On this day 21 years ago, the Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH was initialed in Dayton, USA. After the negotiations which were led from November 1 until November 21, 1995, the agreement was initialed by the president of RBiH Alija Izetbegović, president of Serbia Slobodan Milošević and president of Croatia Franjo Tuđman.
This act was initialed in the presence of the former secretary of state of the USA Warren Cristopher. Apart from him, the main U.S. mediators were the former international envoy for the Balkans and one of the creators of the Dayton Peace Agreement Richard Holbrooke and general Wesley Clark.
None of the three signatories of the agreement is now alive, and neither is Holbrooke. The war in BiH was officially terminated with the initialization of this act on December 14, 1995 in Paris. It was terminated after the genocide in Srebrenica committed on July 11 that year, when the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of Ratko Mladić killed more than 8.000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys.
Former minister of foreign affairs of RBiH and participant in peace negotiations Muhamed Šaćirbegović says that the Dayton Agreement was supposed to be a transitional document. The first foundation was the preservation of the uniqueness of BiH.
“Dayton was signed to stop the war, to give young people a perspective, to enable them to go to school instead of getting killed on the streets. I am afraid that the politics has failed in ensuring what was foreseen in Dayton,” said Šaćirbegović.
Miro Lazović, former president of the Assembly of RBiH and member of BiH delegation in Dayton, claims that no aspect of Dayton through its eleven annexes has been fully implemented up to date.
“We got an unfinished construction. Unfortunately, even the reintegration of society did not happen. Citizens did not get what they expected, and that is one stable, functional, democratic country which protects human rights and freedoms at its entire territory. The present BiH is still a country full of discrimination and with a constitution full of flaws,” said Lazović.
(Source: hayat.ba)
