UNITED STATES: BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER ARRIVES FOR MEETING IN SEARCH OF "JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY"
Record ID:
337746
UNITED STATES: BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER ARRIVES FOR MEETING IN SEARCH OF "JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY"
- Title: UNITED STATES: BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER ARRIVES FOR MEETING IN SEARCH OF "JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY"
- Date: 31st October 1995
- Summary: DAYTON, OHIO (OCTOBER 31, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV ARRIVAL OF BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER HARIS SILAJDZIC AND FOREIGN MINISTER MUHAMED SACIRBEY (NIGHT) 0.04 2. SV SILAJDZIC GREETED BY U.S. ENVOY TO FORMER YUGOSLAVIA RICHARD HOLBROOKE 0.21 3. SV SILAJDZIC AND SACIRBEY HEADING TO WAITING CAR 0.33 4. SV U.S. MILITARY GUARD OF HONOUR 0.35 5. SV SILAJDZIC SPEAKING TO REPORTERS SAYING WE HAVE COME TO GET JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY, DAYTON FOR JUSTICE AND THE USA FOR DEMOCRACY (ENGLISH) 0.55 6. SV YUGOSLAV PLANE TAXIING ON TARMAC 1.02 7. SV YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT AND SERBIAN LEADER SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC ARRIVES 1.08 8. SV MILOSEVIC GREETED BY HOLBROOKE 1.19 9. SV MILOSEVIC SPEAKING TO REPORTERS SAYING HE ATTACHES GREAT IMPORTANCE TO THE TALKS AND JOINS EFFORTS TO BRING PEACE TO BOSNIA (ENGLISH) 1.42 10. SV PLANE ON TARMAC 1.46 11. SV BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC LEAVES PLANE 1.50 12. SV IZETBEGOVIC GREETED BY U.S. ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE 2.07 13. SCU IZETBEGOVIC SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 2.25 14. SV CROATIAN PRESIDENT FRANJO TUDJMAN LEAVING PLANE 2.35 15. SV TUDJMAN BEING GREETED BY HOLBROOKE 2.52 SEQUENCE 5 TRANSCRIPT: HARIS SILJDZIC :"WE HAVE COME HERE WITH GREAT HOPES. WE HAVE COME TO GET WHAT WE DON'T HAVE IN BOSNIA. THAT IS JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY. AND I HOPE THAT IN THE FUTURE IN THE HISTORY BOOKS WE WILL HAVE DAYTON FOR JUSTICE AND AMERICA FOR DEMOCRACY." SEQUENCE 9 TRANSCRIPT: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC :"WE ARE HERE TO JOIN PEACE EFFORTS IN BRINGING PEACE TO THE BALKANS." SEQUENCE 13 TRANSCRIPT: IZETBEGOVIC :"I CAN ONLY SAY THAT WE CAME HERE WITH THE DETERMINATION TO ACHIEVE JUSTICE AND PEACE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 15th November 1995 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA36TO86JC7A6J72TDQL41ACSQW
- Story Text: Bosnia's Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic, said he had come in search of "justice and democracy" as he landed at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday (October 31) for peace talks aimed at ending Bosnia's 42-month old war.
"We have come to get what we do not have in Bosnia -- that is justice and democracy," Haris Silajdzic said as he stepped off a U.S. Air Force plane at the air base.
"We cannot revive the dead. We cannot revive the 17,000 children dead in Bosnia. But we can get justice here and that justice means a fully functional Bosnian state, integrity, sovereignty, justice and democracy." Silajdzic was joined later on Tuesday in Dayton by President Alija Izetbegovic and about 20 other Bosnian government officials and technical experts.
Silajdzic, who arrived with Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey and was greeted on the Wright-Patterson tarmac by United States peace envoy Richard Holbrooke, was upbeat about the talks.
Rather than face-to-face negotiations the talks will proceed with Holbrooke and Carl Bildt shuttling among the three delegations, trying to narrow differences that have fuelled Europe's worst war in half a century.
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic arrived at the Wright-Patterson base on Tuesday evening amid controversy over whether he should be allowed to participate at all.
On the eve of the Dayton talks, Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey accused Milosevic of ultimate responsibility for the slaughter of thousands of civilians near Srebrenica in July and said he should not be a party to the negotiations.
Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole has also asserted that Milosevic should be excluded.
Milosevic has denied advance knowledge of the slaughters and said he opposed war crimes. "I am an optimist. I believe the talks will succeed," Milosevic told reporters after receiving red carpet and honour guard treatment. "We attach great importance to the peace initiative of the United States and we have come here to join these efforts in bringing peace in the Balkans," he said.
Milosevic is set on peace in return for the lifting of sanctions and revive his shattered economy.
In order to do so he has had to abandon his dream of Greater Serbia, against the outcry by his former nationalist allies who accuse him of betraying the Serbian cause.
Earlier on Tuesday, before leaving New York for Dayton, Silajdzic told a news conference that those responsible for war crimes must be "pursued, apprehended and surrendered to the United Nations war crimes tribunal. That has nothing to do with the political process here (in Dayton)." Silajdzic said the talks in Dayton were not about a partitioning of Bosnia-Herzegovina. "We shall not compromise on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. No one should hope for that."
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