ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

cannot now remember what finally triggered the bombing but the point was primarily to
show the Serbs prior to Dayton that we were serious. Holbrooke wanted to show that
there were teeth in the threats after all. But it all happened on short notice and no one had
time to evacuate the Embassy when we finally might have needed to do so.
Q: During this time was Croatia brought into the game?
PERINA: Sure. There was another team working with Croatia to try to set up a Muslim-
Croatian federation in Bosnia to balance off the Serbs in the negotiations. I was not
directly involved in this but it was seen as one of the elements needed to make the
Dayton structure work.
Q: Was this structure worked out with Milosevic?
PERINA: The basic elements agreed with Milosevic were that Bosnia would remain as a
single, unified state consisting of two entities, the Serb Republic or Republika Srpska as
the Serbs called it, and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two entities would have a lot of
autonomy, including their own parliaments, but there would be a central Bosnian
parliament and governmental structure, a central judiciary and so on. There was a rough
outline of the division of powers among these entities and the key institutions that would
be created but otherwise all the details were worked out at Dayton. That is where we had
the real experts, the lawyers and others to put flesh on the bones.
Q: How did Holbrooke get the Bosnian Serbs to agree to this?
PERINA: Well, Holbrooke rightly did not deal with the Bosnian Serb leaders Karadzic
and Mladic. They were simply too tainted by the atrocities committed. That is why he
dealt with Milosevic, and why Milosevic was key to the negotiations. One of the
fundamental problems through the talks was that we needed to negotiate with the Bosnian
Serbs but could not do so directly but only through Milosevic. Milosevic thus knew how
important he was to the whole process and hoped to redeem himself and his entire career
by helping to make Dayton succeed. There was the one episode that Holbrooke describes
in his book when Milosevic persuaded us to have a meeting with Karadzic and Mladic.
He organized it at a house on the outskirts of Belgrade. It was the only time that I also
met with Karadzic and Mladic because, of course, they were not invited to the Dayton
talks. They impressed me as rather sullen and unfriendly. They were, of course, very
unhappy with the position they had gotten themselves into. Through their actions in
Bosnia, they had become politically radioactive, and thus Milosevic held all the cards in
the negotiations, and they as well as Holbrooke were dependent on him as an
intermediary.
Q: How did the Dayton meeting come about?
PERINA: Well, once the Serbs, basically Milosevic, agreed to the basic principles and
structures of a settlement, it was understood that there would have to be a meeting of
everyone involved to flesh out the agreement and sign it. You must remember that all of
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