Wed, May 20, 2009
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Vice President Joe Biden sharply rebuked Bosnia's leaders Tuesday and warned that continued ethnic divisions threatened to return the country to the chaos of the bloody Balkans conflicts of the 1990s.
Biden told lawmakers that the US was worried about the direction that Bosnia was taking which he said threatened to keep it as one of the poorest nations in Europe — or plunge it back into violence.
The ethnic rivals that make up the leadership of Bosnia have squabbled for years since the 1995 peace agreement that ended three years of war amid the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The feuding has halted prospects of joining the European Union.
Biden criticized what he said was years of nationalist rhetoric that had split communities and blocked reforms demanded by the EU as part of its membership process.
"God, when will you tire of that rhetoric?" Biden said in a speech to Bosnia's parliament.
"This must stop," he said. "Let me be clear: Your only real path to a secure and prosperous future is to join Europe," Biden said, adding that "right now, you're off that path."
He urged Bosnia's leaders to work together across ethnic and party lines — or face economic hardship or even "descend into ethnic chaos that defined the country for the better part of a decade."
"The choice is yours," Biden said. "If you make the right choice, we will stand with you."
Biden landed in Sarajevo on Tuesday, making the first stop in a three-day tour of the Balkans meant to demonstrate renewed interest in the region.
He met with Bosnia's three-person presidency, talked with the governing coalition and spoke — separately — with Bosnia's staunchest rivals, Bosniak leader Haris Silajdzic and Milorad Dodik, head of the country's Serbs.
Bosniaks are eager for the U.S. to get involved more deeply in Bosnia. But Serbs want Washington to back off.
The US-brokered peace agreement at Dayton, Ohio, in 1995 preserved the country's international borders but divided it into two ministates — one for Bosnia's Christian Orthodox Serbs, the other to be shared by Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.
The two ministates are linked by some common institutions.
The agreement stopped the fighting but failed to create a functioning country.
For years, Bosnia's path toward European Union membership has been blocked, primarily by quarrels among Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats over how to enter the 27-nation organization — as a unified country or one that is ethnically divided, as is currently the case.
Serbs say Bosnia can enter only as a loose federation of two or three ethnically based ministates. But Bosniaks and Croats are pushing for unification.
For years, the EU dangled the carrot of EU membership in return for reforms but Bosnian Serbs rejected the proposals.
Biden said the U.S. was back to help. "The door is open for the countries of this region for the first time in history to be an integral part of a free Europe," Biden said. "The U.S. will help you walk through that door."
To underline the close cooperation between the U.S. and the European Union, Biden is traveling through the region with Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.
Across Bosnia's Serb region, several hundred protesters lit candles Tuesday to show their dissatisfaction with U.S. plans to get more involved in the country's affairs.
"Joe Biden arrived to tear apart Serbia and the Republika Srpska," said Bogdan Subotic, a former Bosnian Serb general, using the official name of Bosnia's Serb Republic. Subotic was protesting in Banja Luka, the country's second-largest city.
On Wednesday, Biden will fly to Serbia, where he said he will tell Serbian President Boris Tadic that the United States wants to build a "new, positive relationship with Serbia" and to see Serbia take its place in Europe.
But many people in the country still view America as anti-Serb. The mistrust stems from the 1999 U.S.-led NATO bombing of Serbia that ended the country's rule in Kosovo.
"This independence, while young, is irreversible," Biden said, adding that the U.S. does not expect Serbia to recognize Kosovo's independence any time soon.
However, it does expect Serbia to cooperate with the EU and look for pragmatic solutions that would better the lives of both Albanians and Serbs living there.
Nationalist parties in Serbia have opposed Biden's visit, saying it amounts to a "humiliation" of the country. His last stop will be Kosovo, which he said is expected to remain committed to protecting all communities, including the Serbs.
(Agencies)
