Ladies and gentlemen,

Bosnia and Herzegovina lost its great friend. His homeland the United Kingdom lost its great politician and diplomat, and the world lost a wise and a good man.

We have gathered today to pay respects to him. He deserved it by his deeds.

He was born in 1941, in the midst of the World War II, when the international order was fiercely disturbed by the aggression, and when the whole nations were under threat of extinction. Until the end of his life, Lord Ashdown was a great fighter for the values of the free world.

When the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina started in 1992, he was at the zenith of his career as president of one of the leading parties in the British Parliament.

He recognized straight away the importance of resistance against the forces of tyranny, which conducted the aggression against our country and threatened our people with extinction.

He arrived to the besieged Sarajevo as early as in August 1992, met with the late President Alija Izetbegović, and offered his support to a struggle fought by a free and independent country, which symbolized defending the values of the free world.

Until the end of the war he was one of the most ardent advocates of the international community's intervention aimed at stopping the aggression and genocide.

It was by this undertaking during the 1990's that he won the right to repeat, years later, the truth that the genocide in BiH could have been stopped with more willingness and decisiveness of the international community. “We could have prevented this horror. We chose not to do so,“ he was saying and reminding the world.

Weighted down by quilt, such awareness became the foundation of a more decisive engagement of the international community in our country, particularly after the Dayton peace agreement was concluded.

Lord Ashdown was indeed a personification of such decisiveness.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina we will remember him as High Representative, who made the unfair Dayton peace a bit fairer through its correct interpretation and application alike, thus making Bosnia and Herzegovina more functional in the interest of all its citizens.

During his mandate in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 20002 and 2006 some significant reform-driven progress was made. Namely, the integration path of Bosnia and Herzegovina was laid out to its membership in the European Union and NATO Alliance.

Forming of many state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an important heritage of OHR during the Ashdown's mandate.

During his mandate many democratic institutions of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina were either formed or strengthened, as the basis for sustainable peace and security, economic progress and the respect for human rights of all citizens and peoples in BiH.

A single Armed Forces, a single tax system, the state security agencies such as the Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), as well as the state judicial institutions are just a part of the heritage for which the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina have good memories of a joint work of OHR, the Council of Ministers, and the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH from that period.

A decisive initiative of Lord Ashdown on the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and on the persecution of war criminals and their collaborators was particularly important.

The truth is that for all his decisions he had a full political support of the overall international community through the Peace Implementation Council. However, Lord Ashdown provided a crucial contribution to the reforms by his energetic approach. These reforms enabled us to have a much stronger state.

Lord Ashdown was a man of action; a diplomat who gave priority to specific actions over being concerned and restrained.

He knew that the political forces which threatened the democratic values should be responded to decisively and prevented from their destructive intentions.

On the occasion of commemorating the 20th anniversary of the genocide, Lord Ashdown said that the western world had to remember Srebrenica not only as a witness to such horror, but also in order to understand what would happen when it turned its back.

This key lesson has resonated by the power of its essential meaning: the international community should not turn its back on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Lord Ashdown did not turn his back. He fulfilled his political mission, and, above all, his mission as a human being.

He remained faithful and selflessly committed to Bosnia and Herzegovina to the end. “I really love the Bosnian people,“ he said in one of his last interviews.

Let us keep our memories of him by fighting for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for freedom, truth and justice.

May our friend Paddy rest in peace.