OSCE Ministers endorse successful negotiation of last section of Dayton/Paris Peace Accords

BUCHAREST, 4 December 2001 (OSCE) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is holding its two-day annual meeting in Bucharest, decided on Tuesday to endorse a major negotiating success - reaching consensus on the remaining aspect of the Dayton/Paris Peace Accords that marked an end to the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Signed in 1995, the accords - officially the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina - mandated the OSCE to elaborate and implement three instruments that would provide for security and stability "in and around the former Yugoslavia", under Annex 1-B.

Today, the Ministerial Council decided to adopt the Concluding Document on Article V of the annex. It also welcomes the commitment by the 20 participating States in the document to prevent their respective territories from being used for the preparation, organization of commission of acts of extremists violence including terrorist activities.

Key provisions of this instrument are voluntary confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs), tailored to suit regional requirements. The first instrument - Article II - relates to agreement on CSBMs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), while the second - Article IV - covers a sub-regional arms control agreement between BiH, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Negotiations on these were concluded in 1996. Together with the Article V document, they enhance security and stability throughout the region of south-eastern Europe.

Talks on the third instrument began in early 1999 under Ambassador Henry Jacolin of France, Special Representative for the Article V negotiations, after a year spent negotiating the mandate.

"The talks were long and sometimes very difficult", he said, "but with the political will and flexibility of all participating States they were able to be brought to a successful conclusion."

The measures contained in the Article V document are due to take effect on 1 January 2002.