Al Jazeera has been making its New Year’s rounds in Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Its January 15 interview with U.S. Ambassador Patrick Moon featured the novice journalist’s usual three stock questions, among others. The first was: “Many would say [BiH is facing] the worst crisis ever…since the war. Would you agree?” To the interviewer’s discomfort, Ambassador Moon disagreed. Noting that he had heard the same description at virtually every point in time since he had arrived at his post in Sarajevo, the Ambassador said that he did not, in fact, think Bosnia was in crisis, but it did have some serious problems. Mentioning the Sejdić-Finci case, constitutional reforms in the Federation, registration of state and defense property, etc., Ambassador Moon said that political party leaders had reached agreements on solving these problems in March of last year but had made no progress in implementing these agreements.
This gave the disappointed interviewer a hopeful opening for stock question number two: Who is to blame for this, he asked, apparently confident of the answer. The political leaders of the country, responded Ambassador Moon. Not quite what the interviewer had wished to hear, so he persisted. But isn’t it primarily President Dodik? Yes, said the Ambassador, claiming that President Dodik had been blocking implementation of the March agreement. Finally, interviewer and subject were in accord, presenting Al Jazeera an opportunity for stock question number three: “Can we talk about [the High Representative and the Peace Implementation Council] also being responsible for deadlock in Bosnia?”
“I don’t think so” was Mr. Moon’s unsatisfying reply. According to the ambassador, it is the responsibility of the political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to deal with these problems. In his view, solutions that come solely from the international community are not solutions at all.
While the Al Jazeera interviewer continued seeking stock answers to stock questions, he obtained little satisfaction from Ambassador Moon. Other points in the interview, including the U.S. program for revision of the Constitution of the Federation, are worth more serious attention and will be examined in later editions of the Editors’ Journal.
