Bosnia op-ed in the Irish Times

Eric Witte December 29th, 2008

Kurt has an op-ed in today’s Irish Times, reiterating points DPC made last month in its Bosnia briefing: “Sliding toward the Precipice: Europe’s Bosnia Policy” [PDF].  Kurt argues that the Irish should take the lead in pushing the European Union to develop a strategy toward Bosnia:

There are differences in the EU. Britain and the Netherlands are for adherence to the benchmarks set this year. Sweden, Spain, Italy and others believe the accession process itself will solve Bosnia’s problems, and that transition is overdue.

Germany, the swing vote, is in between. While these differences in posture are wide, none qualifies as a strategy. None of the current approaches here defines success.

By now this ought to be obvious: EU success in Bosnia means ensuring a constitutional order allowing a single political centre. The Dayton constitution creates three centres, each rewarding nationalist candidates who generate inter-ethnic fears. This has enabled Bosnian politicians to promise to protect “their” traumatised electorates, gaining a lack of accountability unimaginable in other European states. Until a constitution forces responsive politics, Bosnia will continue to gravitate towards violent dissolution.

The EU’s greatest leverage is as EU gatekeeper. Transformations requiring major political will from applicants must be accomplished before EU entry. Brussels should articulate guidelines for a Bosnian constitutional order that it could accept: one promoting a political centre. This constitutional development process will require EU assistance, and should be the new EU Special Representative’s primary role. No other reforms have any durability without that foundation. A proven politician must lead this effort for the EU.

The EU must recognise that its capacity to deter violence through its military force, Eufor, has sunk below credibility. This raises the fear of renewed conflict among the population, making it more open to exploitation by politicians.

Ireland has invested to prevent a return to war in Bosnia. Ireland can now fill the leadership vacuum among EU member states by promoting a radical policy redirection as outlined above, building a consensus, and applying the Union’s leverage.

Read the whole thing here.

New DPC op-ed on Bosnia

admin November 4th, 2008

James Lyon, a veteran Balkan analyst with the International Crisis Group, recently joined DPC as a senior associate.  Today he and Kurt Bassuener had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Europe.  They argue that the situation in Bosnia is deteriorating, and that the European Union must take the lead in stemming the decline in the immediate term, while also putting the cause of the problem - the Dayton constitution - firmly on the international agenda.

DPC Analyst: Ukraine after the coalition collapse

admin September 22nd, 2008

DPC Senior Associate Iryna Chupryna has written the second issue of “DPC Analyst”, our occasional series of longer analytical pieces.  In “The Ruling Coalition in Ukraine is Dead… What Next?” [PDF], Chupryna argues that Ukrainian political stability requires a new political consensus - one less polarized along regional lines.

New DPC article: Giving Bosnian victims a name

Eric Witte August 25th, 2008

Radovan Karadzic has his second court appearance this week at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, when he will have another opportunity to enter a plea.  (He refused to do so at his first appearance.) Karadzic is charged with crimes across Bosnia and Hercegovina, including the July 1995 massacre by Serb forces of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in and around the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. 

On Sunday, Kurt had an article in the St. Petersburg Times, which offers a bleak but fascinating look at the tremendous effort by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to account for Srebrenica’s victims:

In ICMP’s mortuary in Tuzla the air hangs thick and musty - the dank odor of mortal remains excavated from mass graves, placed in numbered plastic burlap sacks, stacked seven high and 15 wide. Brown paper bags of clothing found on or with the remains, also carefully labeled, top the shelving. A neighboring room contains personal effects, such as walking canes, ID cards and canteens.

In many cases, the whole male line of a family was wiped out. Just last month, on the 13th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, 308 bodies found in mass graves and identified by the ICMP were reburied.

…

The center painstakingly links the remains of individuals killed at the same execution sites but spread among many secondary mass graves. The bones of some 140 individuals were laid out on long tables and shelves in the large room, each bone and fragment individually marked with a numbered foil tag. The skeletons of three brothers are laid out side by side. DNA from parents can only ensure identification as a child, but not which one absent other data. Two of four missing brothers could be positively identified by other distinguishing features, relative age, or because they themselves had children with matching DNA. But one partial skeleton could only be narrowed down to brother number three or four. More evidence is needed to positively identify him.

Every year on July 11, the remains of those identified are buried at Potocari, near Srebrenica. Families have sole discretion as to whether to bury a loved one who has been only partially found. Great is the trauma suffered by some who have buried a loved one only to find more remains later, and face the choice of disinterring the previously identified remains. ICMP refrains from contacting families until a significant amount of remains have been identified.

The man who was in operational command at Srebrenica, Ratko Mladic, remains at large in Serbia.  European Union foreign ministers meet next month, with Serbia again on the agenda.  Karadzic’s arrest would likely not have been possible without Dutch and Belgian insistence on Serbia’s full cooperation with the ICTY prior to implementation of its Stabilization and Association Agreement and other EU benefits.  As Kurt argues, the pressure should be maintained:

Will the man accused of being operationally responsible for creating the tangle of human remains that is still being sifted ever see justice? That largely depends on the continued lonely leadership of the Dutch and Belgian governments, and the readiness of those, including the U.S. government, who bankroll the international tribunal to continue financing its work until justice is done.