On this day, December 14th, 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in Paris, which, according to the arrangement made on November 21st of the same year in Dayton (USA), officially ended the four-year war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ceased destruction

The main actors in the peace negotiations were also the signatories of the Dayton Agreement - the President of the Republic of B&H Alija Izetbegović, the President of Croatia Franjo Tuđman and the President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević.

Twenty-five years ago, they have signed a document at the Élysée Palace in Paris, which ended almost four years of bloodshed and destruction in B&H and creating space for a long and demanding process of reconstruction and reconciliation.

The signing was also attended by the then chief mediator of the USA, Richard Holbrooke, the creator of the Dayton Agreement, and General Wesley Clark.

The agreement was initialed a month earlier at the Wright-Peterson military air base in the American town of Dayton, after three weeks of negotiations between the leaders of B&H, Serbia and Croatia.

B&H legal expert of the delegation in Dayton, Kasim Trnka told "Avaz" yesterday that it was interesting what the reactions of the officials were on the occasion of the 25th anniversary.

- One dominant fact is noticed here, and that is that Dayton brought peace, but that it is not a roof, but rather a foundation to move forward. Most participants in the anniversary celebrations, from Bill Clinton onwards, supported this thesis. Only, as far as we have seen, the Russian ambassador to B&H said that Dayton is good and nothing should be touched there - says Trnka.

Enforce judgments

Given that most of our leaders have stated that they want to lead B&H to the European Union, Trnka says that it is logical then to implement the verdicts, from Sejdić and Finci to Pudarić.

- In addition, the EU gives completely clear guidelines in which direction constitutional changes must go. Only after that, we should build the Election Law and other relations in B&H. I think that the need for upgrading Dayton, moving towards the Brussels phase, prevails in all comments - Trnka points out.

Palmer's message

The US State Department's special envoy for the Balkans and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer addressed in video message on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Agreement.

- While marking this milestone, the United States is mostly focused on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the next 25 years - said Palmer.