Lazović: In Washington, I asked why the Federation of BiH is named after half of my country

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Former US President Bill Clinton said he was disappointed with the results achieved by Dayton, but reminded that Dayton stopped the war in any case.

Clinton spoke at a Gala dinner in Washington, organized by the BiH Advisory Council. The former US President reminded that Sarajevo had been an excellent example to the whole world for hundreds of years, alluding to the multi-ethnic composition of the population of the capital of BiH, emphasizing that the war in the country only started afterwards because some people were not seen as human beings.

On the other hand, one of the participants in the peace negotiations in Dayton in 1994, Miro Lazović, said that the plans with the Dayton Peace Agreement were completely different, and that there has been a significant departure from them. He called on the US to protect the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if not for the citizens of BiH, as he said, then at least for its own interests.

„At the end of the Washington negotiations, I asked Charles Redman, the American mediator, why the Federation of BiH is named after half of my country and what will happen to the other part controlled by Karadžić's forces. Charles Redman replied: „This is the first phase, and in the second phase, the territory under the control of Karadžić's Serbs will be pushed into the Federation of BiH, and then the whole country will be called the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina“. That was the position of the Clinton administration in 1994, which they quickly abandoned. Their „second phase“ accepted Republika Srpska as an administrative and territorial entity in BiH in Dayton the following year“, said Lazović. 

„At the end of the Dayton negotiations, Richard Holbrooke was told that BiH with two entities and a bad Constitution cannot become a stable and democratic state. His answer was that he was aware of that, but that we would have to endure at least 15 years, and then the time would come for changes to the BiH Constitution“, added Lazović. He pointed out that those 15 years have long passed, but that BiH still has not received a new Constitution.

„Mistakes must be corrected. If not for us, then let them do it for themselves, because Russian influence is increasingly strengthening on their mistakes“, believes Lazović. 

When asked how much responsibility for the current situation in BiH lies with the Federation itself, which has not managed to strengthen economically and thus attract citizens from the BiH entity Republika Srpska to Sarajevo, Lazović states that he regrets that the economy in BiH has not been stronger and that it has not proven to be the connective tissue in the country, but he also adds that experience shows that retrograde policies are always stronger than the economy itself.

„Ante Marković had an economic program to preserve Yugoslavia, but Tuđman and Milošević overthrew him because they did not want Yugoslavia to be preserved. Thus, in BiH, the economy still cannot connect society. In times when nationalism is on the scene, the economy cannot connect a space, just as politics can destroy it. If the policies in the region were to change, if /Aleksandar/ Vučić insisted on strengthening BiH, then /Milorad/ Dodik would also change his policy“, says Lazović in a comment for the Patria news agency.