Bosnia’s new minder

Date: 17/07/1997

EVEN in the sink-or-swim Nineties, most employees are given a couple of weeks to settle into a new job.

Carlos Westendorp had no such luxury. Within minutes of his appointment as the High Representative to Bosnia, the Spaniard was thrust into a world of political intrigue, brinkmanship and latent violence which would have had most men reeling.

In one month, he has had to deal with a see-sawing reconstruction effort, the manifest reluctance of Serbs, Muslim and Croats to integrate, and the continued failure of the Republika Srpska to hand over Radovan Karadzic to the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Westendorp also faces the unenviable task of overseeing what promises to be one of the most charged elections of the decade in September.

Although until a few months ago he was relatively unknown except to Spaniards and avid followers of European integration, this low-key international image was in no way a reflection of Westendorp's ability.

It is genuinely difficult to find acquaintances who do not praise his great intelligence, easy approachability and gentle persistence.

A diplomat by instinct, a politician by design, Westendorp is known as a “coquettish” charmer with a wicked turn of phrase.

His steady rise through Spain's foreign service at a difficult time for the country showed him to be a man with an aptitude for collating, interpreting and presenting facts that stunned most of his peers.

At the same time, his fondness for good food and his relaxed outlook on life - perhaps in rebellion against his military father - endeared him to his acquaintances.

“We nicknamed him 'Dressed-in-Dior' (a close rhyme to Westendorp in Spanish) because of his penchant for nice suits,” recalls one colleague and close friend.

“During the marathon negotiations just before the Nordic countries and Austria joined the Union, he missed the entire first morning of the final meeting to go clothes shopping in the Sablon. I thought at the time that he was pushing things a bit, but he was right. Although the talks lasted two whole days without sleep, he was wonderfully relaxed the whole time.”

Those who have met him in Sarajevo have yet to discover the more friendly side of his nature. “He did not seem so accessible at first. He appears less jovial than Bildt, who was more fond of a joke,” says one aid worker.

But they accept that it is early days, with Westendorp still getting to grips with the enormous task facing him, and have high hopes of his ability to get things going again.

Over the years, Westendorp has operated an open-door policy, inviting his staff to come in and discuss matters. “He brought a more Nordic style of management to our rather formal service,” says another ex-colleague from Spain.

“This was very important to bring our country into the modern world after the change-over. When we started working together, I asked: 'Can I call you Carlos?'. He answered: 'Not only can you, you must.' He is very campechano (easy-going).”

That will be a valuable character trait in Bosnia.

The Serb press began attacking him before he had even arrived, following his tough statements on the need for integration and criticism of those who harboured war criminals. The Muslim-Croat Federation, by contrast, awaited him eagerly, albeit mainly because it hoped he would come down hard on its eastern rivals.

Although it is still too early to tell what Westendorp will bring to the divided country, first indications are that he will be a tougher proposition than Carl Bildt and will take little nonsense from either party.

In this he will be helped by his close acquaintance with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, who recommended him for the job.

Although relations between the two have often been strained during the 1990s, with Westendorp jealous of Solana's political success and Solana envious of Westendorp's greater analytical powers, they have now established a modus vivendi which could be extremely valuable in the months to come.

Westendorp also enjoys a high reputation in the United States, with good contacts and a friendly relationship with the state department.

As one of the architects of the EU's New TransAtlantic Agenda, Westendorp organised US President Bill Clinton's visit to Madrid in 1995 at a time when many were warning against the move. Afterwards, the summit was proclaimed a great success.

Perhaps his greatest asset, ironically, will be his relative anonymity in Bosnia.

Westendorp has no previous connections with the former-Yugoslavia, and next to other candidates for the job (like the UK's ex-Defence Minister Michael Portillo) he offers a usefully blank slate.

It will certainly be interesting to see how his curiously soft stubbornness will wear in a country where hot tempers form the basis of politics. That is not to say that he is not capable of stirring things up - he famously infuriated the then Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1990 by likening Rome's EU presidency to a Marx Brothers film.

But Westendorp's time as chairman of the Reflection Group preparing the ground for the Intergovernmental Conference which has just drawn to a close suggested an ability to find compromise where little was available.

“He did a very good job, with a degree of Spanish flamboyance that kept things going,” says Luxembourg's current ambassador to London Joseph Weyland, who was also on the Reflection Group. “He was good at getting people to give their opinions - he let them speak. A very kind person and a very able man.”

Westendorp's key role in the last years of Spain's talks on EC entry also showed him to be a capable negotiator who could see through a difficult brief.

Westendorp and current Spanish permanent representative to the Union Javier Elorza formed the central plank of the Spanish team as negotiations drew to a close, and scored some notable successes on the creation of the EU's cohesion funds.

Later on, Westendorp acquitted himself to much acclaim as Spain's ambassador to the EC, and then as secretary of state for European affairs from 1991-1995, when his team earned the epithet 'the Magnificent Five'.

This tag, invented by supporters in the press, is a fitting tribute to Westendorp's ability to garner media support as well as his skill as a politician. He is easily accessible to journalists and dedicates an large amount of his time to public relations.

That might also be crucial in Bosnia, where the newspapers can be vitriolic and, according to some, are a key element in fostering the divisions which still beset the country.

In some ways, the question might not be so much how Westendorp affects Bosnia, but how Bosnia affects Westendorp.

A lover of antiquity and beauty, he is likely to be shocked at the wanton brutality the war has left in its wake. A cool man who does not lose his temper, he may also find frustrating the lack of aesthetic outlets through which to express himself.

Nonetheless, previous experience has shown that he can be creative in even the most awkward situations.

During one gala dinner with Turkish leader Tansu Çiller, he discovered at the last minute that he had left his cuff-links in Spain.

“Not to be deterred, he grabbed a file and removed its rubber binders,” explains a colleague. “These he fashioned into an elegant pair of bobbles, fastened his sleeves and marched proudly into the meal.”