ONLY FULL RESPECT FOR DAYTON CAN SUSTAIN BiH

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 15 /SRNA/ – Former Foreign Minister of the FR Yugoslavia Vladislav Jovanović has stated for SRNA that strict compliance with key provisions of the Dayton Peace Accords is the only foundation for maintaining BiH as a state, adding that the shift in US policy offers hope for improving the situation in BiH.

“Now we have a situation in which one of the major powers, the United States, which was also the most influential in drafting the Agreement, is pulling back from interventionist policies in other countries, including BiH. This gives hope that the healing of the situation in BiH, through the restoration of the Dayton Agreement and unwavering commitment to its provisions, could finally provide the long-awaited way out,” Jovanović says.

He noted that if the Bosniak side continues to systematically obstruct this process, it will open the door to various other solutions, none of which are desirable for anyone and which would be dictated “by others, not by Republika Srpska or the Serb people.”

Jovanović interprets the constant accusations directed at Republika Srpska officials claiming they are violating the Dayton Agreement, even though they are the ones insisting on its strict implementation, as a tactic to divert attention from the real culprits.

“They must shift attention and responsibility away from themselves onto someone else in order to continue their harmful process of systematically undermining the Dayton Agreement at the expense of Republika Srpska. And they do this with the support of certain foreign, Western actors,” Jovanović says.

He assesses that this time the United States is not offering support, or at least not openly, which he described as a major change and an encouraging sign for a possible restoration of the Dayton framework.

Jovanović pointed out that persistent interventions have undermined the Dayton Peace Agreement to such an extent that the situation has reached an almost critical point of separation.

This, he notes, has prompted the international community to take greater interest in the state of the Agreement.

“The way this issue was recently addressed in the UN Security Council shows that the Peace Agreement cannot be interpreted however one wishes, and certainly cannot be expanded by an international ‘mediator’ who effectively holds authority over the Agreement and acts as such,” Jovanović says.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, better known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, was reached on November 21, 1995, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and formally signed on December 14 of the same year in Paris.