Ashdown attacks corruption as he takes Bosnian peace role

Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's newly appointed international administrator, said yesterday bureaucracy, political corruption and crime had to be weeded out if the country was to become a stable democracy.

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon addressed the Bosnian parliament in a speech shown live on television after his predecessor, the Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch, took his leave in a modest handover ceremony.

Meeting international officials in Brussels three weeks ago, Lord Ashdown said crime had replaced ethnic conflict as the main danger for Bosnia-Herzegovina. In yesterday's speech, the former Liberal Democrat leader outlined his strategy for a sustained assault on crime and corruption and to promote jobs, announcing as his motto: "First justice, then jobs, through reform."

As high representative, he has the authority to impose laws when Bosnia's rival communities – Serbs, Muslims and Croats – cannot agree a policy in parliament.

Bosnia was spending far too much on its bureaucracy, Lord Ashdown said. "Every worker effectively spends three monthly salaries per year paying the politicians.

"The truth is Bosnia- Herzegovina spends far too much on its politicians and far too little on its people. We have no option but to change that," he said. He also appealed to Bosnians to put aside ethnic hatred in the name of the future of their children.

Lord Ashdown made clear that without thorough judicial reforms and effective administration of justice, Bosnia could not thrive.

"Bosnian justice works too often for the powerful and the politically connected, not for ordinary people," he told legislators. "It may be that the grip of nationalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina is, slowly – too slowly – weakening. But the grip of criminality and corruption is strengthening. And this poses a threat to every single one of us.

"That is why working with you to establish the rule of law will be my first, and my top, priority. There must be nobody above the law and no place beyond the law in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Lord Ashdown announced he would set up a special court to take on sensitive, high- profile cases. He also pledged to "sweep away the unnecessary red tape" that makes running a business difficult and to develop laws encouraging small businesses. "If Bosnia-Herzegovina doesn't reform, you will fail. And I will fail with you," he told the parliament.

Lord Ashdown later left for a tour of the northern city of Banja Luka, administrative centre of the Bosnian Serbs, and the southern city of Mostar, still divided between Muslims and Croats.(AP)