Bosnia-Herzegovina

Samantha Power, 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (Perennial paperback, 2003), p.327: "In December 1992, standing on the tarmac at Sarajevo airport, his cheeks flush with the winter cold, Owen had declared, "Don't, don't, don't live under this dream that the West is going to come in and sort this problem out. Don't dream dreams." However cold the sentiment, Owen honestly and accurately urged Bosnians to assume they were on their own." In 1992 David Owen was appointed the EU Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, working alongside the UN's Co-Chairman, Cyrus Vance. The papers collected here provide fascinating primary source material and an insider's account of the intense international political activity at that time, which culminated in the Vance-Owen Peace Plan (VOPP). At a time when the international community is looking again at whether and how the Dayton Accords and the 1995 division into two entities should be adjusted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Owen highlights elements of the VOPP which are of continuing relevance and which can guide political debate and decisions in 2012 and thereafter. Sadly, Bosnia-Herzegovina is still deeply divided, a direct consequence of not imposing the VOPP. The book reminds the international community and the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina that a unified structure for their country is still achievable.