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"Extremist voices" among both Christians and Muslims were receding, said the official, who vigorously rejected claims, including some from a church agency, that the country faced "Islamization."

The Roman Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, claimed in a press release on March 29 that Bosnia-Herzegovina was "developing into an Islamic state," with Muslim teachings "increasingly dominating all spheres of life."

Chris Bird, spokesman for the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the international administration overseeing the region, whose headquarters are in Sarajevo, said he believed such allegations were "rubbish." Sarajevo, the capital city with 500,000 residents, was a "liberal, multi-cultural and tolerant place." He added that a small number of foreign Islamic mujahedin fighters had stayed on in rural villages after the war's end, but he denied that any movement existed to introduce Islamic laws or ban alcohol.

"I've seen more veiled people in London and met more fundamentalists in Bradford [in northern England], than I have in Sarajevo—the only way the hard-liners can stay in power is by frightening people, and propaganda about an Islamic menace is just part and parcel of that," Bird said.

"The international community has made great progress in instilling the idea that it's not your ethnic group which counts, but having rights as a citizen, backed by the rule of law. If we stay on the ground and finish the job, getting the economy back on its feet in a stable society, this will be the surest way of integrating this country into a peaceful Europe.

"Extremists espousing the nationalist cause still exist in some religious communities, and this isn't unique to Bosnia," Bird said. "But many positive things are happening too. Religious leaders bear enormous responsibility for seeking and achieving reconciliation. Given all the pressures, they're doing a very good job."

The OHR was set up by the Peace Implementation Council, consisting of 55 governments and agencies which oversee and fund the peace process.

The British official was speaking to ENI after an appeal to Western governments by the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, not to scale down Balkan peace-keeping efforts in the wake of new conflicts in Macedonia and southern Serbia.

Referring to recent calls for a new ethnic division of Bosnia, Bird described them as "cynical in the extreme," and said they reflected a misjudgment by "poorly informed people."

"People forget we all come from multiethnic societies—the nearest example of a mono-ethnic state is Iceland, and even this is probably untrue," Bird said. "Whenever new problems appear, poorly informed people say the only option is to divide Bosnia and have done with it. If we did this, we'd merely be giving in to a minority of violent extremists."

Writing in the International Herald Tribune on March 26, Wolfgang Petritsch said he believed "real progress" was occurring in Bosnia. He rejected a call in March by former Balkans mediator, Lord (David) Owen, from Britain, for "a present-day equivalent of the 1878 Congress of Berlin, with pre-agreed boundary changes endorsed by the major powers."

Petritsch said in his article: "To pull out of the Balkans would risk another horrific round of ethnic cleansing. It would also be a gross injustice to the millions of ordinary citizens, not only in Bosnia, but across south-eastern Europe, who want nothing to do with a nationalism that leaves them poor, frightened and isolated."

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45