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Bildt Warns of War’s Return to Balkans
‘There is still... a ruthless power struggle in progress...
In a copy of a speech to be delivered at a Moderate (Conservative) party conference to the north of Stockholm, the former Swedish prime minister summed up seven months of fragile peace under the Dayton agreement.
"Where a year ago I was forced to travel at top speed in an armoured car through deserted streets under threat of fire, progress is now often made difficult by traffic jams. Where shells fell a year ago, street cafes have sprung up." Although such changes were a sign of hope, they were as yet largely superficial, Bildt said. Attitudes among Bosnia's political leaders had not changed.
"There is still -- hardly surprisingly -- a ruthless power struggle in progress...where the constant presence of fear and the tangible absence of reconciliation make any progress in reuniting the country and people as laborious as it is fragile." Bildt will report on Wednesday to the United Nations Security Council in New York on the aftermath of Dayton.
The mandate of the IFOR international peacekeeping force expires in five months' time, when the Security Council will make what Bildt called the "necessary decisions on the continuation of the work for peace."
A rare visitor to Sweden over the past year, the 47-year-old Bildt will return at the turn of the year to head the Moderate Party he will lead into the September 1998 general election. Swedish political commentators say that defeat in that poll would probably mark the end of Bildt's domestic political career, although his future as an international statesman seems assured.
In a recent television interview, Bildt said he could consider "trying to form European structures for foreign policy, security and peace." The role of European Union "foreign minister" does not exist at present, but has been the subject of inter-governmental discussions on the future of the EU.
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STOCKHOLM, July 27 (Reuters) - Carl Bildt, the international High Representative in Bosnia, said on Saturday a permanent division of the ravaged Balkan state through ethnic cleansing would mean further bloody and brutal wars in the region. "The road to division is a road which in Bosnia would lead to fresh waves of ethnic cleansing and ethnic conflicts...each one more brutal and bitter than the last," Bildt said.
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