JIM LEHRER: An agreement to end four years of civil war in Bosnia was reached today. The accord was initialed by the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The agreement follows three weeks of negotiations that were organized and pushed by the United States. President Clinton announced the breakthrough this morning at the White House. He received the news from Secretary of State Christopher in Dayton.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: After nearly four years of 250,000 people killed, 2 million refugees, atrocities that have appalled people all over the world, the people of Bosnia finally have a chance to turn from the horror of war to the promise of peace. The presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia have made a historic and heroic choice. They have heeded the will of their people. Whatever their ethnic group, the overwhelming majority of Bosnia's citizens and the citizens of Croatia and Serbia want the same thing. They want to stop the slaughter. They want to put an end to the violence in war. They want to give their children and their grandchildren the chance to lead a normal life. Today, thank God, the voices of those people have been heard. The peace plan agreed to would preserve Bosnia as a single state within its present borders and with international recognition. The state will be made up of two parts, the Bosnian Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, with a fair distribution of land between the two. The capital city of Sarajevo will remain united. There will be an effective central government, including a national parliament, a presidency, and a constitutional court, with responsibility for foreign policy, foreign trade, monetary policy, citizenship, immigration, and other important functions. The presidency and the parliament will be chosen through free democratic elections held under international supervision. Refugees will be allowed to return to their homes. People will be able to move freely throughout Bosnia, and the human rights of every Bosnian citizen will be monitored by an independent commission and an internationally trained civilian police. Those individuals charged with war crimes will be excluded from political life. Now that the parties to the war have made a series commitment to peace, we must help them to make it work. All the parties have asked for a strong international force to supervise the separation of forces and to give them confidence that each side will live up to their agreements. Only NATO can do that job, and the United States as NATO's leader must play an essential role in this mission. Without us, the hard-won peace would be lost. The war would resume. The slaughter of innocents would begin again, and the conflict that already has claimed so many people could spread like poison throughout the entire region. We are at a decisive moment. The parties have chosen peace. America must choose peace as well. Now that a detailed settlement has been reached, NATO will rapidly complete its planning for the implementation force known as I-FOR. The plan soon will be submitted to me for review and for approval. As of now, we expect that about one third of I-FOR's force will be American. The rest will come from our NATO partners and from other nations throughout the world. At the same time, once the agreement is signed, the international community will initiate a parallel program to provide humanitarian relief, to begin the job of rebuilding, to help the thousands of refugees return to their homes, to monitor free elections, in short, to help the Bosnian people create the conditions of lasting peace. The NATO military mission will be clear and limited. Our troops will take their orders only from the American general who commands NATO. They will have authority to meet any threat to their safety or any violation of the peace agreement with immediate and decisive force, and there will be a reasonable timetable for their withdrawal. I am satisfied that the NATO implementation plan is clear, limited, and achievable, and that the risks to our troops are minimized. I will promptly consult with Congress when I receive this plan, and if I am fully satisfied with it when I see it in its final form, I will ask Congress to support American participation. The central fact for us as Americans is this: Our leadership made this peace agreement possible, helped to bring an end to the senseless slaughter of so many innocent people that our fellow citizens had to watch night after night after night for four long years on their television screens. Now, American leadership, together with our allies, is needed to make this peace real and enduring. Our values, our interests, and our leadership all over the world are at stake. I ask all Americans in this Thanksgiving week to take some time to say a simple prayer of thanksgiving, that this peace has been reached, that our nation was able to play an important role in stopping the suffering and the slaughtering. May God bless the peace and the United States.

JIM LEHRER: Then, after the afternoon ceremony in Dayton, Sec. Christopher and the Yugoslav leaders described their diplomatic accomplishment.

WARREN CHRISTOPHER, Secretary of State: We've reached a day that may believed would never come. After three weeks of intensive negotiations here in Dayton, the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia have agreed to end the war in the former Yugoslavia. They have agreed that four years of destruction is enough. Today's agreement assures the continuity of the single state of Bosnia-Herzegovina with effective federal institutions, a single currency, and full respect by its neighbors for its sovereignty. The city of Sarajevo, which has gripped the attention of the world for such a long time, will no longer be divided. I trust that one day we'll look back at this time and say Dayton was the place where fundamental choices were made; this is where the--this is the place where the parties chose peace over war, dialogue over destruction, reason over revenge, and this is where each of us has accepted the challenges to make the choices made here meaningful and to put them into effect so that they will endure.

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, President, Serbia: Do to successful conclusion of the negotiations in Dayton, this day will enter into the history as a date of the end of the war in the area of former Yugoslavia. In a civil war like this one in Bosnia, there are no winners, and there could be no winners. All are losers. Only peace is a victory. The solutions achieved here include painful concessions by all sides; however, without such concessions, it would be impossible to succeed here and peace would be impossible. Therefore, no party should regret the concession which we have given.

ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC, President, Bosnia: Today is the historic day for Bosnia and for the rest of the world, for Bosnia because the war, we hope, will be replaced by peace, and for the rest of the world because the suffering of Bosnia and everything that followed. We freed America, Europe, Islamic world, and all the countries in the world to support us in this important and noble task. This support and help are especially expected from the United States of America, the President of the United States, from the Congress, and from the American people.

FRANJO TUDJMAN, President, Croatia: Let me express my satisfaction with the fact that we have finally reached a solution promising lasting peace in Bosnia that is in the former Yugoslavia. After five years of crisis, four years of war, and more than three years of intensive negotiations, I strongly support the expected arrival of NATO and U.S. forces, and I assure that the Republic of Croatia will spare no effort to cooperate with them and provide them with all necessary assistance in fulfilling their noble task.

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