Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia
On 20 November 1991 Lord Carrington asked: "Can the internal boundaries between Croatia and Serbia and between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia be regarded as frontiers in terms of public international law?" Applying the principle of "uti possidetis juris", the commission concluded on 11 January 1992, "The boundaries between Croatia and Serbia, between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, and possibly other adjacent independent states may not be altered except by agreement freely arrived at... Except where otherwise agreed, the former boundaries become frontiers protected by international law".
Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1994, FR Yugoslavia imposed sanctions after the National Assembly of Republika Srpska refused the Vance-Owen peace plan. In 1995, Operation Storm eliminated the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The Croatian Army continued the offensive into Republika Srpska. Some 250,000 Serbs fled to Republika Srpska and Serbia from Croatia, as the Serb side continued a full retreat of Serbs from the Una to the Sana river. The Croatian Army, supported by Bosnian government forces came within 20 km of the "de facto" Bosnian Serb capital, Banja Luka, but were halted by Serbian defenders near Prijedor and throughout Bosnian Krajina, when their airplanes could finally fly without NATO intervention on the Croatian side. The war was halted with the Dayton Peace Agreement which recognized Republika Srpska, as one of the two territorial entities of the Bosnia and Herzegovina, comprising 49% of total territory. The Serb side suffered a total 22,779 victims - 15,298 military personnel and 7,480 civilians, according to the Demographic Unit at the ICTY. Although exact numbers are disputed, it is generally agreed that the Bosnian War claimed the lives of about 100,000 people of all ethnic groups.