Schwarz-Schilling takes over duty in Bosnia

31 January 2006

SARAJEVO – German diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling took over his duty as the new international administrator in Bosnia taking the office from his British predecessor Paddy Ashdown at a ceremony held Tuesday in Sarajevo.

“I am absolutely delighted that the international community has chosen Schwarz-Schilling to be my successor. He knows this country, he loves this country… and I cannot think of nobody better to take on this job,” outgoing high representative Ashdown said.

Before officially taking over the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, Schwarz-Schilling said he would focus on five goals, all aimed at further stabilizing Bosnia’s position on its way to Euro-Atlantic integration.

While implementing major goals, he said, he would try not to use wide high representative’s powers, which gives him the authority to impose laws and decisions and to remove officials from their offices.

Instead, he would assist local authorities in Bosnia to work better and achieve more results, Schwarz-Schilling said.

“I am here to help in making a normal European state. It is difficult, but possible to achieve that,” he said.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling is the fifth international community OHR in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the first German diplomat filling that post since it was created within the Dayton Peace Agreement signed a decade ago to stop the 1992-1995 bloodshed in Bosnia.

At the same time, Schwarz-Schilling will be acting as the European Union Special Representative.

For almost a decade Schwarz-Schilling was involved in political developments in Bosnia-Herzegovina as the international mediator for two Bosnia’s entities – the Srpska Republic and the Moslem-Croat Federation.

DPA

Subject: German news