Lazović: Clinton told Izetbegović that Banja Luka must not fall!

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Agreement, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Dayton, or the Peace Agreement, stopped the bloody conflicts in BiH, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, and began with the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Participant in the peace negotiations Miro Lazović tells Patria that 19 years after the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement, BiH is still in an undefined state.

- BiH is torn between Brussels and the unfavorable Dayton constitutional solutions. The Dayton Peace Agreement should have been subject to revision long ago, because the very name of the peace agreement was completed the moment peace was stabilized in the territory of BiH, and its revision should have been all the more necessary since the Dayton Peace Agreement affirms ethnic and every other division more than it integrates the state - says Lazović.

He notes that every BiH citizen is discriminated against only in different parts of BiH, and such a Constitution compromises our society and is contrary to the Conventions on Human Rights, and in that context, it should certainly have been changed long ago, primarily Annex 4 which defines the Constitution of BiH.

- I expect that after the letter from Germany and Great Britain and the recommendations that were in Brussels, pressure will be exerted on the new government to move faster towards European integration and to accept European principles, and that a barrier will finally be put in place for the previous obstructors of the integration of BiH society and reforms, because the Bonn Powers still exist which Valentin Inzko should use against them - added Lazović.

Recalling November 21, 19 years ago, Lazović says that at that moment in 1995, BiH needed an end to the war, but that the BiH delegation was aware that the Dayton Constitution was not good for BiH, and we told Richard Holbrooke that.

- We clearly said that prosperity cannot be built with that Constitution, because the creators of the war were embedded as future peace builders, which is impossible. However, Holbrooke himself said that we would have to live with that Constitution for at least 15 years, and that afterwards the time would come to change it. Well, 19 years have passed, and it still hasn't changed. Holbrooke died on the day the agreement was ratified in Paris on December 14. With his death, the BiH Constitution should have been buried and a new one adopted that would serve the democratization and stabilization of BiH - added Lazović.

Those were the days when Holbrooke used special methods and threats to pressure our delegation, says Lazović, adding that it was clearly stated that if the peace agreement were to break down, the US would wash its hands of BiH, that it would not be able to militarily stop Milošević's army, and that we would have to fend for ourselves.

- However, we managed to get the arbitration for Brčko in those days, because Slobodan Milošević demanded that Brčko belong to the RS. At that moment, we could not achieve more, and I remind you that the Americans were looking after their own interests, because Bill Clinton, then President of the USA, needed peace, as he was heading towards elections, after which he won a second term - added Lazović.

Stories about threats are well known, but Lazović says they did not happen at plenary sessions, but behind closed doors when negotiations took place one-on-one.

- I was present at a session of the BiH Presidency where the Americans were also present, and when the Army of the Republic of BiH was at the gates of Banja Luka and was ready to enter, Holbrooke literally said to President Izetbegović: "Mr. President, Clinton thinks that Banja Luka must not fall," and that was a sufficient sentence to stop where we had gotten. Territorial percentages were achieved, and the Army stopped before Banja Luka - explained Lazović.