Speaking to invited luncheon guests on Nov. 9, Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch delivered the fourth annual Vienna Lecture. The series was initiated as a way to provide an Austrian perspective on important European issues.
This year's speaker, who is the International Community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, squeezed a visit to Washington between his briefing of the Security Council in New York and an immediate return to Sarajevo. The mandate of the High Representative is to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord of 1995.
Ambassador Petritsch, an Austrian career diplomat, was the European Union's Special Envoy to Kosovo. He addressed issues that are of crucial significance to Westerners: "How -- and for how long -- should the international community remain involved in the Balkans?" His answer, in brief, was for a long time -- in order to build a functioning civil society so that the Balkan region can be integrated into the European family of nations. What is required is the building of a sustainable society capable of governing itself.
He argued that it is not enough to rebuild the region's moribund economy. What is crucial is reform of the state and the establishment of human security -- reforming the institutional environment and establishing the rule of law. "We need to be courageous as well as creative." The Albanians must not be permitted to build a mono-ethnic state in Kosovo, he said. "We need to shift the political discourse from historical claims, which conflict and contradict, to the needs of the future, which overlap and complement." The first step is the full implementation of the Dayton accords.
Ambassador Petritsch said it will be difficult to overcome the "culture of dependency" in Bosnia. He insisted that the citizens of Bosnia eventually must take responsibility for the process of tackling the underlying causes for societal tensions -- an alien idea to many people who have never experienced "civil society."
On Oct. 27, 1999, as High Representative, he took an important step in laying down property law reform and uniform procedures for property repossession. This will enable thousands of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes. A second crucial step is a reformed election law, which will provide accountability and transparency in the political process, enabling voters for the first time to select representatives by name and personality (rather than simply by party). Candidates will have to come from and live in the region they represent. The goal is to increase political moderation and attention to issues such as the economy, education and housing, rather than a pre-occupation with the past.
Ambassador Petritsch ended his talk with a plea for an "international civil service" police units and trainers, democratization and media experts, human rights monitors and ombudsmen. He believes that the necessary deconstruction of the myths of Balkan history can only be achieved by a vibrant civil society that will deal with its past objectively.
