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Bosnia: not so picture-perfect

In his criticism of Jeffrey T. Kuhner's commentary on Bosnia ("Redrawing Bosnian borders," Oct. 1), High Representative Paddy Ashdown ("One for all," Letters, Wednesday) shows that he has a remarkable talent for condescension even when the obvious facts do not support his lordship's sense of superiority.

Mr. Ashdown says that, contrary to Mr. Kuhner's assertions, the Dayton Accords have led Bosnia-Herzegovina toward economic and political recovery. The fact is that Dayton brought a fragile peace to the country, but not much more than that. After eight years, the billions invested in Bosnia-Herzegovina (mostly U.S. taxpayer dollars) under Dayton have provided mainly a meaty carcass for some 50,000 well-paid international "nation builders" to feed on. Under Dayton, there was supposed to be a one-year transitional international administration expiring in 1996. Nonetheless, Mr. Ashdown and company are still being very well-paid in a very poor country that has a 40 percent unemployment rate. It seems that Dayton was a first step in the ongoing international institutional involvement in Bosnia's affairs

The fact is that despite its high cost, Dayton has failed to achieve any of its stated major goals, much less impose democracy. Dayton's main strategy was to integrate the three armies of Bosnia-Herzegovina into one and use it as a foundation for imposing a European version of a multiethnic society. Of course, that has failed, but that has not stopped Mr. Ashdown from continuing to demand it in his speeches.

What Dayton has done is solidify Serbian real estate gains achieved through mass murder under Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic-cleansing programs. The Serbs occupy 49 percent of the country and are not about to give up their army, which protects the borders of what they defiantly named the Republic of Serbia.

Regarding the contention that Bosnia-Herzegovina is not a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism, his lordship suggests that Mr. Kuhner should visit the country to see for himself. Perhaps someone should suggest to Mr. Ashdown that he take a look at the city surrounding his very own office building. About two kilometers to the south of him, the al Qaeda-linked Saudi Wahhabis have built a massive Islamic center to spread their brand of fundamentalist Islam. They are building sparkling new mosques in nearly every Muslim village in the Bosnian countryside. In the middle of downtown Sarajevo, about 10 meters from the eternal flame of peace, a cultural center is operated by the same Iranian government that traditionally has sponsored terrorism against the West, including the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

Nonetheless, Mr. Ashdown still argues that everything is under control in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He says quite boldly that important steps have been taken "to ensure that Bosnia-Herzegovina could not in any way be used as a platform for terrorist attacks of any sort." Perhaps he should share that remarkable methodology with Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge and the rest of the world. There is, of course, a slight problem with that logic. If Mr. Ashdown sees Bosnia-Herzegovina as tightly controlled enough to thwart even the most secretive terrorist cells, why haven't Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and the other 100 or so war criminals who are said to be residing comfortably in the country been arrested?

JERRY BLASKOVICH, PH.D.