Current and former Bosnian officials gathered in Sarajevo’s City Hall on Thursday to commemorate former High Representative Lord Paddy Ashdown, saying that the diplomat, who died on Saturday, was a "great friend of Bosnia."
Following a minute of silence in honour of the former High Representative, Ashdown's biography and stances were read out.
The Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite Presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, said that during Ashdown’s term “key reforms which put this country on the track toward the European Union and the NATO alliance were made”.
“Those are reforms which are in the interest of all peoples and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia will forever be thankful to him for that,” he said, expressing his condolences to Ashdown’s family and the UK Parliament.
Adnan Terzic, who was the Chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers between 2002 and 2007, said that there were high and low points in his relationship with Ashdown.
“There were some deep disagreements, especially regarding decisions that influenced the fate of individuals, but the result was always progress and prosperity,” he said.
Ashdown was a professional and a man of high energy and experience in life and politics, according to Terzic.
“Despite most of the international community at the time believing that my government and the parties within it would not do anything good for Bosnia and Herzegovina and announcing Bosnia’s bankruptcy, Paddy Ashdown said: ‘Let’s give them a chance.’ And I thank him for that,” Terzic said.
Bosnia was on its EU path ahead of other countries, which have now surpassed it, he said.
The Deputy Mayor of Sarajevo, Ivan Saric, said that Ashdown left a mark that cannot be erased in the politics of Bosnia, and that Ashdown would say the country has “gotten under his skin.”
Ashdown did all he could for the conflicts to be stopped and the war crimes to be punished, as well as for progress on Bosnia’s EU path until his last days, he said.
“He loved our Bosnia and Herzegovina with all of its contradictions, and we did not recognise such friendly love and care, as we don’t have a lot of it in the world. He was a man of action, strict and just, decisive when needed, focused on the problems which needed to be solved, with proven courage and who had the instinct of a leader,” he added.
Ashdown loved challenges and he got acquainted with the country before he made any important decisions, Saric said, adding that the former High Representative was an open and direct person who was also a witness in the trial against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Ashdown managed to establish a single army, intelligence agency and tax authority in Bosnia, reform the judiciary, and he helped declare the Srebrenica massacre an act of genocide, he said.
He also mentioned that Ashdown recently wrote to EU top official Federica Mogherini condemning Croatia’s “meddling” in Bosnia’s internal affairs regarding the election of the Croat member of the country’s tripartite Presidency.
According to Mirko Pejanovic, who was a member of the Presidency between 1993 and 1996, the decisions Ashdown made strengthened Bosnia’s institutions and created new ones which strengthened the country's integrity and sovereignty.
“Throughout the past 15 years, Bosnia’s Armed Forces set standards which are being used by the NATO alliance,” Pejanovic said, adding that the reform and unification of the two entity armed forces in Bosnia initiated a “historic process of Bosnia moving toward and integrating into NATO.”
Lord Jeremy John Durham ‘Paddy’ Ashdown served as High Representative, the top foreign official the international community names to oversee the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian war, between May 2002 and January 2006.
He was born on February 27, 1921, in New Delhi, India, and died last Saturday, on December 22, in the village of Norton-sub-Hamdon in England.
He was also the leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats between 1988 and 1999.
The Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo opened a Book of Condolences honouring Ashdown.
