30 years on: The Dayton Peace Agreement explained

DW (English)

The Dayton Accords, which were signed on December 14, 1995, ended the Bosnian War. Thirty years on, Bosnia-Herzegovina still struggles with deep ethnic divisions. DW takes a look at the road to Dayton and the aftermath.

Transcript

00:0030 years ago, on December 14, 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement, also known as the Dayton Accord, was signed at a ceremony in Paris.

00:11It brought an end to the Bosnian war, one of the bloodiest conflicts in Europe since World War II.

00:18When we see what's happening in Ukraine, when we see what's happening in Gaza,

00:27the peace is really the first and the main reason for everything we could achieve in our lives.

00:37From that side, I have to give the recognition of Dayton's authors, because they gave the peace.

00:48But what is the Dayton Peace Agreement and how was it reached?

00:56In the midst of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Bosnian Herzegovina,

01:01a republic made up of ethnic Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats,

01:05declared independence on March 3, 1992.

01:09War broke out almost immediately.

01:12The ensuing conflict was brutal and complex.

01:15Bosnian Serb forces, which were backed by neighbouring Serbia,

01:19sought to create ethnically homogenous territories,

01:22while the Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats fought to defend their own areas.

01:27In the three years that followed, over 100,000 people were killed and around 2 million displaced,

01:34nearly half of the country's population.

01:41The turning point of the war came in early July 1995 in the small eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

01:48The UN had declared the town a safe area, which meant that thousands of Bosniaks flocked there in search of refuge.

01:56Over the course of just a few days, Bosnian Serb troops killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys,

02:03in what international courts later ruled was a genocide.

02:07The massacre shocked the world.

02:09It also exposed the shortcomings of the international peacekeeping forces in Bosnia

02:14and Bosnia and pushed Western government to take action.

02:21Soon after, Srebrenica NATO, supported by the ground operations of the United Nations Protection Force,

02:26launched airstrikes against the Bosnian Serb positions.

02:30The offensive led to the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia,

02:35agreeing to meet for peace negotiations at a U.S. military base in Dayton, Ohio.

02:42The parties have pledged to cooperate fully with a NATO-led peace implementation force

02:47and to ensure the safety of its personnel.

02:51An agreement that ended the Bosnian War was reached in Dayton on November 21st

02:57and formally signed in Paris on December 14th, 1995.

03:03The agreement, accepted by all parties, stipulated that Bosnia and Herzegovina would be made up of two entities.

03:10The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is mostly inhabited by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats,

03:16and Republika Srpska, which is predominantly populated by Bosnian Serbs.

03:23Unfortunately, in these areas, for 30 years, the situation didn't change anything,

03:31but it became even worse than what it was.

03:36Many young people were sent to this area.

03:39The entire population were sent to this area because of the economic situation.

03:51We received peace, but on the economic aspect we did not have any progress.

03:58So, I believe that a large number of young people would simply leave our city

04:05and seek success in a third country.

04:0930 years after Dayton, there is still peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

04:14But while the highly complex political system created by the agreement stopped hostilities,

04:20it didn't put an end to ethnic divisions and separatist tendencies or allow the country to truly prosper.

04:28The country's economy is currently one of the weakest in Europe,

04:31and its high rate of unemployment is a major problem.

04:35Bosnia and Herzegovina is keen to join the European Union,

04:38but significant reforms will have to be introduced before accession becomes a reality.

04:44In short, while peace prevails, Bosnia and Herzegovina are still searching for a way

04:50to overcome the bitter divisions created by the war and move forward in prosperity.

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