Richard Holbrooke (1941-2010): Architect of the Dayton Accords

Michael Levy - December 14th, 2010

Yesterday, American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who had been serving as President Barack Obama’s point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died at age 69 after suffering a tear in his aorta. It was 15 years ago last month that Holbrooke had scored his greatest diplomatic success—brokering the Dayton Accords, between the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, which brought to an end the war in Bosnia and outlined a General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The world mourns the loss of an accomplished statesman.
In Britannica’s article on the Dayton Accords, President Bill Clinton recounts Holbrooke’s role, “The final agreement was a tribute to the skills of Holbrooke and his negotiating team.”

Among the details that Clinton notes in his entry for Britannica:

On September 1 [1995] Holbrooke announced that all the parties would meet in Geneva for talks. When the Bosnian Serbs did not comply with all of NATO’s conditions, NATO air strikes resumed. On September 14, Holbrooke succeeded in getting an agreement signed by Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, to end the siege of Sarajevo, laying the framework for final peace talks set to begin in Dayton, Ohio.

Clinton then continues:

On Nov. 1, 1995, the conference began. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović, Serbian President Milošević, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the European Union (EU) met at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio, a site chosen to reduce the ability of participants to negotiate via the media rather than the bargaining table. The peace conference was led by Holbrooke and cochaired by EU Special Representative Carl Bildt and First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov.

Twenty-one days later, the talks concluded and the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina was initialed by Izetbegović for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tudjman for the Republic of Croatia, and Milošević for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Bosnian peace plan was hard-won, but it would bring an end to four bloody years that claimed more than 250,000 lives and caused more than two million people to flee their homes.