Russian Army in BiH for the First Time Under NATO Command

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - On this day, December 14, 1995, the Dayton Agreement was ceremonially signed in Paris.

The peace agreement ended the 44-month war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was reached on November 21 in Dayton, USA. The agreement was signed by the presidents of the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, Franjo Tuđman, Alija Izetbegović, and Slobodan Milošević.

The agreement was signed at the Elysée Palace. At the core of this ceremonial signing were little-known American-French disagreements. Namely, due to the key French role in supporting the tough US policy for a swift peace in BiH, the Americans ceded this ceremonial act of signing to the French.

The French were somewhat offended, so they called the Dayton Agreement their Elysée Agreement. Minister Hervé de Charette also did this at the ceremony.

The only thing seriously discussed was who would take over the OSCE and elections in BiH. The Americans and the French explicitly demanded this. A stalemate ensued.

It is known that the American delegation told the French that as soon as US President Bill Clinton arrived in Paris, he would demand from French President Jacques Chirac that an American must head the OSCE. And so it happened. Presidents Clinton and Chirac secluded themselves in a room and agreed that it would be an American.

During the ceremony, Chirac, in front of Richard Holbrooke, expressed doubts that the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina would succeed. Holbrooke replied that he hoped the French president would not be right in the events that would follow.

Two days later, on December 16, 1995, the order for the deployment of NATO troops to Bosnia and Herzegovina was issued.

This was the first such deployment order since NATO was formed in 1949. And for the first time in history, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some units of the Russian Army were placed under NATO command.