Remembering 21 November 1995 when the Dayton peace agreement was initialled in the Wright-Patterson military base near Dayton, Ohio, ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), is just another confirmation of the deep divisions that still exist in that country.
In the Serb entity in BH that day (21 November) has been proclaimed a public holiday whereas in the BH Federation officials on Wednesday made the odd comment which appeared in the back pages of the press.
The Dnevni Avaz daily reports that relations have changed drastically since the signing of the peace agreement in 1995. Seventeen years ago officials in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity opposed sections of the agreement, yet today they fervently advocate its implementation. On the other hand officials in the Federation, once satisfied with the accord, consider it now to be redundant, the daily says.
Reflecting on the treaty now, seventeen years later, wartime BH PM Miro Lazovic said that from the very start it was obvious the agreement had a limited period of validity.
"Even Richard Holbrooke (chief negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords) said that the treaty must survive fifteen years but then the time will come for a new constitution", said Lazovic.
He recalled that several annexes to the agreement about the right of displaced persons and refugees to return to their pre-war homes were never carried through.
RS has treated the Dayton Accords as the basis to build its power and is treated more as a "state" even though the agreement specifically refers to BH as a successor-state of the former (Yugoslav) republic.
