Al Moqatel - الصراع فى البوسنة

U.S.Department of State

Bosnia Fact Sheet: The Road to the Dayton Peace
Agreement

Updated and released by the Bureau of Public Affairs, December 6, 1995

The international community is united it its desire to see the Balkan conflict resolved at the negotiating table. The United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and other nations, acting separately and in groups, have attempted to resolve the Balkan conflict through negotiations since it began in 1991.
In October 1992, European Union mediator Lord David Owen and UN mediator and former U.S.Secretary of State Cyrus Vance proposed a draft constitution organizing Bosnia into a decentralized federation.This became known as the "Vance-Owen" plan
In February 1993, President Clinton, at the beginning of his Administration, named the first U.S.special envoy to UN-EU joint negotiations, Ambassador Reginald Bartholomew. In May 1993, U.S. efforts helped gain the parties' agreement to the Vance-Owen plan, but the Bosnian Serbs subsequently renounced the accord.
In early 1994, with UN-EU efforts bogged down, the United States decided to undertake more active involvement, seeking to back diplomacy with the threat of NATO air power in protecting safe areas and UN peacekeepers.
In March 1994, the new United States special envoy, Ambassador Charles Redman, and other U.S. officials led negotiations between Bosnia's Muslims and Croats which resulted in a cease-fire, the formation of a bi-communal Federation, and improved relations with neighboring Croatia.
Later in the spring of 1994, the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany established a five-nation Contact Group, with the goal of brokering a settlement between the Federation and Bosnian Serbs. The Contact Group based its efforts on three principles:

	1.	Bosnia would remain a single state;
	2.	That state would consist of the Federation and a Bosnian Serb entity;
	3.	These two entities would be linked via mutually-agreed constitutional principles, which would also spell out relationships with Serbia and Croatia proper.

In July 1994, the Contact Group put forward a proposed map presenting a 51/49 percent territorial compromise between the Federation and Bosnian Serbs. The Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Governments all accepted the proposal. The Bosnian Serbs repeatedly rejected it. However, all of its key principles were accepted as the basis for negotiations at the November 1995 proximity peace talks in Dayton.

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