Paddy Ashdown Quotes
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My first job has been to do the best thing for the Bosnian people. Not for the Serbs, the Bosniaks or Croats, but the people as a whole.
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This country is about history, and unless the Serbs in particular come to some understanding of this history, we cannot build a stable state.
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There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices.
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We are not there yet, but I'd be disappointed if in two years' time there was not some movement towards truth as a precursor to reconciliation.
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The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.
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The United States will remain the most powerful nation on Earth for the next 10, 15 years, but the context in which she holds her power has now radically altered.
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History teaches us these lessons for the interveners: leave your prejudices at home, keep your ambitions low, have enough resources to do the job, do not lose the golden hour, make security your first priority, involve the neighbours.
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The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
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Now we are intimately locked together. You get swine flu in Mexico; it’s a problem for Charles de Gaulle Airport 24 hours later. Lehman Brothers goes down; the whole lot collapses. There are fires in the steppes of Russia; food riots in Africa.
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Ten years after Dayton, that these two primary architects of these appalling crimes should still be free is a failure on all sides.
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callous and irresponsible attempt to misguide voters and exploit the trauma of those who survived or were bereaved by the massacre.
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It is my worst experience, my worst trip to the Balkans.
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The present Europe is unfinished business unless the Balkans are a part of it.
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I believe that there will be a very substantial, perhaps even a two-thirds majority, for constitutional change and the modernization of our system of government in the next Parliament.
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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.
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It is not only in Bosnia-Herzegovina that you find politicians trying to raise hoary old ghosts of the past and gruesome specters to drive people into the ballot box to vote for them.
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A very small bunch of corrupt politicians believe that allowing Radovan Karadzic to stay at liberty is more important than this country having a future in NATO and peace for its citizens.
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I shall go home now. You have to know when your time is up. I knew that with the Liberal Democrats, and I know that now, in Bosnia.
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Coalition will come sooner or later, I'm certain of that.
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It might be done I suppose before I leave but I think that a little unlikely.
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Blair is regarded by most people in Britain as a smarmy git.
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The multinational corporations now developing budgets often bigger than medium-sized countries — these live in a global space which is largely unregulated, not subject to the rule of law, and in which people may act free of constraint.
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I don't think there is anyone who knows Bosnia-Herzegovina better than him. He is deeply trusted in the country. The international mission is in save hands.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina has done what many said was impossible even a year ago, let alone at the start of my mandate in May 2002. For the country now stands at the gates of Europe, ... This is a truly remarkable achievement for a country as war-torn as Bosnia and Herzegovina was just 10 years ago.