The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, drew heavily on the experience of the Northern Ireland peace process in his address to the parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina yesterday. Mr Andrews is in Sarajevo as chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and he will visit Kosovo later today. He is accompanied by the secretary-general of the council, Mr Walter Schwimmer.
Both men are stressing the need for Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the principles of the Council of Europe, especially with regard to human rights, before acceding to the 41-member body.
Progress has been slow in implementing the Dayton Agreement that ended the war more than four years ago. Both Mr Andrews and Mr Schwimmer have been urging political leaders in the state to pass law dealing with the return of refugees, the establishment of political institutions and the setting up of legal and human rights machinery.
In his address to the joint parliament of the federation yesterday Mr Andrews said: "In Ireland as in Bosnia, we have had to address the dreadful consequences of conflict, albeit on a very different scale from that which you have experienced. We, too, are working hard to overcome the intercommunal divisions and antagonisms which have blighted so much of our past.
"But, in doing so, we have come to recognise that our diversity is something that we can and should celebrate and cherish".
Representatives of all three ethnic groups in the parliament have agreed on the desirability of accession to the Council of Europe, seen as an ante-chamber to the EU, with all the political and economic benefits this is expected to bring. But Mr Andrews warned that this could not be expected immediately.