Following the announcement that the former US President Bill Clinton will be an honorary guest of the gala dinner organized under auspices of the Advisory Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) in Washington on May 5th, ACBH Vice President Nedim Music spoke to N1 about the event.
Clinton will receive the ACBH’s “Lifetime Achievement Award”, along with former member of Bosnia’s Presidency Haris Silajdzic, retired US Army General Gordon Sullivan, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark and others.
During the first term as the US President, Clinton deployed the US peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Peace Agreement, which put an and to the Bosnian 1992-95 war.
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ACBH Vice President Nedim Music told the N1 that in this way they wish to express their gratitude to individual Americans for everything they had done for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We will honour those who helped Bosnia in the past 26 years. We want to return the favour,” he said.
Other guests that have confirmed their presence at the dinner are a businesswoman and a philanthropist Sanela Diana Jenkins and a Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.
“We also want to show everything the Bosnian diaspora in the US does. This will not be a political topic. Our guests will have the opportunity to say that they think of Bosnia,” Music added and recalled that General Wesley Clarke wrote a column recently where he called on the US to engage in the Balkans, more.
“If we look at the US’ attitude towards Bosnia, it hasn’t changed significantly ever since the Trump administration came to office. There are countries that are a bigger priority to the US, such as the North Korea and Syria. There is more talk that the US should be more engaged in Bosnia and the region. There are other countries that are trying to have some more influence on the US policy in that regard, but I don’t expect the US policy towards Bosnia to change,” Music told N1.
“It is important that we work and take responsibility for our own policy in Bosnia. To show the US and other NATO partners that we are a solid partner and that we can contribute to the European and world stability,” Music concluded.
He added that Russia has applied its “soft power” recently, meaning it had spread its influence in the region via media and other cultural ways.
When asked who lobbies for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the US, Music said:
“As far as I could tell, Bosnia hasn’t lobbied in the US as a state, in the last 10 years or more. If we look at Bosnia’s structure, lobbying is complicated. The Republika Srpska entity lobbied, but this was done at the entity level,” Music concluded.
