Speeches

There is a universe of loss in a single death. By identifying victims and documenting the circumstances in which they died, we can begin to make that universe less bleak, through respect and compassion.

It is customary at events like this – in an academic milieu and with a high degree of common purpose– for speakers to address issues with a broad brush, perhaps dealing with points of intellectual or philosophical interest.

On this day and in this place we remember twelve colleagues, men and women who came to Bosnia and Herzegovina to help this country and who died here as they carried out their work.

When I spoke at the Alpbach Symposium last year, on the twentieth anniversary of the Year of Revolutions, I noted that in 1989 many politicians and diplomats were slow to understand the nature of the change that was taking place in the Eastern bloc. I pointed out that the West Europeans acted “with caution and, in the beginning, with a distinct lac [...]

I came to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member of SFOR in 1998 assigned to provide support for special forces working on following and arresting persons indicted for war crimes. Since then 159 of 161 persons indicted by the ICTY have been brought to justice. Since I came back to Bosnia and Herzegovina later that year as part of the Train and Equip pr [...]

Respected mothers and women of Srebrenica, dear relatives, brothers and sisters, distinguished mourners. We are gathered here, on the European Remembrance Day, to remember - with honesty and with the deepest compassion - the horrific genocide of Srebrenica.

Half a century ago the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, summed up the zeitgeist of the post-colonial world when he told skeptical members of parliament in Cape Town that “a wind of change” was blowing across the African continent.

The issue facing Bosnia and Herzegovina between now and 3 October is whether the election can put an end to the dysfunction and stalemate of the last few years and get the country back on the high road to stability, prosperity and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Many of you have travelled from across the Herzegovina region and even further afield to be with us today, to mark the closure of the OHR South Office in Mostar.