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“The army believed in what they taught us, and that is that our territory is what we managed to defend. That is why we accept the signing of the Dayton Agreement with disbelief, sadness and resentment. It would have been much easier for us if we had lost that territory militarily. Later it became clear to everyone that peace was a better solution than war. The pressure on our leaders is also evident, since the signing of the agreement was preceded by the bombing of the Republika Srpska by NATO, “recalls a former member of the Army of the Republika Srpska, who wished to remain anonymous, in a conversation with “Politika”.
The hardest thing was the people who, after signing the peace, had to leave their homes, places where their ancestors had always lived. The Serbs abandoned 20 percent of the territory they occupied, the surroundings of Sarajevo, parts of central Bosnia, and the only weak connection to Serbia, Brcko, became a district.
On the other hand, the most important fact is that the “Comprehensive Peace Agreement” brought peace to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republika Srpska has become an internationally recognized entity, one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. A quarter of a century ago, an agreement was signed at the US Wright-Peterson base near Dayton, after three weeks of negotiations (from November 1 to 21), which stopped the bloodshed of neighbors, brothers, friends. .. That, 21. November, today is celebrated only in the Republika Srpska, while the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has long sought the centralization of the state and the revision of Dayton, which is one of the demands of Croatia.
The signatories of the agreement, Slobodan Milosevic, Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovic, are not alive, and the witnesses, at least those on the Serbian side, are reluctant to remember those years. Some feel they are still bound to keep state secrets, while others tell stories reminiscent of a Hollywood movie script. The media is still arguing over who the Americans “turned to” more, what kind of negotiator Milosevic was, why he gave up the hills around Sarajevo, whether Tudjman was completely relaxed and what Alija Izetbegovic demanded.
Former FRY Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanović tells “Politika” that the Dayton Agreement was grudgingly accepted by members of the Bosnian people from the beginning. Haris Silajdzic flooded the Security Council with letters in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with the agreement reached, wanting the Security Council to intervene and ‘fix’ it. Of course, that did not happen ”, remembers our interlocutor.
On the other hand, as he adds, the Serbs made their sacrifice since the Republika Srpska agreed to remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but only under the conditions agreed in Dayton. “The Serbs wanted to stay in Yugoslavia, so the Republika Srpska was entitled to that option in the 1990s. In Dayton, they agreed to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was the least desirable solution for them. They made this sacrifice, which they did not it was small, “says Jovanović, adding that the condition was that the Republika Srpska was completely the same in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that people were protected from majoritarianism. Now they are trying to deny you all that.
Our interlocutor recalls that the Dayton Agreement did not come from heaven, but is the consequence of a series of movements that tried to avoid conflict. It is known that Serbs and Croats signed the Kutiljer plan since 1992, which was accepted by all international factors. Everything was done so that there would be no war, recalls Jovanović, but the American ambassador flew to Sarajevo and convinced Alija Izetbegović to remove the initials from the Kutiljer agreement.
“And so the war in Bosnia began. By the way, the United States viewed all the peace plans offered with indifference, did not resist, but did not publicly support anything. They wanted to obtain political benefits from that war. First, to humiliate the Union Claiming that they could not fix things in their yard. They also wanted to draw the attention of the dissatisfied Muslim population of the Middle East and the problems they created there. Ultimately, the goal was to completely exhaust Serbia through war and lead to the collapse and change of government of Slobodan Milosevic ”, believes our interlocutor.
However, the United States launched the plan for the union of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, and its turn was the basis for an accelerated move towards the Dayton Agreement. Jovanovic says the pressure was exerted through the Contact Group, but that US Representative Richard Holbrooke soon became the main negotiator. “The question now is whether that war was necessary because the Dayton Accord returned to Cutilier’s ideas. It is known who undermined this plan, which made it possible to completely avoid bloodshed, ”says this experienced diplomat.
A very influential American site in Chicago writes that the Dayton Agreement is one of the ten most successful peace agreements in modern history, in addition to the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, the agreement in El Salvador, the agreement in South Africa. .
The Dayton Agreement gave the Republika Srpska all the prerogatives of the state, the army, the police, the finances, the budget… However, political scientist Dejan Mastilovic says that the Serbian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina were unhappy, believing that Sarajevo should be a district, as headquarters of joint bodies, not Brcko. . It is clear that the Brcko district was declared for geopolitical reasons, as it is located in the main corridor of Doboj and Banja Luka and crosses the continuity of the RS territory.
In addition to the joint institutions (Presidency, Parliamentary Assembly, Constitutional Court …), Dayton also envisaged the introduction of the institution of the High Representative, whose task was to oversee the implementation of the provisions of the Dayton Agreement. However, his powers were soon expanded. The president of the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals, Zivadin Jovanovic, believes that the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina has become an authoritarian institution. As early as 1996/97, according to Jovanovic, Yugoslavia insisted on reducing the presence of the international community, as well as the powers of the High Representative, believing that the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina would find a way to cooperate.
Instead, however, the Bonn Principles were adopted, significantly expanding the activities of the High Representative, for which Germany has the most credit. “In 1997, Wolfgang Ischinger granted the powers of the High Representative outside the Dayton Accords. That was the reason why the Yugoslav delegation left the meeting in Bonn.” Especially because it was an attempt to impose the question of Kosovo and Metohija. ” recalls Zivadin Jovanovic, who was Yugoslavia’s foreign minister from 1998 to 2000.
He adds that the High Representative has a vested interest in causing tension in Bosnia and Herzegovina because he justifies his existence, but also his huge income. As long as the international community, as Jovanovic believes, imposes ready-made solutions on the people, there can be no agreement.
Dejan Mastilović recalls that lately, the main duty of the High Representative is to send the UN Report on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which, mostly falsely, he accuses the Serbs. Dissatisfaction in Srpska is also due to the actions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The High Representative has ceded unconstitutional decision-making to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which makes decisions to the detriment of the Serbian people, mainly through the vote of foreign judges. The Dayton Agreement was significantly destroyed in favor of the unitary state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is ruled exclusively by Bosnians against the will of the Serbian and Croatian people. If they continue with this policy, the Republika Srpska approaches an independence referendum or merges with Serbia, “says Mastilović, adding that now it would be more necessary. “remove foreign judges.”
For all the above, as Vladislav Jovanović affirms, it must always be emphasized that the Dayton Agreement is an inviolable international agreement. Requests for review bring with them the possibility of its collapse and a return to the old situation. According to Jovanović, the Versailles Agreement is a warning example. “No matter how dissatisfied someone is with that agreement, it is the result of a compromise. One should not defy fate and release ghosts from a bottle. Especially since the wishes of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the opposite,” Jovanović commented .
Currently, winds are blowing from the European Union and NATO in favor of strengthening the central bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that is a condition for their adherence to these communities. These pressures are unprincipled but they are also incendiary, is the opinion of our interlocutors. First of all, because they are directing a relatively controlled situation into the unknown. Such actions could return Bosnia and Herzegovina to a chaotic state.
“The illusion is that a constituent people and entity can force pressure and intimidation to capitulate, to accept a centralized Bosnia.” First, because the international community has courageously opened the door to the realization of the right of self-determination to other people, the Albanians of Kosovo and Metohija, who are a national minority in Serbia. They even recognize their supposed status. All these rights have been denied to the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have always been a constituent people in that territory, “says Vladislav Jovanović, noting that this double standard is difficult to understand and acceptable to the European and international public. Especially in today’s geopolitical circumstances.
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