(14 Dec 1995) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat
As the warring factions in the former Yugoslavia signed the peace agreement in Paris, APTV gauged reaction to the accord in Gornji Vakuf.
The town was devastated in the 1993 Muslim-Croat war.
The Muslim and Croat communities live side by side again, but the divisions are great.
In practice manoeuvres British helicopters fly over Gornji Vakuf - soon to be headquarters for 13-thousand troops controlling the British sector.
From the air the extent of the damage to this town is graphic.
No building escapes and no family untouched by the fighting that erupted here in 1993.
Croat fought Muslim street by street.
A community that once lived together was torn apart.
This is the secondary school in the Muslim area. Once both Croat and Muslim teenagers sat side by side in the same classroom but no more.
The school is a converted hotel and there is a shortage of furniture and books.
Teachers say their pupils have grown old before their time. There are no discipline problems - the youngsters are subdued by the horror of what they witnessed.
Sixteen year old Samira broke down when asked about the conflict - her father was killed.
Every pupil has a story to tell - but the overriding feeling is that peace must prevail however hard that may be.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
You know the consequences are big, wounds have not been healed yet after everything that has happened. I don't know if it'll ever be possible to forget.
SUPERCAPTION: Kemal Salihic, Muslim student
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
We have to hope, we have to educate, we have to live on. That is the way it is. There is no other way.
SUPERCAPTION: Djana Dizdar, Muslim student
Berislav Curic now lives in the Croat part of town.
His small shop used to be in the centre - when the fighting erupted he had to move it.
Geographically Gornji Vauf is now divided.
A soldier in the war, Berislav says that both the conflict and the peace were beyond their control.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
Both war and peace were imposed upon us, nobody is asking our opinion. If we are told to fight we fight.
SUPERCAPTION: Berislav Curic
Sixty thousand NATO-led troops will have to implement the peace.
They will have a year to police the Dayton accord. The U-N is expected to hand over to NATO early next week.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
The peace is the peace that the leadership of the factions in this country are signing up to today. It is their peace to make; it is their peace to have. We are here simply to oversee and implement the conditions of that peace agreement. It is their peace to make, not ours to enforce.
SUPERCAPTION: Brigadier Richard Dannat, British Army.
While the politicians sign in Paris - the people of Gornji Vakuf are more concerned with more basic problems - like digging out their cars from a deluge of snow.
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