All people can live in peace and prosperity, but it is in our reach only if we are together if we are one, said Zlatko Lagumdzija, the founder and president of the Shared Societies and Values foundation, addressing a peace summit in Seoul the last week.
Former Chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers (CoM) and Foreign Affairs Minister attended the three-day summit, speaking of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s experience which, as he said, should serve as a lesson to today’s world full of conflicts.
Lagumdzija was one of five foreign statesmen and speakers who had a chance to address the event and tell about, as he noted, “our experience, which should serve as a lesson not only to us but to the Balkans, Europe and today’s world full of conflicts.”
“In its 25 years of modern history, Bosnia and Herzegovina went through process of failing to prevent conflict, over the war, last genocide in the 20th century in Europe, the peace process, and finally post-conflict state building through ongoing Euro-Atlantic integration and participation in the UN peace missions,” said Bosnia’s former official.
He made a mention during the speech of the two war crime suspects, Bosnian Serb leaders, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, and their trial before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
“Mladic and Karadzic are today in front of international war crime tribunal in The Hague sentenced for worst war crimes including the genocide in Srebrenica. I see these ICTY verdicts as small building blocks of conflict prevention mechanisms anywhere in the world, and not only as a symbol of postponed justice in my country,” Lagumdzija noted.
Concluding his address, he noted he had no answers for today’s major problems and that he was aware of the “unpredictability and difficult days ahead.”
“I know that together we can fight the true threats to peace and to our societies. Alone we can go faster. But if we want to go further then we have to go together,” Lagumdzija stressed.
The three-day summit in Seoul ended with an impressive gathering of dozens of thousands of activists and was followed in a live broadcast in 96 cities of the world.
