Naslov
Arguments in favour of a revision of the Dayton peace treaty

Autori
Babić, Marko

Prevoditelji
Dawe, Anthony John ; Vukelja-Dawe, Volga ; Dolčić, Maurus

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija knjige
Autorske knjige, monografija, znanstvena

Izdavač
Odbor za P.T.C. Bosanske Posavine ; Hrvatska republikanska zajednica

Grad
Vidovice : Zagreb

Godina
2002

Stranica
262

ISBN
953-6155-03-6

Ključne riječi
Bosanska Posavina - Bosnian Posavina; The Dayton peace treaty - revision
(Bosnian Posavina; The Dayton peace treaty - revision)

Sažetak
In the spring of 1992 Serbs launched a war of aggression against Bosnian Posavina, subsequently occupying 116 of a total of 169 Croatian and Muslim settlements, i.e., 68.63% of other people’ s settlements. Of the total of 121 Croatian towns and villages, 96 (79.33%) were occupied, and of the total of 48 Muslim settlements they occupied 20 (41.66%). In 1991 Serbs accounted for 27.12% of the overall population in Posavina ; they had 90 settlements with an absolute majority and one settlement with a relative majority. This means that in 35% of their settlements they had absolute and relative majorities. At the same time, Croats had 121 (46.43%) settlements with absolute and relative majorities, while Muslims had 48 settlements (18.46%). However, the average size of Serbian settlements was 864 inhabitants, of Croatian settlements 1, 267 and of Muslim settlements 2, 372 per settlement. It is therefore mathematically proven that, from a demographic aspect, Serbs occupied third place. However, the international community disregarded that irrefutable evidence and paid little or no attention to the Serbian crimes of armed aggression and occupation, or to the crimes they committed and the terror they had inflicted: genocide, urbicide, culturocide, ecocide and memoricide. Quite the reverse, in fact. The international community actively sought and ultimately found ways and means of legitimizing Serbian occupation. Certain diplomats justified their actions by what they saw as the necessity to link Belgrade with Knin, a town in Croatia in which Serbs had begun their armed insurrection against the Croatian State. The 1995 Dayton Peace Treaty divided Bosnia and Herzegovina: 49% was presented to the Serbs and 51% to Croats and Muslims together, in total and blatant disregard of all valid criteria based on law, of the existing situation and of history. Instead, all the crimes committed by Serbs through their armed aggression and occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were legitimized. In Dayton, the leaders of the free democratic world imposed an inequitable peace which only served to inflict further punishment on the victims and, in condoning the terror that the Serbs had spread, richly rewarded Serbian armed aggression and occupation. Consequently, the newly-created Serbian nation-state included regions in which, prior to the onset of their armed aggression in 1992, Serbs were in the minority. Thus, Dayton presented Serbs with 1, 518 km2 (59.04%) of Bosnian Posavina. Statistical data for Brčko and the Brčko Municipality clearly show that the area was Serbian least of all: Serbs accounted for just 20.68% of the area’ s population ; the average number of inhabitants in Serbian settlements was 372, while at the same time the average population of Croatian settlement was 994, and 3, 839 Muslim inhabitants per settlement. Bearing in mind that Serbs were cadaster-registered land owners of 27.8% of the land, Muslims possessed 28.38% and Croats 44.1% of the land, it is an unarguable fact that arbitration favoured the Serbs. It can therefore be said that, through Dayton, Serbs were presented with 76.90% of the region of Bosnian Posavina without any historical or present-day demographic argument, but rather on the basis of legitimization of the gains made by the force of arms. After years of appalling war, peace should have been eagerly awaited. Instead, Croatian victims from Bosnian Posavina received the Dayton Peace Treaty with protests. But they were not the only ones to protest ; its reception was generally negative, being disputed by politicians, scientists, journalists, artists, bishops, priests... A wealth of negative assessments and condemnations were said and written ; a number of books and scientific papers were published - the imposed peace was immediately denounced, and defined as an unjust peace. Thus, Dayton became a synonym for the reward of terror, armed aggression and occupation wreaked by Serbs, for their crimes of genocide, culturocide, memoricide and ecocide. Dayton became the place from which a terrifying message was sent to the entire world: aggression pays, and its victims can expect nothing except further terror. Today, five years after Dayton, it can safely be said that Croats in Bosnian Posavina, who in 1992 were the majority population and who previously numbered more than those in three other dioceses in Croatia put together, are - due to Dayton demarcations - being driven to extinction. In those five years, nothing has been done to create conditions, political or economic, that would enable the banished people to return to the areas now under Serbian political rule. Consequently, twenty-nine once-thriving parishes (61.70% of the region) where in 1992 there lived 86, 328 Catholics, now lie devoid of life. According to Official Reports issued by the High Commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina only slightly more than 2, 500 Croats have returned to the entire area of the (arch)dioceses of Vrhbosna and Banjaluka now under Dayton-cum-Serbian rule. We therefore have not only irrefutable mathematical evidence but also a high level political confession that the Dayton-established political system is actively extinguishing Croats, i.e., Catholics, from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Equally indicative is the fact that within the same period, just ten Muslims have returned to Srebrenica. Such a situation can hardly be regarded as a success ; indeed, it demands an urgent revision of the Dayton Peace Treaty. In Dayton, Croatian victims - not only in Bosnian Posavina but also in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina - have been severely punished ; the war was halted by the wrong means, i.e., by rewarding armed aggression and occupation. In not being a product of justice the Dayton Peace Treaty has inevitably become the generator of the general deep discontent of Croatian people in the country as a whole. It was therefore to be anticipated that the looked-for satisfactory results failed to materialize. The Dayton Peace Treaty is a spent concept, and the necessity for new, and indeed political, solutions is more than apparent. The main and undeniable achievement of the Dayton Peace Treaty is that it ended the war. However, its failure to enable exiled people to return to their homes, the political discontent it has generated throughout the country - particularly among the Croatian people, combined with the above presented facts and statistical data, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Dayton-imposed solutions are totally obsolete and starkly indicate the urgency for a dramatic rethink with regard to political organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to ensure the return of Croats to Bosnian Posavina, the inequitable politically motivated decisions imposed through Dayton must be changed - and the region has to be excluded from the Dayton-created Serbian nation-state established through the legitimization of Serbian armed aggression against and occupation of Croatian lands, both throughout history and in the present times. To that end the Committee is forwarding relevant documentation to the leading figures in authority around the world - first and foremost to the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, to his closest associates, as well as to politicians, statesmen, diplomats… The documentation referred to contains 222 signatures: • 77 signatures are in the Memorandum for the Political and Territorial Integrity of Bosnian Posavina ; • 145 signatures are to be found in expressions of support and responses received by the Vidovice Committee: • four Cardinals • twelve Bishops • Croatian Bishops’ Conference • Commission Justitia et Pax at the Croatian Bishops’ Conference • Principles of three religious Orders • two Deans of Theological Faculties • thirty-eight Franciscans priests • three Canons • fourteen political parties • five academicians • sixteen editors • followed by signatures of scientists, politicians, theatre artists, journalists, generals, guardians, presidents of various associations, associations, institutes, nuns, prominent individuals. It has to be pointed out, however, that the Committee approached only a limited number of influential personages for political support Based on the presented documentation containing 222 signatures of persons of various professions, based on the overall negative reception of the Dayton Peace Treaty, based on arguments founded on demographic analysis, and based on mathematical evidence, we hereby demand that the unjust political decisions be changed, that is to say, it is demanded that Bosnian Posavina be excluded from the Daytonian political creation. This is the only way to prevent the extinction of Croats, who in 1992 were the majority population in Bosnian Posavina. The Serbian Republic, the nation-state of Serbian people created by the political will of the leaders of the free democratic world - in contravention to international law on the areas that have historically been Croatian - a State in which Croats and Muslims can only be ethnic minorities, has become a permanent and insurmountable obstacle to the return of banished Croats and Muslims to the settlements in which they lived until 1992. Peace must be a product of justice, and the Dayton Peace Treaty is certainly not that. There is no disputing the fact that both Croats and Muslims would like to have their nation-states within Bosnia and Herzegovina – just as the Serbs were given in Dayton. However, Croats and Muslims were not to have the same rights. This in itself makes the Dayton demarcations unjust and absurd. Viewed long term, the situation poses a real and present danger for the Federation to gradualy turn into a Muslim political „ entity“ , or rather a nation-state, thus rendering the other half of Bosnia and Herzegovina totaly lost for the Croatian people. In other words, Croats would become a national minority. The only way to prevent such a turn of events, it is essential to introduce a new political organisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible. Consequently, revision of the Dayton Peace Treaty is the conditio sine qua non, or rather, a condition without which there can be no going forward. If it is to hold any future at all for the Croatian people, Bosnian Posavina must be excluded from the political boundaries of the Daytonian Serbian Republic and be organized as a separate canton. Theoretically, cantonization would appear to be a more acceptable option for the entire region of Bosnia and Herzegovina than is the Dayton- imposed political system, which has to be maintained by force of arms. Although many thousands of people from Bosnian Posavina have been deprived of their homeland by Serbian occupation and the political wheeling and dealing which occurred in Dayton, our Catholic and European approach to life led us to reject methods of violence in the realization of our fundamental human rights. And although the stateless Croats from Bosnian Posavina had to bear their heavy burden each in their respective way, in the now more than five years since the leaders of the international community awarded Serbs - the agressors and occupiers - with our lands, our homes and homeland, they did not resort to acts of terrorism against that same international comunity, not at all. Like David against Goliath we take it upon ourselves to confront the international community with solid arguments, drawing its attention to the injustices which it committed against us in Dayton, and we call upon them all to correct their political mistakes, to reverse the injustices inflicted against Croatian people, not only in Bosnian Posavina but in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The imperativness of a revision of the Dayton Peace Treaty has been proven through concrete arguments and so, thereby, has the imperativness of the exclusion of Bosnian Posavina from Serbian political rule. It is therefore expected that the tabled arguments will convince the creators of the Dayton Peace Treaty, and their political heirs, to execute political corrections, thus finally observing democratic and mathematical principles.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Politologija, Povijest

Napomena
Knjiga je rezultat autorova privatnog znanstveno-političkog projekta: Izdvajanje Bosanske Posavine iz daytonske srpske države i njezino priključivanje Federaciji BiH. U uvodnom poglavlju daje se sažeti osvrt o Bosanskoj Posavini i njezinom stradanju u srpskoj agresiji i okupaciji (1992) te o nepravdi koja je toj regiji učinjena na međunarodnom sajmu podjele srpskog ratnog plijena pod pokroviteljstvom Sjedinjenih Američkih Država u Daytonu (1996), gdje su srpski zločini nagrađeni stvaranjem srpske nacionalne države na polovici b-h prostora, u koju je uključeno oko 2.011 km2, tj. 76, 90 posto posavskog prostora. Da bi se ispravila međunarodna nepravda učinjena Bosanskoj Posavini, Odbor za političku i teritorijalnu cjelovitost Bosanske Posavine, utemeljen (1996) u oslobođenim Vidovicama, uputio je sljedeća pisma: • Svetom Ocu Papi Ivanu Pavlu II. – Vatikanski Grad ; • Predsjedniku Sjedinjenih Američkih Država, Georgeu W. Bushu – White House – Washington ; • Državnicima država Kontaktne skupine: Sjedinjenih Američkih Država, Velike Britanije, Francuske, Njemačke i Rusije ; • Predstojniku Kongregacije za evangelizaciju, kardinalu Josefu Tomku – Vatikanski Grad ; • Generalnom tajniku Ujedinjenih Naroda, Kofiju Annanu – New York ; • Glavnom tajniku Vijeća Europe, Walteru Schwimmeru – Strasbourg ; • Državom tajniku Svete Stolice, Angelu Sodanu – Vatikanski Grad ; • Državnom Tajniku Sjedinjenih Američkih Država, Colinu Powellu - White House – Washington ; • Predsjedniku Papinskog Vijeća Justitia et Pax, kardinalu Françoisu Xavieru Nguyê nu Van Thuânu – Vatikanski Grad ; • Kongresu Sjedinjenih Američkih Država – Washington ; • Generalnom ministru Franjevačkog reda, fra Giacomu Biniju – Vatikanski Grad ; • Predsjedniku Hrvatskoga sabora, Zlatku Tomčiću – Zagreb. Kao popratno obrazloženje svim Naslovnicima poslan je Memorandum za političku i teritorijalnu cjelovitost Bosanske Posavine (Vidovice-Zagreb 1996., na hrvatskom, engleskom, francuskom, njemačkom i talijanskom jeziku) te knjiga Bosnian Posavina - International Diplomatic Legitimization of Serbian Occupation and Atrocities in Dayton (Vidovice-Zagreb 1996). Pismima su Naslovnici upoznati o demografsko-konfesionalnoj strukturi Bosanske Posavine (1992) u kojoj su Hrvati imali relativnu većinu od 36, 81 posto, a zajedno s Muslimanima i ostalim apsolutnu od 72, 88 posto. U drugom dijelu knjige nalazi se 71 pismo koje je Odbor primio kao moralno-političku potporu za svoj projekt. Naslovnici su zamoljeni za političko djelovanje glede izdvajanja Bosanske Posavine iz srpske države stvorene u Daytonu (1996) te istodobno upozoreni da će postojeća politička teritorijalna razdioba prouzročiti nestanak Hrvata u Bosanskoj Posavini. Stoga se, dok ne bude prekasno, Bosansku Posavinu, kao jedinstven teritorij mora priključiti Federaciji, ako već BiH mora biti podijeljena. Knjiga je tiskana samo na engleskom jeziku.

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