Pecondition for Democratization in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Society for Threatened Peoples welcomes Steinmeier’s clear statement concerning the capture of Ratko Mladic, a precondition for Democratization in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Göttingen, 3 March 2006

The Society for Threatened Peoples welcomes the clear statement of Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier regarding the capture of one of the major war criminals Ratko Mladic and his extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Equally appreciated was Steinmeier’s assertion that Serbia’s talks with the EU regarding the association agreement would otherwise be suspended.

The Society for Threatened Peoples also wishes to point out the unbearable condition of the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was established in Dayton. In 1995, the consequences of the mass expulsion of the non-Serbian population from the northern half of Bosnia, the „Republica Srpska”, were cemented. Until today, this part of the country remains under the influence of the former Serbian war party of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

Continuous discrimination and affronts of the non-Serbian population, which made up 50 percent of the country’s total population before the war, have caused non-Serbs to loose faith. Only 5 percent of them presently inhabit the Republic Srpska.

The capture of the two main advocates of mass expulsions and mass murder of Bosnia’s non-Serbian population is the foremost requirement for the democratization of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its approach to the EU. Once Mladic and Karadzic will be captured, Bosnia’s displaced persons, currently residing on three continents, will regain faith in a secure future and willingly return to the ethnically cleansed parts of the country.