Country/entity

Croatia
Yugoslavia (former)

Region

Europe and Eurasia

Agreement name

Agreement on the General Protocol between the Representatives of the JNA and the Dubrovnik Municipality

Date

19 Nov 1991

Agreement status

Multiparty signed/agreed

Interim arrangement

Yes

Agreement/conflict level

Intrastate/local conflict

Balkan Conflicts (1991 - 1995) (1998 - 2001)

Former Yugoslavia

The disintegration of former Yugoslavia post cold war saw conflicts which became mediated and produced peace agreements in Slovenia (where the brief independence conflict was mediated by the EC Troika in 1991), Croatia (between Croatian and Serb populations 1991-1995), in Bosnia (between Croatian, Serb and Bosniak populations 1992-1995), in Macedonia (where mediation played a key pre-emptive role in preventing large scale conflict in 2001), in Kosovo (between Kosovar Albanians and Serbian population and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), but also between FRY and NATO, 1998-1999), and a conflict in the Presevo Valley (between Albanians in South Serbia and FRY, 2000-2001). The continued fall-out of the disintegration of former Yugoslavia also saw mediated agreement and ultimate dissolution of the Union between Serbia and Montenegro.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

In 1991, after nationalist parties won the first multi-party elections in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a violent process of disintegration commenced. With its mixed population, Bosnia-Herzegovina became the centre of the following civil war that began in 1992 between the newly formed army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly Muslim Bosniacs), and the parastatal forces of self-declared Bosnian Croat (Herzeg-Bosnia) and Bosnian Serb (Republika Srpska) entities within Bosnia-Herzegovina, supported by Croatia and Serbia, with various, often short-lived, coalitions. The General Framework Agreement (Dayton Peace Agreement), signed in 1995, split the country into two ethno-federal entities, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska, and included continued peacekeeping and institutional administration by international actors.

Kosovo

The conflict between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians has a long history and always involved territorial disputes as well as ethno-political, cultural and linguistic factors. The most recent phase of the conflict began in November 1997 when the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA or UCK) began their campaign for the independence of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY – then Serbia and Montenegro). The subsequent war lasted until the NATO intervention, which undertook bombing campaigns of Belgrade and other places in Serbia during spring 1999. The main agreements solving the conflict were internationally driven and, finally, a UNSC resolution imposed a post-conflict arrangement in the wake of what was essentially a NATO military victory. In February 2008, Kosovo’s parliament declared independence, but independence is still internationally disputed.

Close

Balkan Conflicts (1991 - 1995) (1998 - 2001)

Stage

Pre-negotiation/process

Conflict nature

Government/territory

Peace process

Croatia negotiation process

Parties

Representatives of the JNA and the Dubrovnik Municipality

Third parties

Representatives of the European Community

Description

This short agreement provides for retreat of forces from the front lines in the Dubrovnik area, to be supervised by European Community monitors.

Agreement document

HR_911119_Agreement on the General Protocol.pdf (opens in new tab) | Download PDF

Local agreement properties

Process type

Isolated example

Rationale

These parties only negotiated in this one instance, with the arrival of French minister Kouchner.

Is there a documented link to a national peace process?

No

Link to national process: articulated rationale

The secondary sources suggest that the negotiations were prompted by the arrival of French and Italian government ministers to Dubrovnik, particularly mentioning the French government minister Bernard Kouchner as mediating the negotiations between local government in Dubrovnik and the Yugoslav army (JNA). These news sources also explicitly note that the Croatian government was displeased with the ad hoc arrangement to retreat and demilitarize the city, resulting in additional troops being posted to the area.

Name of Locale

Dubrovnik

Nature of Locale

City

GPS Lat/Long (DD)

42.650000, 18.090000

Participant type

Central state actor
Local state actor
International or transnational actor

Mediator, facilitator or similar

Mediator or similar referred to

Mediator (references)

Page 1: Representatives of the European Community

Type of mediator/facilitator/similar

International or transnational actor

Local issues

Ritual/prayer and process (including use of scripture)

No specific mention.

Grievance List

No specific mention.

Cattle rustling/banditry

No specific mention.

Social cover

No specific mention.

The Agreement on the General Protocol Between the Representatives of the JNA and the Dubrovnik Municipality

Dated the 19th of November 1991

The present parties, present authorities as well as the representatives of the European Community have decided on the following protocol:

1. The location of the monitors of the European Community at the monitoring points of the “neutral zone” which is located between two lines, and which has been accepted by both parties (annexed map)

2. The development of a process for establishing peace as well as the retreat of military forces, pursuant to the following acts;

A. Establishing a higher degree of control south of the “neutral zone”

B. The retreat of the military forces of both sides further away from the previously determined lines.

C. The surrender of weapons to the representatives of the European Community as well as the retreat under the neutral control of the military element from Dubrovnik.

3. The technical information of this protocol will be defined in accordance to the proposals from both parties, as presented during the meeting on the 19th of November 1991