SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Dayton Peace Agreement, or DPA, is to blame for the dysfunctional political organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian intellectuals said on Monday.
They made their comments at the session of Association of Independent Intellectuals held in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Monday, marking the 19th anniversary of the agreement.
The DPA is "guilty" for the dysfunctional state in place today, said Mirko Pejanovic, a prominent professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo.
Pejanovic underlined that the ethnic criteria used for the territorial division of the country is still the main guideline of those who make decisions about the country today.
"Consequently, the agreement is guilty for the dysfunctional organization of the country," he concluded.
Lada Sadikovic, professor at the Faculty of Crime, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo, said that the DPA did not offer a model for solving conflicts in the country because it is discriminatory, calling for it to be changed.
"19 years after the agreement was reached, Bosnia should finally start working on creating a sustainable political and democratic system based on legal regulations that will not be discriminatory," Sadikovic said.
The DPA was signed on Dec. 14, 1995 in Paris, after an agreement was reached on Nov. 21 in Dayton, Ohio between the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia through the international community's mediation.
The agreement officially ended the 4-year war, but it divided the state into two entities that belong to three constitutive nations: the Federation -- with a Bosniak and Croat majority -- and Republika Srpska, with a Serb majority.
Even today, authorities find it impossible to reach any joint agreement to the benefit of the country.
Many international officials today believe that agreement is in need of an overhaul, while authorities in Republika Srpska support the status quo.
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