Dayton, 1 November 1995: Negotiations that stopped the bloodshed in BiH

Today 21 years ago a conference started in Dayton, Ohio, and lasted until 21 November.

The key participants were Alija Izetbegovic, the President of Presidency RBiH, Slobodan Milosevic, the president of then SRJ (Allied Republic of Yugoslavia), Franjo Tudjman, former president of Republic Croatia, Richard Holbrook, the US mediator and General Wesley Clark.  

The delegation of then non-constitutional Republika Srpska included its vice-president, Nikola Koljevic, president of the National Assembly of the RS, Momcilo Krajisnik (subsequently convicted for war crimes), Aleksa Buha, legal expert Radomir Lukic, expert for territorial border issues, Vladimir Lukic, the advisor to the President of the RS, Jovan Zametica, general Zdravko Tolimir (also convicted for war crimes).

The main representative of the Serbs was Slobodan Milosevic. Radovan Karadzic, then president of the RS, 21 years later was convicted and sentenced to 40 years for genocide over non-Serb population, did not even travel to Dayton.

3 weeks later, on 21 November, the parties initialed the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, better known as Dayton Peace Accord, which officially ended the war of 3.5 years in BiH.

The document was officially signed 3 weeks later, on 14 December 1995 at Le Palais de l'Élysée in Paris.