There have been many crises since the end of the war, but none like this year’s have threatened the disintegration of BiH. The persistent insistence of the Muslim political camaraderie from Sarajevo, with the wind in its back from America, to unpack the Dayton Agreement, and to support the adoption of anti-Dayton laws and various decisions to the detriment of Republika Srpska and the Serbian people, led to a boiling point on the political scene.
Signing an agreement a quarter of a century ago, Photo RTRS
Republika Srpska welcomes the 26th anniversary of the initialling of the Dayton Agreement at the American air base “Wright Patterson” on November 21, 1995, as the strongest barrier to the collapse of this peace agreement.
RADOVAN Viskovic, the Prime Minister of the RS, commented for “Novosti” on the day when the Republika Srpska, born by the will of the Serbian people three years earlier, was formally and legally “certified” by signing the agreement in Dayton.
– For the Republika Srpska, “Dayton” remains the foundation of BiH, as a complex state union, composed of two entities, as the only compromise solution that could have stopped the bloody and brutal war. From the very signing of the agreement until today, we are witnesses that “Dayton, as the foundation of the organization of BiH, is trying to disrupt the constant and persistent attempts of illegal upgrades, so that only the empty shell remains from the original text of the peace agreement – says Viskovic.
The Prime Minister of Srpska emphasizes that for years now, some have been trying to build the walls of post-Dayton BiH in a completely wrong way, by persistent “quiet” unitarization and returning to the starting point, which is why the last unfortunate war started.
– It is no coincidence that the Republika Srpska is the only part of BiH that formally marks the signing of the peace agreement as a national holiday. Unfortunately, a part of the country has never sincerely accepted the signed agreement, remaining trapped in the framework of its own failure to get what is not in the war in Dayton – the Prime Minister points out.
FOTO: Novosti
For 26 years, as Viskovic says, BiH has been a kind of prisoner of the aspirations of the political representatives of one nation to dismantle “Dayton” and annul its essence – to consist of two entities, that loose central government, with competencies written in Dayton.
– These aspirations, with the open support of a part of the international community, are embodied in the constant efforts to abolish and transfer entity competencies, with the long-recognized ultimate goal – to disempower the entities and unitarize the country in accordance with the wishes of one people. For that purpose, several established phrases were devised, behind which a much darker essence is hidden – “functional BiH”, “the spirit of Dayton”, “civil state”, “one man – one vote” … – says Viskovic.
According to him, it is a kind of irony to accuse the Republika Srpska and its political representatives of the alleged disintegration of BiH.
– On the contrary, all these years we are only trying to defend the constitutional order of BiH, determined in Dayton, and to remind everyone in this country that every upgrade, without the secured support of the Serbian people, is doomed to failure in advance. This country can move forward only if everyone is reconciled with the fact that all talks on the constitutional and legal order of BiH must move within the framework of the Dayton Agreement, and that any deviation from that unnecessarily takes us back to the past, blocking any attempt to make further progress. which area – says the Prime Minister of Srpska.
MANY sleepless nights of Radovan Karadzic, the president of Republika Srpska, and meetings of the political leadership of Srpska, which lasted for several days non-stop in Palam in the building of the “Koran” factory, preceded the development of the Serbian action plan for peace talks in America in 1995. One of Radovan Karadzic’s closest associates in the war, Milovan Cicko Bjelica, then a member of the SDS, recalls those events for “Novosti”.
– We delayed the negotiations for a long time until we get the best offer for the Serbs, and then the decision is made by consensus. We believed that with the achieved competencies we could protect our people. Our position was that in BiH there are three constituent sovereign peoples and that resources and competencies belong to them.
Unfortunately, Biljana Plavsic later handed over some competencies to the detriment of Serbs, completely contrary to the agreement, and in the hope that the indictments already prepared before the Hague Tribunal will be permanently saved, Bjelica recalls.
He says that, in essence, Serbs were deceived on the basis of all insufficiently defined or incomplete provisions – that encouraged our enemies to interpret as they wanted, but always to the detriment of Serbs.
– And not only open enemies, but also all those “ours” who naively believe that cooperation to the detriment of their own people and country will bring them some personal benefits. It has been like that for all these 26 years, even today – Bjelica points out.
RADOMIR Lukic, the youngest member of the RS delegation to the US base “Wright Patterson”, says that the Serbs managed to form a state-legal entity on the territory of BiH for the first time in the general turmoil and defeat of the former Yugoslav republics, in the early 1990s.
– The Dayton Agreement itself, by which Serbia is internationally recognized, is understood differently. Western European powers understood it as a provisional and form for their management of BiH. The Serbs saw the agreement as a permanent solution to the BiH issue and that peace could be preserved in this way. We can be satisfied with what was achieved through the Dayton Agreement, but we cannot be satisfied with the seizure of competencies and the violation of the human rights of Serbian representatives – Lukić points out.
He remembers that the most impressive moments for him from the American base were when, at the end of the negotiations, they realized that the part of Sarajevo that was under the control of Srpska had left, that the road to Gorazde had been cut off and that Brcko was not in RS.
– All this was requested by the Americans who agreed with the Croats and Bosniaks. There were very difficult and painful threats during the war years, whenever the issue of negotiations was raised. “Srpska was even threatened to stop military action on Igman, or the Americans will bomb Belgrade,” Lukic recalls.
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He points out that “Dayton” was the grand finale of the peace negotiations.
– If it were not for the support of Western forces to Muslims and Croats in the armed struggle against us, I think we could have achieved much more. Negotiations were timed at a time when our military power was weakening and sanctions were seriously destroying Serbia. Muslims and Croats would never have moved a millimeter of the Republika Srpska border without the help of foreigners – Lukić points out.
According to him, Srpska today must beware of the blitzkrieg of Muslims and Croats in BiH and attacks on its territory.
– We must be ready for something like this because once they drive us out of here, we will never return. We saw how the Serbs fared in Croatia. BiH cannot survive in any other way than as a federation with two or three units. The collapse of the Dayton Agreement is the destruction of peace and means an introduction to first smaller, and then larger conflicts. Where there are no weapons when riots break out, the weapons will soon be delivered – Lukić concludes.
MAIN PARTICIPANTS
The conference in Dayton lasted from November 1 to 21, 1995. The main participants were the then presidents – Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, BiH’s presidency Alija Izetbegovic, Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman, then US representatives Warren Christopher, state secretary, negotiator Richard Holbrooke and General Wesley Clark.
The agreement was officially signed in Paris on December 14 of the same year.
HAČET: THE AUTHOR IS KARADŽIĆ
MILOVAN Bjelica reminds that an interview with Professor Ronald Hatchet, an American Republican, an expert of the “Cato” institute, was published in our newspaper a few years ago.
– He came to Radovan Karadzic in the fall of 1994. Towards the end of the conversation, Radovan handed him his proposal for a peaceful solution to the situation in BiH, addressed to Clinton. In that interview, Hacet literally says: “The author of the Dayton Agreement is Radovan Karadzic” – Bjelica recalls.
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