§ Mr. SarwarTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress towards meeting the Dayton Agreement with respect to Bosnia. [25682]
§ Mr. FatchettImplementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Bosnia is progressing steadily. The Bonn Peace Implementation Conference in 1997 found that notable progress had been made. However, much more could have been achieved had the authorities in Bosnia contributed their full share to the construction of a civil and democratic society in the country.
A copy of the conclusions of the Bonn Peace Implementation Conference has been placed in the Libraries of the House today.
Since the Bonn conference, the pace of implementation has been maintained, in particular by the High Representative Mr. Carlos Westendorp making use of the enhanced powers given to him at Bonn to impose deadlock-breaking decisions.
The international community also welcomes the formation in January of a new government in the Republika Srpska committed to co-operation with Dayton implementation. The detention by SFOR troops in January of a further war crimes indictee also demonstrated that the international community continues to attach high priority to this important aspect of Dayton implementation.