Tuesday marks the 28th anniversary of the initialling of the Dayton Peace Agreement between Bosnia’s wartime President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman and the then Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic, which ended the 1992-1995 war in the country.

“This is not a just peace, but it is more just than a continuation of the war. In this situation, and in this world as it is, a better peace could not have been reached,” Izetbegovic said following the ceremony of the signing of this Agreement on December 14, 1995, in the Palace of Versailles in Paris.

The Agreement was initiated by the three leaders earlier, following a three-week peace conference at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Back then, Richard Holbrooke, the Assistant Secretary of State, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina would have to maintain such a Constitution for at least 15 years, however, the agreement was maintained for a decade after that.

The Dayton Agreement was officially signed on December 14, 1995 at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

While it brought about a system that may not be as functional as those in place in other countries, it ended the bloodshed that had gripped Bosnia in 1992 when the Yugoslav wars spread into the country and resulted in massacres, concentration camps and even genocide.

This day is celebrated as a holiday in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity.