Conflicte, tolerància i mediació. Onze conferències de l'Administrador europeu a Mostar

From his experience as an European Union administrator in Mostar (1995-1996), the author analyzes the process of reconstruction of the city, the efforts to restore a state of civil normality and the difficulties of reunifying a society that has been divided due to four years of open war between Croats and Muslims. This view —made from a political responsibility— does not exclude a critical judgment of the behavior of the international community in the first moments of the conflict.  It also does not exclude the view of Eurocrats, who have been contemplating with suspicion the work of the Administration from the dominant diplomatic conventions. The success of the international military development —which has ultimately forced the belligerents to go through a state of armed peace— opposes with the failure of the civil reintegration, an objective with an uncertain future. The local elections of 1996 —carried out by the mediation efforts— confirmed the closure of the two communities when the ethnic parties were established. However, this lucid and realistic analysis is not limited to the scenario of Mostar, but is also extended to the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to draw up an itinerary that goes from the historical roots of the conflict to the policy of the European Union.