In the beginning of October 1995, it was common knowledge that the US Administration’s Representative for the Balkans – Richard Holbrooke – was negotiating a definitive Cease Fire Agreement, which could lead to a permanent Peace Agreement.
People remained sceptical, because it would probably be just another cease fire agreement, like many others before; some of them remained in force for 42 hours or, at most, until the snow cloak that covered the outskirts of Sarajevo was gone.
However, the American deal introduced a “clever nuance”: – the reestablishment of water, gas and electricity to Sarajevo. The Bosnian population desperately needed those services back in their houses; therefore, they demanded their own authorities to respect those negotiations. With such pressure, the ABiH soldiers had to keep quiet and not challenge the VRS to retaliate; and that was the real game changer.
What the Americans did was exactly what needed to be done. They forced the Host Nation population to realize that their problems had to be solved by them … not by foreign institutions, such as the UN, NATO or the OSCE. The internationals were there to help, not to solve. In the words of Ambassador Cutileiro – the initial dealer of European Union for the Yugoslav conflict:
– “We can only help them, if they want to be helped!”
The American diplomacy managed to close the deal with all three parts, and the date for “The Cease Fire Agreement” to be in force was the 10th of October 1995. In UNPROFOR, nobody needed a “Crystal Ball” to know who was going to survey those future Agreements.
With the arrival of the autumn season, and some chilly weather, so did the water supply to the houses plumbing and most public places in Sarajevo. The Serbs were sticking with the agreements and Sarajevo population could go back to certain bourgeois acts, such as flushing the toilet. There was no more need to go out to the tunnels for the replenishment of the house’s water tanks. Richard Holbrooke was a hero in Sarajevo.
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