The media round up on the website of the Office of the High Representative also covered the piece. Click here

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT NEWS - 3 MAY 2002 - ASHDOWN COULD RESOLVE THE CROAT ISSUE

 

Vecernji List carries excerpts of an article written by Brian Gallagher, the former vice president of a branch of the British Liberal Democrats (LD), the party led by the future High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, for the "Liberal Democrat News". In the article, Gallagher gives a few pieces of advice to the future High Representative, especially emphasising that Ashdown can, by doing his job fairly and impartially, not only resolve the Croat issue, but also open the road to a self-sustainable BiH.

According to Gallagher, the number of Croats in BiH has been halved, they are prevented from returning to the RS, while "the shameful changes to the election law disabled Croats to elect their own representatives." Gallagher sees a solution to the Croat crisis in respecting the will of the Croat electorate which will create good faith and calls on Paddy Ashdown to strengthen financial independence and local self-government, which would provide Croats with schools and services of their own.

Finally, Gallagher warns that without the full equality of all three peoples, BiH will never be stable but remain a "centralised international protectorate, a country which would never be governed by its peoples."