OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE ON EU AFFAIRS:THE BOSNIAN War was allowed to happen in the 1990s because of "appeasement of the best and encouragement of the worst" of the violence by members of the diplomatic community, an Oireachtas Committee has heard.

Ed Vulliamy, a foreign correspondent with the Observer and Guardian newspapers who covered the war, told the Committee on European Union Affairs a form of neutrality “in a situation where neutrality is not neutral but complicit in the crime” allowed atrocities to occur in Bosnia.

The EU, he said, had a “shameful record” in that war.

“[The Bosnian War] was, I think, allowed to happen because of an appeasement of the best and encouragement of the worst of the violence by elements of the diplomatic community,” he said.

The committee invited Vulliamy to discuss events in Bosnia ahead of a trip by some of its members to the Balkans in September. Ahead of Ireland’s EU presidency, the group intends to speak to counterparts about life in states seeking to or about to join the union.

Asked whether there were issues Ireland should seek to have addressed in states involved in the war ahead of their EU accession, Vulliamy suggested discrimination against Muslims and sectarianism in state institutions in Bosnia.

“They want to join the EU for the money, the passports and the kudos but what they don’t want is to make sure their children sit in the same classroom as one another,” he said.

“I think it takes a country like Ireland, with the special history you have, to roll up your sleeves a bit on this and deal with some of these difficult issues . . .”