I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
Added by Lucian Velea
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I am here because I think it was a terrible sin of the west to allow those years of war.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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I've had much nastier things said about me in the British press than in the Bosnian press.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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We who came here saw what was happening. This was far more than a war in a faraway place. This was a moral imperative, a terrible vision of the future.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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We have to make their livelihoods viable, get them the proper prices for their produce, try and make them stay rather than sell their property and leave again.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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The generous way of putting it is that we were not ready for this. The less generous way is to say: How was it possible to return to the politics of appeasement of the 1930s?
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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I am formally accountable to the steering board of the PIC, and I meet with nine ambassadors from the PIC every week. I have to have the capitals' broad agreement with what I do.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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I love this country, I love these people, though I can't say I love their politicians. People are always nicer than politicians, but here, you can mark that difference up a hundredfold.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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Maybe it's legitimate criticism, though it can be hurtful. Maybe I haven't paid sufficient attention to the people with whom I would have a natural affinity as a liberal, and they feel let down by that.
quote by Paddy Ashdown
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