After 3 more years of genocide at the hands of the Serbs, the U.S. helped end the Bosnian war by sponsoring a Croatian-Muslim army to repel Serbian military domination of Bosnia. Cease-fires were finally complied with, and the Dayton Accords were executed in December, 1995. Dayton proponents contend it, in 3 years, brought peace, a unified currency, vibrant political development, and more freedom of movement. Since 1996, there has been very little political, economic or military cooperation or compromise amongst the 3 ethnic groups. A small minority of villages in contemporary Bosnia contains Croatians and Muslims.
Serb villages are almost purely Serbian in every way.
Almost 2 million of the original 3 million refugees still seek the safe and secure return to their pre-war homes now destroyed and either inhabited or controlled by rival ethnic groups. Demographics in certain areas have shifted disproportionately, e.g., Sarajevo, raising urbanization, environmental and other concerns. Unemployment and corruption remain prominent, and people fear a return to war. The surreal countryside is littered with thousands of empty, destroyed, war-torn homes and mined areas. The state-controlled media spews nationalist rhetoric and people remain bitter with little hope for the future.