintegration now than it was during the 1992-1995 conflict and the EU should do more to prevent this, former High Representative Paddy Ashdown said on Sunday (July 27th) in an article published in The Observer. "Radovan Karadzic is at last on his way to The Hague. But the division of Bosnia that was his dream is now more likely than at any time since he became a fugitive," Ashdown said in the article. He warned that RS is creating parallel structures, thereby bringing the country closer to partition, something the EU must avert.

"Brussels must toughen up its conditionality, support its instruments on the ground, resist attempts to undermine the Bosnian state, insist on constitutional reform to make Bosnia more functional and tackle corruption, which is becoming ever more embedded," Ashdown said. (The Observer, RTRS, SRNA, Makfax, Reuters - 27/07/08)