Quotes by Paddy Ashdown

“The present Europe is unfinished business unless the Balkans are a part of it,”

“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.”

“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,”

“I dont know a country in the entire world that has made faster progress from war, let alone such a terrible war, to peace,”

“There is real money to be made.”

“callous and irresponsible attempt to misguide voters and exploit the trauma of those who survived or were bereaved by the massacre.”

“It is my worst experience, my worst trip to the Balkans,”

“Id sell my grandmother for a bit of definition.”

“Ten years after Dayton, that these two primary architects of these appalling crimes should still be free is a failure on all sides.”

“It might be done I suppose before I leave but I think that a little unlikely.”

The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.

I dont think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.

Politics is compromise.

Bosnia is under my skin. Its the place you cannot leave behind. I was obsessed by the nightmare of it all; there was this sense of guilt, and an anger that has become something much deeper over these last years.