Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, on 1 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the -year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars.
The warring parties agreed to peace and to a single sovereign state known as Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of two parts, the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Negotiation and signature
Though basic elements of the Dayton Agreement were proposed in international talks as early as 1992, these negotiations were initiated following the unsuccessful previous peace efforts and arrangements, the August 1995 Croatian military Operation Storm and its aftermath, the government military offensive against the Republika Srpska, conducted in parallel with NATO's Operation Deliberate Force. During September and October 1995, world powers, gathered in the Contact Group, applied intense pressure to the leaders of the three sides to attend the negotiations in Dayton, Ohio.The conference took place from 1–21 November 1995. The main participants from the region were the President of the Republic of Serbia Slobodan Milošević, President of Croatia Franjo Tuđman, and President of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegović with his Foreign Minister Muhamed Šaćirbeg.
The peace conference was led by US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and negotiator Richard Holbrooke with two Co-Chairmen in the form of EU Special Representative Carl Bildt and the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov. A key participant in the US delegation was General Wesley Clark. The head of the UK's team was Pauline Neville-Jones, political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK military representative was Col Arundell David Leakey. Paul Williams, through the Public International Law & Policy Group served as legal counsel to the Bosnian Government delegation during the negotiations.
The secure site was chosen in order to remove all the parties from their comfort zone, without which they would have little incentive to negotiate; to reduce their ability to negotiate through the media; and to securely house over 800 staff and attendants. Curbing the participants' ability to negotiate via the media was a particularly important consideration. Richard Holbrooke wanted to prevent posturing through early leaks to the press. Holbrooke used a great variety of carrots and sticks to make the conflict 'ripe' for peace.
After having been initialed in Dayton, Ohio, on 21 November 1995, the full and formal agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995 and witnessed by Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, French President Jacques Chirac, US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
Content
The agreement's main purpose is to promote peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to endorse regional balance in and around the former Yugoslavia, thus in a regional perspective.The present political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its structure of government were agreed upon, as part the constitution that makes up Annex 4 of the General Framework Agreement concluded at Dayton. A key component of this was the delineation of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line to which many of the tasks listed in the Annexes referred.
The State of Bosnia Herzegovina was set as of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and of the Republika Srpska. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a complete state, as opposed to a confederation; no entity or entities could ever be separated from Bosnia and Herzegovina unless by due legal process. Although highly decentralised in its entities, it would still retain a central government, with a rotating State Presidency, a central bank and a constitutional court.
The agreement mandated a wide range of international organizations to monitor, oversee and implement components of the agreement. The NATO-led IFOR was responsible for implementing military aspects of the agreement and deployed on 20 December 1995, taking over the forces of the UNPROFOR. The Office of the High Representative was charged with the task of civil implementation. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe was charged with organising the first free elections in 1996.
Constitutional Court decision
On 13 October 1997, the Croatian 1861 Law Party and the Bosnia-Herzegovina 1861 Law Party requested the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to annul several decisions and to confirm one decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, more importantly, to review the constitutionality of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina since it was alleged that the agreement violated the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a way that it undermined the integrity of the state and could cause the dissolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Court reached the conclusion that it is not competent to decide the dispute in regards to the mentioned decisions since the applicants were not subjects that were identified in Article VI.3 of the Constitution on those who can refer disputes to the Court. The Court also rejected the other request:It was one of the early cases in which the Court had to deal with the question of the legal nature of the Constitution. By making the remark in the manner of obiter dictum concerning the Annex IV and the rest of the peace agreement, the Court actually "established the ground for legal unity" of the entire peace agreement, which further implied that all of the annexes are in the hierarchical equality. In later decisions the Court confirmed that by using other annexes of the peace agreement as a direct base for the analysis, not only in the context of systematic interpretation of the Annex IV. However, since the Court rejected the presented request of the appellants, it did not go into details concerning the controversial questions of the legality of the process in which the new Constitution came to power and replaced the former Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Court used the same reasoning to dismiss the similar claim in a later case.
Territorial changes
Before the agreement, Bosnian Serbs controlled about 46% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks 28% and Bosnian Croats 25%.Bosnian Serbs got large tracts of mountainous territories back, but they had to surrender Sarajevo and some vital Eastern Bosnian/Herzegovian positions. Their percentage grew to 49%.
Bosniaks got most of Sarajevo and some important positions in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina while they lost only a few locations on Mount Ozren and in western Bosnia. Their percentage grew to 30%, and they greatly improved the quality of the land. Large tracts of prewar Bosniak inhabited lands remained under Bosnian Serb control.
Bosnian Croats gave most back to the Bosnian Serbs and also retreated from Una-Sana Donji Vakuf afterward. A small enlargement of Posavina did not change the fact that after Dayton Bosnian Croats controlled just 21% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, compared to more than 25% prior to Dayton. One of the most important Bosnian Croat territories was left out of Bosnian Croat control.
Control of Republika Srpska
- About 89.5% was under control of Bosnian Serbs
- About 9% of today's territories of Republika Srpska was controlled by Bosnian Croat forces; mainly in municipalities of Šipovo, Petrovac, Istočni Drvar, Jezero, Kupres and part of Banja Luka municipality
- About 1.5% of today's territories of Republika Srpska was controlled by Bosniak forces, mainly some villages in Ozren, western Bosnia.
Control of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- About 53% of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Bosniak control.
- About 41% of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under the control of Bosnian Croats.
- About 6% was under control of Bosnian Serbs.
Cantons
- was almost completely under control of Bosnian Croats
- Bosniaks controlled some points east of Kupres
- was almost completely under control of Bosniaks
- Bosnian Croats controlled some mountain passes on the southern parts of Bosanski Petrovac and Bihać municipalities
- was completely under Bosnian Croat control
- was divided, more than half was under Bosnian Croat control
- northern and central parts were under Bosniak control
- eastern mountains were under Bosnian Serb control
- was divided, a bit more than a third was under Bosnian Croat control
- rest was under control of Bosniaks
- was largely under Bosniak control
- there were some small enclaves like Žepče, Usora under Bosnian Croat control
- eastern mountains were under Bosnian Serb control
- was largely under Bosniak control
- there were some villages in Gradačac municipality under Bosnian Croat control
- and some villages in Doboj and Gračanica municipalities under Bosnian Serb control
- was mostly under Bosnian Croat control
- Bosnian Serbs controlled Odžak and parts of Domaljevac municipalities
- was mostly under Bosniak control
- Bosnian Serbs controlled areas which linked it with Sarajevo
- was mostly under Bosnian Serbs control
- while Bosniaks controlled some southern suburbs and most of the city itself
- Bosniaks controlled most of its southern parts
- Bosnian Serbs its northern parts
- While Bosnian Croats controlled the rest, part near Orašje municipality and two enclaves on southern parts of municipality
Appraisals
The Dayton Agreement was aimed at allowing Bosnia and Herzegovina to move from an early post-conflict phase through reconstruction and consolidation, adopting a consociational power-sharing approach. Scholars such as Canadian professor Charles-Philippe David calls Dayton "the most impressive example of conflict resolution". American scholar Howard M. Hensel states that "Dayton represents an example of a conflict resolution negotiation that was successful. However, Patrice C. McMahon and Jon Western write that "As successful as Dayton was at ending the violence, it also sowed the seeds of instability by creating a decentralized political system that undermined the state's authority".
Wolfgang Petritsch, OHR, argued in 2006 that the Dayton framework has allowed the international community to move "from statebuilding via institutions and capacity-building to identity building", putting Bosnia and Herzegovina "on the road to Brussels".
The Dayton Agreement has been the subject of criticism since its inception, including:
- A complicated government system - As part of the Dayton agreement, Bosnia was divided into 2 entities and a government structure was created to appease all sides. However, by creating such a dissolved government, Bosnia has stalled in moving forward as every important issue is deadlocked within the central government as each party is championing opposing priorities that are based on ethnic policies and not shared ideals.
- Dependency and control of international actors - Dayton was very much an international vision, led by the United States who supported an end to the war, but that did not allow Bosnian leaders to negotiate an ending to the war, therefore leaving no incentive in the afterward peacebuilding process and no area for leaders to discuss the underlying root causes of the conflict. International actors also played an extensive role in shaping the postwar agenda in Bosnia, including enacting punishment over local political actors. The influx of NGOs and international actors to kick start investment in the country post war also failed to kick start the economy, with Bosnia suffering from poor economic growth. The lack of economic development has been attributed to poor coordination between international actors and lack of consideration for local capacity
- Ending the war but not promoting peace - The primary aims of Dayton was to stop the war, but the agreement was only meant to be a temporary measure while a long term plan was developed. While Dayton has halted the conflict and there has not been a resurgence of violence, the stability in the conflict does not give an accurate assessment of peace. There is still currently a large military presence to mitigate any chance of violence and to enforce peace in the country. Enforcing such peace can be seen as highlighting the still deep rooted tensions in the country, with Dayton covering the cracks of a fractured society that could be plunged back into conflict as soon as military forces left.
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