If you kill one person, you're prosecuted. If you kill ten people, you're famous.
My own feelings about Silajdzic shifted frequently. There was something touching about his intensity and energy, and his constant desire to improve himself intellectually. Although always busy, he seemed alone. ~ Richard Holbrooke
Haris Silajdžić (born 1 October 1945) is a Bosnian politician and academic. In the 2006 elections, Silajdžić was elected as the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for four years in the rotating presidency.
Quotes
1990s
- I must say, that I enjoyed it, I must say that. Because those who killed so many defenseless people, those who aimed baby hospitals, those who aimed children while playing, could finally feel what it means to be targeted, to be defenseless... and they deserved it.
- Commenting on the NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb forces, during an interview for the Death of Yugoslavia documentary, 1995
2000s
- The Allies did not bomb the railway tracks leading to Auschwitz, because they feared it would arouse the wrath of the Nazis; six million people died. In our case, an arms embargo led to "only" a quarter of a million deaths - an embargo that penalized only the victims, for the aggressors already had more arms than they could handle.
- The origins of this horrific human tragedy lay not in Bosnia itself, but in the policies conducted by demagogues in her neighboring countries, especially the Milošević regime in Belgrade - policies that led to the violent dissolution of former Yugoslavia and the near-destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its most plural republic.
- If you kill one person, you're prosecuted. If you kill ten people, you're famous; if you kill a quarter-of-a-million people, you're invited to a peace conference.
- Commenting on convicted Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzić's UN/EC/US invitation to New York, as quoted in The Role of the Great Powers behind Modern Human Rights.. (by Francis Boyle) - Media Monitors Network. Mediamonitors.net. Retrieved on 27 September 2011.
- The state cannot block the entity, but the entity can block the state.
- Commenting about the power relations between the Bosnian entities, the Bosnian parliament and central government during a lecture at the School of Law of UCLA, 17 February 2009, as quoted in "Sound Governance, Justice Elude Bosnia and Herzegovina", UCLA International Institute, 20 February 2009
Quotes aout Silajdzic
- Most American officials viewed Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic as the Bosnia leader with the broadest vision - an eloquent advocate of a multiethnic state. But his power struggles with Izetbegović and Sacirbey and other members of the Bosnian government often isolated him. His colleagues complained that he was difficult to work with. He carried a serious additional burden: Tudjman and Milošević distrusted him. Nevertheless, Silajzic was one of the two most popular Muslim politicians in Bosnia, along with Izetbegovic. My own feelings about Silajdzic shifted frequently. There was something touching about his intensity and energy, and his constant desire to improve himself intellectually. Although always busy, he seemed alone - his wife and son lived in Turkey. Silajdzic was the only Bosnian official who seemed genuinely to care about economic reconstruction of his ravaged land. His unpredictable moods worried us, but his support would be essential for any peace agreement.
- Richard Holbrooke, To End a War, p. 188
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