30 years of Dayton/ The Bosnian peace agreement is flawed

2025-11-23 08:56:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

1. How was the Dayton Agreement reached? The Dayton
Peace Agreement was reached on 21.11. 1995 in Dayton, USA and signed on 14.12.1995 in Paris. It ended the war that had lasted for three and a half years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The fighting between Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats was characterized by "ethnic cleansing", the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide. A total of 100,000 people lost their lives, millions were displaced. Only with the intervention of NATO in August 1995 was a ceasefire agreement possible and in October peace talks began with the mediation of the American leadership. Under the leadership of the American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the parties to the conflict met at the US military air base Wright Patterson in Dayton, Ohio, to discuss the peace plan.

2. Who were the protagonists of this agreement?
At the negotiating table were President Slobodan Miloševi? (Serbia), Franjo Tu?man (Croatia) and Alija Izetbegovi? (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Each of them pursued their own interests: Miloševi? wanted to maintain influence and secure the territories conquered in the war and ethnically cleansed of the Bosnian Serbs, Tu?man aimed at territorial advantages for Croatia, and Izetbegovi? fought for the recognition of the state entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There were no negotiations with the political and military representatives of the Bosnian Serbs – such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. An arrest warrant was issued for Karadzic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1996. He had been indicted since 1995.

3. What does the agreement contain?
The agreement stipulates: Bosnia and Herzegovina remains undivided as a sovereign state within recognized borders and with Sarajevo as its capital.

The country consists of two republics (entities): the Bosniak-Croat Federation (51 percent of the territory) and the predominantly Bosniak-Serb Republika Srpska (RS) (49 percent of the territory). The affiliation of the northern Bosnian town of Brcko will be decided later.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is governed by a three-state presidium (to maintain ethnic proportionality).

There are two chambers of parliament, a council of ministers, a constitutional court and a central bank. The institutions of the state as a whole are responsible for foreign policy and trade, customs and monetary policy, migration issues, airspace control and, since 2005, military and defence policy. All powers belong to the entities.

4. What was the basis for the Dayton Peace Agreement?
The basis for the Dayton Peace Agreement was the plan of the Contact Group for Bosnia, consisting of representatives of the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France and Germany. This plan provided for the de facto recognition of the expulsions and "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the Serbs and for them to be given 49 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although based on the 1991 census, the Serb population constituted only 31 percent.

5. Why did the war break out in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The Bosnian War broke out in 1992, after the majority of the country's population voted in a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia. Slovenia and Croatia, which were also part of Yugoslavia, had previously declared independence. Only the Bosnian and Croatian populations participated in the referendum in Bosnia. The majority of Bosnian Serbs preferred to remain in the Yugoslav state and boycotted the vote. As a result, a group of Bosnian Serb politicians declared a "Serbian republic" (Republika Srpska).

The militias, led by these politicians, began to terrorize and expel the non-Serb population (Bosniaks and Croats).

Nationalist leaders like the president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, and that of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, spread hatred and fear, which fueled ethnic cleansing, massacres, and the siege of Sarajevo.

At first, Bosniaks and Croats defended themselves jointly against Serbian attacks. Later, war broke out between them. Most Bosniaks and Serbs were expelled from the territory of the Republic of Herceg-Bosna, proclaimed by the Croatian leadership. Mostar became a city divided between Croats and Bosniaks.

6. What was Germany's role in the Dayton Accords?
Germany was part of the Contact Group, which coordinated diplomatic efforts to end the war in Bosnia. Chancellor Helmut Kohl supported the political talks and stressed the importance of the agreement for the stability of Europe.

At the initiative of the USA and the German federal government, Tu?man and Izetbegovi? met in Petersberg in Bonn in January 1994. The result was the Washington Agreement of March 1994, which ended the war between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, dissolved the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, and established the Bosniak-Croat Federation. The German Social Democratic politician Hans Koschnik was appointed EU administrator in Mostar.

The international community also created the post of High Representative, who would monitor the implementation of the civilian part of the Dayton Agreement. In January 1996, Berlin sent German diplomat Michael Steiner to Sarajevo. Until July 1997, he was the first deputy High Representative. In 2006, former German Minister of Post, Christian Democrat Christian Schwarz-Schilling, served as High Representative for a year and a half. Since 1.08.2021, this post has been headed in Sarajevo by former German Minister of Agriculture, Christian Democrat Christian Schmidt.

A central instrument of the High Representative are the Bonn Powers, established at a conference in Bonn in 1997. These give the High Representative the right to enact laws or repeal them, as well as to dismiss elected officials, if they obstruct the peace process.

7. Criticism of the Dayton Agreement
The Dayton Agreement with the two entities established a political order with conflict potential, which fuels tensions and separatist tendencies. The complex state-building with parallel structures delays or blocks decision-making processes, which makes reforms difficult.

Only three ethnic groups defined as constitutive have national rights: Bosniaks, Croats, and Muslims. Other ethnicities such as Roma and Jews are not taken into account and are not included in the decision-making processes./DW