Paddy Ashdown

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Image:Paddy Ashdown.jpg Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBE PC (born 27 February1941), commonly known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats and until January 2006 was the international community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ashdown is the eldest of seven children and was born in New Delhi in India to a non-religious Roman Catholic father, and a Protestant mother. He and his siblings were, however, not raised Roman Catholic. His father was a Captain in the Indian Army, 14th Punjab Regiment & RIASC and his mother was a QA. He was largely brought up in Northern Ireland (whence the nickname "Paddy") and educated at Bedford School, England. From 1959 to 1972 he served in the Royal Marines as an officer in the commandos and the Special Boat Service. After leaving the Marines, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in industry, and as a youth worker before being elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Yeovil in 1983. He has been accused of, but publicly denied, working for MI6 while a diplomat in Geneva in the 1970s.

In the House of Commons he was SDP-Liberal Alliance spokesman on Trade and Industry and then on Education. After the merger that formed the Liberal Democrats, he was elected as the new party's leader in 1988. He led the Liberal Democrats in two general elections, in 1992 and 1997.

As leader he was a notable proponent of co-operation between the Liberal Democrats and the "New" Labour Party, and had regular secret meetings with Tony Blair to discuss the possibility of a coalition government. After Labour's 1997 victory a "joint Cabinet committee" — the Jenkins Commission, with Liberal Democrat peer Roy Jenkins as its chair — was established to consider electoral reform, Ashdown's key demand. The plan to bring Liberal Democrats into the government continued, according to Ashdown's published diaries, but foundered on opposition from senior Labour ministers.

Ashdown resigned the leadership in 1999, being succeeded by Charles Kennedy. He was knighted (KBE) in 2000 and became a life peer in the House of Lords after retiring from the Commons in 2001. In the 2001 election, the Yeovil seat was retained for the Liberal Democrats by David Laws.

After leaving British politics, he took up the post of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 27, 2002, reflecting his long-time advocacy of international intervention in that region. He succeeded Wolfgang Petritsch in the position created under the Dayton Agreement. He is sometimes denigrated as "the Viceroy of Bosnia" by critics of his work as High Representative.

Ashdown is married with two children and two grandchildren. He is a gifted linguist, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and other languages. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) in the New Year Honours 2006.

Allegations of perjury

On March 14, 2002 Ashdown testified as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He said that he was on the Kosovo-Albania border near Junik in June, 1998. From this location, through his binoculars, Ashdown claimed to see Serbian forces torching, looting and shelling several villages.

On July, 2005 a defence witness, General Bozidar Delić, demostrated with a topographical map of the area that Ashdown could not have been able to see the areas that he claimed to be able to see as hills, mountains and thick woods obstructed his view.

After his testimony had been rebutted, Ashdown supplied the Tribunal with some new grid coordinates. These coordinates indicated he was actually in Kosovo and not Albania, which meant that he would have had to cross, what at the time was a sealed border. The prosecution also used some new maps indicating Ashdown's supposed location, but their accuracy was challenged by Delić, as the location of a village was different to other maps of the area.

Bibliography

• The Ashdown Diaries vol 1. 1988–1997, ISBN 0140297758
• The Ashdown Diaries vol 2. 1997–1999, ISBN 0140297766

External links

• Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Office of the High Representative in BiH
• Farewell, Sarajevo, The Guardian, November 2, 2005

Template:Start box {{succession box

 | title  = MP for Yeovil
 | years  = 1983–2001
 | before = John Peyton
 | after  = David Laws

}} {{succession box

 | title=Leader of the British
Liberal Democrats
 | years=1988–1999
 | before=David Steel (Liberal Party)
 and Robert Maclennan (SDP)
 | after=Charles Kennedy

}} {{succession box

 | title=High Representative for
Bosnia and Herzegovina
 | years=2002–2006
 | before=Wolfgang Petritsch
 | after=Christian Schwarz-Schilling

}} Template:End box Template:Leaders of the Liberal Democratsbs:Paddy Ashdown de:Paddy Ashdown fr:Paddy Ashdown nl:Paddy Ashdown sr:Педи Ешдаун uk:Ашдаун Педді