Christian Schwarz-Schilling
High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Office of the High Representative, FENA - 31/01/06; BBC - 30/01/06; Deutsche Welle, International Herald Tribune, AFP - 14/12/05) Christian Schwarz-Schilling. [Getty Images] |
Germany's Christian Schwarz-Shilling took over the role of international community high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from Britain's Paddy Ashdown on 31 January 2006. Like his predecessor, the former postal service minister has been appointed to serve also as the EU's special representative in the Balkan country.
Schwarz-Schilling, the first child of distinguished composer Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, was born on 19 November 1930 in Innsbruck, Austria. In 1956 he obtained his PhD in Sinology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
From 1957 to 1982 Schwarz-Schilling ran a successful medium-sized family enterprise producing batteries and electronic equipment in Budingen, in the state of Hessen.
He began his political career in 1960, when he joined the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 1966 until 1976 Schwarz-Schilling was a member of the Hessen regional parliament. Meanwhile, he became general secretary of the CDU in Hessen in 1967. From 1976 until 2002, Schwarz-Schilling was a member of Germany's national parliament, the Bundestag. During the last eight years of his parliamentary career, he served as chairman and deputy chairman of the parliamentary human rights and humanitarian aid committee.
In 1982, Schwarz-Schilling joined the first cabinet of then Chancellor Helmut Kohl as telecommunications and postal service minister. He resigned from his post in 1992 in protest of the government's failure to intervene in the unfolding conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He told the chancellor he was "ashamed" to belong to such a government and was leaving because he had entered politics to ensure that atrocities like those perpetrated by the Nazi regime "never happen again".
Schwarz-Schilling became immediately involved in humanitarian aid efforts. In the final year of the 1992-1995 conflict in BiH, he became an international mediator for the country, a position he held until 2004. Meanwhile he made over 180 visits to more than 50 communities there, winning respect as an impartial arbitrator.
In October 2005, then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder nominated Schwarz-Schilling as Ashdown's successor and on 14 December that year the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) formally appointed him as the next high representative in BiH.
Assuming his post on 31 January 2006, Schwarz-Schilling said he believed his functions and those of his office would disappear in the near future, but that he would remain in BiH as the EU's senior representative there.
"During my tenure, the chances are that Bosnia and Herzegovina will sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU and join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme," he said in his first TV address to the people of BiH. "These are key milestones on the road to European and Euro-Atlantic integration. The steps that must be taken in order to reach these milestones are known – and these will form the agenda of my work."
Confirming Schwarz-Schilling's appointment, the PIC's Steering Board outlined a list of 11 priorities BiH should focus on in order to overcome lingering interethnic problems. Modernising the Dayton constitution, transferring all remaining war crimes indictees to the UN tribunal in The Hague and maintaining the refugee returns process top the list of goals. Other challenging tasks on the agenda include boosting economic development and completing police and defence reforms.
Schwarz-Schilling is married and has two children and four grandchildren.
