Richard Holbrooke, the main mediator in the negotiations to end the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in his book “To End a War” described how the status of Sarajevo after the war was negotiated.
The future of the capital of BiH was discussed at the meetings that preceded the negotiations at the United States (U.S.) airbase “Wright-Patterson” in the city of Dayton. Those conversations were difficult and among those conversations was the one with one of the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs at the time, Momcilo Krajisnik, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Hague Court.
Stubborn Krajisnik and “dark jokes”
Holbrooke singled out Krajisnik as a person who was particularly stubborn in his views. He stated that he “responded explosively” to the request of the President of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH, Alija Izetbegovic, that Sarajevo become a unified city.
“Krajisnik was the owner of a five-hectare estate on the very edge of Sarajevo, on an area that would have probably been returned to the Muslims in any agreement, so we often made dark jokes about the war being fought over ‘Krajisnik’s five hectares’. He was furious at the idea of Sarajevo being a unified city,” the U.S. diplomat recalled.
He described the behavior that contributed to the U.S. decision to exclude Krajisnik and other Bosnian Serb political representatives from the Dayton negotiations.
“Krajisnik got up from the table and walked with a long stride to the huge map of Sarajevo, placed on the stand in front of us. ‘I’ve lived here all my life,’ he shouted, hitting the map with his fist, ‘and I will never give it up, this land is ours, we can’t lose it’. We thought that he hit the map in the place where his property is, although we were not sure,” he pointed out.
As Holbrooke wrote in his book, it was obvious that they could not make progress in such a forum, and they had never gathered so many people in one place.
“From that moment on, Krajisnik and his fellow Bosnian Serbs no longer existed in Dayton,” he emphasized.
“Turnaround for Sarajevo”
He believes that the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic in Dayton was a turning point in the negotiations about what will happen to Sarajevo. On that occasion, Milosevic gave up on the U.S. proposal that the city have “D.C.” status, as Washington has, that is, that all the constituent peoples have power in it. Holbrooke described Milosevic’s decision in the chapter of the book entitled “Turnaround for Sarajevo”.
“‘Okay, okay,’ he said and sat down. To hell with your D.C. model, it’s too complicated, and it won’t work I’ll solve the Sarajevo problem. But you must not discuss my proposal with anyone from the Serbian delegation yet. I have to work out the ‘technology’ later when everything is settled. “I’m telling you,” he continued, “Izetbegovic earned Sarajevo, he never left it. He’s a tough guy. It’s his,” Holbrooke wrote.
According to him, they never fully understood why Milosevic decided to give Sarajevo to the Muslims. However, he pointed out what he considers to be the best explanation.
“But, when I look back, the best explanation is that maybe he was fed up with the Bosnian Serbs and decided to weaken their base in Pale by giving parts of Sarajevo under Serb control. By giving the Federation of BiH (FBiH) the entire capital of BiH, perhaps Milosevic wanted to weaken (Radovan) Karadzic and strengthen the Serbs in other parts of BiH, especially in Banja Luka,” he stated.
He believes that this explanation was in line with one of Milosevic’s main themes in Dayton, which was that “the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs has become a nuisance, even though it previously had a common share with them. Milosevic often spoke about strengthening the ‘intellectuals’ and businessmen in Banja Luka in order to weaken Pale. Now it seemed that he was turning his theory into practice.”
Namely, this year marks the 28th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which was signed in Paris, Klix.ba reports.
photo: EPA-EFE
E.Dz.
