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Diplomatic History of the OFA
î Diplomatic History of the OFA
Ambassador James W. Pardew ∗
It is an honor to be with you in Tetovo today to recognize the tenth
anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement which prevented a destructive
civil war in Macedonia in 2001.
The summer of 2001 was one of those critical points in history in which a
situation could have gone in one very different direction or another and affected
the future of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. Macedonia in that
summer faced a choice of war or peace and their leaders chose peace.
The Ohrid Agreement is today a classic case of conflict prevention, and I am
extremely proud to have played a part in achieving that Agreement along with my
European Union counterpart Francois Leotard.
I believe that the leaders in Macedonia by completing the Ohrid Agreement
avoided a very destructive and tragic war that may well have destroyed the
country as we know it today. Their decisions saved the lives of countless people,
prevented the displacement of thousands of others and avoided the destruction of
homes and infrastructure in use today.
Macedonia would be a dramatically different place had the national leaders
on both sides not chosen to make the compromises necessary to complete the
Ohrid Agreement.
I wish to congratulate David Phillips and Columbia University, Saint Cyril and
Methodius University, South East European University, and the State University of
Tetovo for hosting this conference. The cooperation between these universities in
Macedonia to host this meeting is an example of just how far Macedonia has come
since 2001.
The members of this panel need no introduction. Ljubco Georgijevski was
Prime Minister in 2001 and Branko Crvenkovski was leader of the Socialist Party
and later President of the Republic.
∗
Ambassador Pardew was US mediator in the negotiations about OFA
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