Man arrested with original copy of Bosnian peace deal

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Bosnian police have arrested a man suspected of trying to sell a rare original copy of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian war.

Organized and Serious Crimes officers from Republika Srpska -- one of the two political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- arrested a man on Tuesday in Pale town, close to the capital Sarajevo.

During a search of the suspect's home, a document thought to be one of the original copies of the peace agreement which ended the war was found.

However, Bosnia has denied that its own copy is missing. Serbia’s foreign minister in August denied his government has a copy, raising the possibility Belgrade’s is unaccounted for.

According to BN TV, the suspect is reported to be an ex-security guard and close associate of Dragan Kalinic, a former president of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, and Zeljko Kuntos.

Kuntos is an adviser to Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace, known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, ended the four-year war in Bosnia on Nov. 21, 1995 after three weeks of negotiations by the then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina President Alija Izetbegovic and President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman.

The agreement was signed in Paris on Dec. 14, 1995 by Milosevic, Izetbegovic and Tudjman as well as U.S. President Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac of France, U.K. premier John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Viktor Chernomyrdin of Russia.

Only the countries which signed the agreement received original copies.

According to a close source to the Bosnian leadership, the original copy which belongs to Bosnia is located in the headquarters of the presidency’s archives.

"In no case can the document that the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior found in Pale belong to Bosnia and Herzegovina," it was confirmed to Anadolu Agency.

This leaves two possibilities for the document found in Pale; if it is a genuine original, it may belong to Serbia, because Belgrade has said it does not have its copy, or the document found in Republika Srpska is a fake.