Pact of Stability of South-Eastern Europe

Let the Games Begin

AIM Sarajevo, 28 July, 1999

Who will travel in the same airplane with whom, where everybody will sleep and what each one of them wishes to have for dessert - that has all been settled. Details are arranged of arrivals, meetings, schedules and departures of the statesmen of more than sixty countries of the world who will be in Sarajevo in the last days of July at the first summit conference of the Pact of Stability of South-Eastern Europe. Sarajevo is buzzing with pompous information such as "The Bulgarians in Jahorina, the British at the Embassy", "Zetra Opens its Doors with Flowers", "1,500 Accredited Journalists". Sarajevo is seized by an atmosphere of expectation and festivity as if it were the host to another Olympiad or a world show which will amuse us enormously. Hardly anybody speaks about what the Pact of Stability really means for this part of Europe, what rules of living (and governing!) will be imposed on the Balkans. It seems - nobody knows.

The summit is becoming a glorious opportunity for the authorities to divert attention of the citizens of B&H at least for a short while from their gloomy reality (it is forbidden to protest, demonstrate or express discontent in the street in the days of the Summit), and national leaders are repeating the rosy story about "the miracle which is happening in Bosnia" (A. Izetbegovic), which will change our lives for the better. The miracle is happening thanks to our leaders, of course, and successful efforts of B&H diplomacy, but how the "miracle" will affect the lives of citizens of ten odd Balkan states which the Pact refers to - it is not important. After all, for more than a year the essence of the Dayton accords was also concealed here, and there are still numerous attempts to present the Dayton defeat of nationalistic options as an exclusive victory of party leaders.

Speaking of the idea of the Pact of Stability, everybody clung to the thesis of American president Bill Clinton that this plan means "new architecture of the Balkan space" avoiding their obligation to at least try to indicate to the citizens the way that is planned for their future. Some of them blurted out their fear and phobia that the Pact means revival of former Yugoslavia in which the Slovenes would be replaced by the Bulgarians, the Albanians and the Romanians (voices from Zagreb Pantovscak), or shy remarks that the Pact is the result of interests of the European Union and the USA to isolate the problematic region of the Balkans and then try to resolve it as a whole (non-governmental organizations in B&H). After that, some sensational estimate of the authorities usually follows which in fact does not indicate anything but sounds good to the street opinion which just nods its head: "We will soon be in the situation to have our children be migrant workers in Albania", said allegedly irritated Haris Silajdzic, co-chairman of the Council of Ministers.

The essence of the Pact of Stability, of course, is founded on Clinton's thesis on establishment of new architecture in the Balkans, but assertion of democratic alternative in B&H (the Social Democrats and NGOs) that this architecture will, similarly as the Dayton accords, be the final agreement of world powers on global resolving of the conflict in the Balkans and not the expression of the will of any of the local establishments - is more than correct. Only after the dark part of Europe is fenced and put under full control of the international community conditions will be created for their democratisation and inclusion in the European trends, which judging by the implementation (or rather failure to implement) earlier agreements about this part of the world, may mean isolation and a specific protectorate of South-Eastern Europe for a long time.

International control of the region will be based on three segments or as it is customary to say diplomatically - three tables of the Pact of Stability. The first refers to military issues and securiry of the region, and it will take place under patronage of NATO which automically implies strong American influence in this sphere. The second table will deal with economic reconstruction of the region and establishment of conditions for possible future joining of economic trends of the West, and the World Bank and similar international institution are most frequently mentioned as the greatest bearers of the project, while the European Union will be responsible for democratization of the region and human rights which is the third table expected to adapt the way of living and the governing of the Balkans by democratic principles of developed Europe.

What the citizens think about the Pact on Stability is best illustrated by the statement of a taxi-driver in Sarajevo, as a representative of the part of the population which is usually the best parametre of the mood of the public: "They will open the door of Europe to us, alright. But before they do, they will introduce their rules and box the ears of these leaders of ours until they agree to work as they are ordered to do if they want financial aid. There will be noone who will be spared, or at least there should not be. But you never can tell with these leaders of ours". Because of these "ours" with whom everything sensible is uncertain and hardly feasible (the Dayton, the Washington and other agreements testify about this), negotiations have been going on in the past few days on establishment of the fourth table of the Pact of Stability which would articulate interests of the democratic alternative of the countries the Pact refers to. The idea developed in Tuzla at the session of the Forum of Democratic Alternative held last month, in which tens of representatives of opposition parties and NGOs from the region took part (most of them from B&H, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia), and which was strongly supported at the recent meeting of social democratic parties from Europe held in Vienna. This especially because most of the political alternative to nationalism in South-Eastern Europe bears the sign of social democracy, and out of the fifteen statesmen of developed Europe who are coming to the Sarajevo summit, thirteen are representatives of social democratic parties in power in their countries. The main argument in favour of establishment of the fourth table on the Pact of Stability is the fact that retrograde establishments responsible for the war cannot implement any agreement which denies their projects of ethnically pure territories and totalitarian single-party systems.

After all, how can anyone expect from the Pact on Stability to bring about the "new architecture of the region" of the whole of South-Eastern Europe, when a part of those who are the most responsible for its future implementation could not achieve that in post-Dayton Bosnia & Herzegovina. The summit in Sarajevo is the beginning of the new history of the Balkans, but it is unavoidable to introduce the rules of democracy, market economy and security into the game here and new forces which will know how to implement them. On the contrary, two days of the parade in Sarajevo will be remembered by flower carpets, halted traffic, rented apartments and cars, repaired holes in the streets and overflying of hundreds of air-planes and helicopters. A true Olympiad!

Ivana DRAZENOVIC

(AIM Sarajevo)

ENTREFILET (1)

To the moment of writing of this article, 62 state delegations have announced their arrival. From Albania President of Albania Rexhep Meidani, prime minister Pandeli Majko and minister Paskal Milo are coming; from Bulgaria president Petar Stojanov and minister Nadezda Mihajlova; from Croatia president Franjo Tudjman, prime minister Zlatko Matesa, foreign minister Mate Granic; from Finland president Marrti Ahtisaari who will chair the Summit), prime minister Paavo Lipponen, minister Tari Halonen; from Germany federal chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and foreign advisor Michael Steiner; from Greece prime minister Constantinos Simitis, minister George Papandreou; from Hungary prime minister Viktor Orban, minister Atilla Chikan; from Ireland prime minister Bertie Ahern; from Italy prime minister Massimo D'Alema, minister Lamberto Dini; from Luxembourg prime minister Jean Claude Juncker; From the Netherlands prime minister Willem Kok; from Norway prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik; from Portugal prime minister Antonio Guterres, minister Jaime Gama; from Romania president Emil Konstantinescu, minister Andrei Gabrriel Plesu; from Spain prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, from Sweden prime minister Gjoran Persson; from Turkey president Suleyman Demirel, minister Ismail Cem; from Great Britain prime minister Tony Blair, foreign minister Robin Cook; from Japan state secretary Nabutaka Machimura; from Estonia president Lennard Merri, minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves; from Latvia president Vaira Vike-Freiberga; from Lithuania president Valdas Adamkus; from Moldavia president Petru Lucischi, minister Nikolae Tabacaru; from Slovakia president Rudolf Shuster, minister Eduard Kikan; from Ukraine minister Borys Tarasyuk; from Montenegro (with the status of an observer) president Milo Djukanovic, minister Branko Perovic; from European Council chairman of the Committee of Ministers Haldor Asgrimsson; from OSCE chairman Knut Vollebaek; from NATO secretary general Javier Solana and commander for Europe Wesley K. Clark; from IMF manager Michaiel Camdessus; from the World Bank president James Wolfennsohn, from the European Investment Bank president Sir Brian Unwin; from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development vice president Charles Frank; from the Black Sea Economic Community secretary general Vassil Ivanov Baytchev; representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, European Commission.

According to information of the Russian Embassy in Sarajevo, president Boris Yeltsin will not come, and the reason for his absence has not been given. The delegation of Russia will be headed by prime minister Sergei Styepashin. American president Bill Clinton was amoing the first to confirm his arrival. Majority of the presidents will neither stay nor spend a night in Sarajevo. Their arrival is expected only on the second day of the Summit, at the plenary session, while the statesmen of the EU and presidents of the countries of the region will have the working part of the Summit on the first day, on Thursday, 29 July.

The delegation of B&H at the Summit consists of three members of state Presidency Ante Jelavic, Alija Izetbegovic and Zivko Radisic, co-chairmen and vice chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H (Haris Silajdzic, Svetozar Mihajlovic and Neven Tomic), foreign minister Jadranko Prlic, entity prime ministers Milorad Dodik and Edhem Bicakcic.

ENTREFILET (2)

Almost two thousand journalists have been accreditted so far for the gathering, but it is expected that by 30 July this number could exceed three thousand. The biggest problem in the organization was the Sarajevo airport, so it was decided that at the expeditously reconstructed airfield a plane would land every 15 minutes, and during departure, they will take off every ten minutes. The Mostar and Tuzla airfields were rendered usable as alternative ones from which the delegates would be transferred to Sarajevo by helicopter. Since the airport is a bottleneck, some of the statesmen have agreed to fly in one plane together with somebody else.

Delegations which will spend a night in Sarajevo will be accommodated in local hotels, diplomatic residences or in Jahorina, in RS. For the needs of transportation of the participants of the Summit, 200 raxi-drivers have been engaged, and another 50 drivers and luxury cars were rented from the citizens of Sarajevo.

As meteorologists forecast rainy weather, the organizers of the Summit provided a sufficient number of umbrellas which will be given to the delegates if needed.

The Summit will be held in Sarajevo Zetra. The decoration at the round table around which a hundred delegates will sit is a flower arrangement in the form of a flag of Europe made of 8,000 blue, white and yellow flowers. Flags of member countries are waving in front of Zetra, made in the past several days in a privately-owned garment manufacturring enterprise from Tuzla. After a collective photograph is taken, the statesmen are expected to plant a tree of peace each in the park around Zetra.

For the journalists, equipment has been installed in Zetra which will enable one thousand simultaneous phone calls and one thousand simultaneous mobitel calls, 128 modem hookups, 100 computers and additional links for computers journalists will be bringing with them. TV B&H has got the exclusive right to carry the Summit, and it will give its program to all the interested TV stations in the region free of charge.

ENTREFILET (3)

Among the announced bilateral meetings which will all take place in Zetra between 9:30 and 11:30 of the second day of the Summit, the only confirmed so far are the following: USA - B&H, Turkey - B&H, Japan - B&H and the International Committee of the Red Cross - B&H.

The price of organization of the Summit which is mentioned nowadays is about three million ECUs (6 million German marks); EU agreed to provide 1.25 million dollars. The official decision about holding the Summit arrived late because of misunderstanding about financing of the gathering, since the EU asked the richest countries (USA, Canada, Japan) outside the EU to participate in its financing. Money will be available only after the Summit, which caused discontent of the Bosnian authorities since they had to provide the money for organization from the budget of the Federation and the canton of Sarajevo, and get the money back later. According to certain allegations, the EU has not agreed to give the money in advance because of the bad experience with financial support for B&H.

ENTREFILET (4)

Although the authorities in Sarajevo claim that the job of security and faultless safeguarding of the Summit is their job, it was publicly said the most important part of the job will be carried out by SFOR and IPTF in cooperation with the local police, and unofficially there are rumours of hundreds of FBI agents who have already arrived in Sarajevo. Nevertheless, thanks to the summit (for the first time after Dayton, the police of the two B&H entities are united in carrying out a joint task, and there is a possibility that cooperation of entity ministries of the interior will continue, especially because joint police is one of the conditions for reception of B&H in the Council of Europe.