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Bosnia and HerzegovinaI INTRODUCTION
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Flag and Anthem
© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved./© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian Bosna i Hercegovina), country in southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula.
Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence in March 1992. War
then broke out among Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croats, and Serbs in the country (see Wars of Yugoslav Succession)
At the end of the war, in 1995, Serbs controlled 49 percent of the country’s territory, comprising an area known as the
Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). The remaining territory, officially known as the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina), was controlled by a federation of Bosniaks and Croats. Today, the
Bosniak-Croat federation and the Serb Republic together constitute the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In reality,
since the war the country has remained divided three ways—among the Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs—despite
international attempts to unite it.
In the 14th century the principality of Bosnia joined with a duchy to the south that would eventually be called
Herzegovina as part of a short-lived medieval kingdom. The modern-day country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, often
referred to simply as Bosnia, is still divided geographically into a northern region of Bosnia and a southern region of
Herzegovina. The republic is bounded on the north and west by Croatia and on the east by the republics of Serbia and
Montenegro. Bosnia also has 20 km (12 mi) of coastline along the Adriatic Sea, wedged between Croatian territories.
The capital and largest city is Sarajevo.
II LAND AND RESOURCESGeography of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Area 51,129 sq km19,741 sq mi
Coastline 20 km12 mi
Highestpoint
Mount Maglič2,387 m/7,831 ft
Bosnia has an area of 51,129 sq km (19,741 sq mi). It is a mountainous country. In particular, extensions of the Dinaric
Alps, which form Bosnia’s western border with Croatia, traverse the western and southern parts of the republic. The
highest peak is Mount Maglič, measuring 2,387 m (7,831 ft), on the border with Montenegro. Much of the republic also
lies within the Karst, a barren limestone plateau broken by depressions and ridges. The northern part of the republic is
heavily forested, while the south has flatter areas of fertile soil. Those flatter areas are used primarily as farmland.
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Bosnia’s principal rivers include the Bosna, the Sava, which flows along the northern frontier, and the Sava’s
tributaries, the Una, Drina, and Vrbas. These rivers all flow north; only a few other rivers, notably the Neretva, flow
toward the Adriatic Sea. The valleys of the northern rivers widen into the fertile Sava plain, which stretches across the
northern third of Bosnia.
A Mediterranean climate prevails in the south, with sunny, warm summers and mild, rainy winters. A modified
continental climate of warm summers and cold winters dominates the northern inland territory. At higher elevations,
short, cool summers and long, severe winters with snow are common. The average temperature for Sarajevo, in thecontinental zone, is -1°C (30°F) in January and 20°C (68°F) in July.
Bosnia’s soils are predominantly brown earths. Beech forests constitute the primary natural vegetation. Among the
wildlife found in the country are hares, lynxes, weasels, otters, foxes, wildcats, wolves, gray bears, chamois, deer,
eagles, vultures, mouflon (wild sheep), and hawks. Lynxes, weasels, and otters have the status of endangered species.
Bosnia is rich in natural resources. These resources include large tracts of arable land, extensive forests, and valuable
deposits of minerals such as salt, manganese, silver, lead, copper, iron ore, chromium, and coal.
Air pollution from metallurgical plants, water shortages, and poor or failing sanitation services are a few of the
problems facing the country, but the destruction of its infrastructure because of the civil war that took place from 1992
to 1995 is the most pressing current issue. Most activity since the war’s end has been concentrated on restoring basic
needs and services, rather than addressing environmental problems directly. However, despite their preoccupation
with rebuilding a war-torn infrastructure, leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not lost sight of environmental issues
—the country was an observer at the World Conservation Congress in Montréal in 1996.
III THE PEOPLE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINAPeople of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Population 4,552,198 (2007 estimate)
Population density 89 persons per sq km231 persons per sq mi (2007 estimate)
Urban population distribution 45 percent (2005 estimate)
Rural population distribution 55 percent (2005 estimate)
Largest cities, with population Sarajevo, 401,696 (2003 estimate) Tuzla, 133,861 (2003 estimate)Zenica, 128,495 (2003 estimate)
Official language Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian (official)
Chief religious affiliations Muslim, 40 percentOrthodox Christian, 31 percentRoman Catholic, 15 percent
Life expectancy 78.2 years (2007 estimate)
Infant mortality rate 10 deaths per 1,000 live births (2007 estimate)
Literacy rate Not available
In 1991, in the last census taken in Yugoslavia, Bosnia had a population of 4,364,574. Bosnia’s population
subsequently decreased during the civil war, which left hundreds of thousands dead and forced many thousands of
others to flee. Casualty rates during the war were approximately equal for the ethnic Muslims and Serbs (between
1992 and 1995, 7.4 percent of the prewar Muslim population and 7.1 percent of the prewar Serb population were killed
or listed as missing); the casualty rate for the ethnic Croats was much lower. Of the Bosnians who fled, most went to
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the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now the separate countries of Serbia and Montenegro), Germany, Croatia, and
Sweden.
In 2007, the population of Bosnia was estimated to be 4,552,198, giving the country an average population density of
89 persons per sq km (231 per sq mi). In 2005, 45 percent of the population lived in cities and towns. The largest cities
are Sarajevo, the capital and an important cultural and commercial center; Zenica; Banja Luka; Mostar; and Tuzla.
A Ethnic Groups, Religions, and Languages
Bosnia’s major ethnic groups are Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. Since 1994 Bosnian Muslims, long considered an
ethnic group, have officially been known as Bosniaks. A small number of Roma (Gypsies) also live in Bosnia. In the
1991 census, prior to independence, Muslims represented 44 percent of the population, Serbs 31 percent, Croats 17
percent, Yugoslavs (people of mixed Muslim, Serb, and Croat ancestry) 6 percent, and others 2 percent. The “Yugoslav'
identity claimed in 1991 was abandoned when Yugoslavia broke up. In 2003 the government estimated that Bosniaks
constituted 73 percent of the population, Croats 22 percent, and Serbs 4 percent.
The primary difference among the largest ethnic groups is religious, the Serbs being traditionally Orthodox Christians
and the Croats Roman Catholics. The Bosniaks, descendants of Slavs who converted to Islam in the 15th and 16thcenturies, are generally Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam). Bosnia also has a small number of Jews.
The people of Bosnia speak the Bosnian language. However, according to the Bosnian government, the country
officially has three languages: Serbian, Bosnian (the language associated with Bosniaks), and Croatian. In writing, the
Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, while Bosniaks and Croats use the Latin alphabet.
B Ethnic Discord
Ethnic Divisions in Bosnia
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Prior to the civil war in Bosnia that broke out in 1992, concentrations of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs were interspersed throughout thecountry. By the end of the war in late 1995, nearly all non-Serbs had been expelled from Serb-claimed lands in eastern and northernBosnia, and non-Croats had been forced from Croat-claimed lands, located primarily in western Bosnia. In turn, most Croats and Serbshad left central and northwestern areas that were under Bosniak control.© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Before the war, the rural Bosnian population lived largely in concentrations of each ethnic group, but the
concentrations were so interspersed as to resemble a leopard’s skin. The Muslim population was concentrated mainly
in central and eastern Bosnia (bordering Serbia) and in the far west (bordering Croatia). Concentrations of Serbs
separated those of the Muslims. Croats were mainly concentrated on the northern and southwestern borders with
Croatia, with some Croat pockets in central Bosnia. Serb military campaigns in 1992 and 1993 and Croat campaigns in
1993 and 1995 were aimed at expelling others from areas claimed by these groups. By the end of the war almost all
non-Serbs had been expelled from Serb-claimed lands in eastern and northern Bosnia, and non-Croats from Croat-
claimed lands in southwestern Bosnia. In turn, most non-Muslims had left land under Muslim control in northwestern
Bosnia.
The largest cities had mixed populations in 1991, but the war and its aftermath made them almost homogenous. Banja
Luka, 55 percent Serb in 1991, was almost 100 percent Serb by 1993. It is the capital of the Serb Republic. Mostar, 34
percent Croat, 35 percent Bosniak, 19 percent Serb, and 10 percent “others” (who registered no ethnic affiliation) in
1991, had by 1995 been divided into an almost purely Croat western part and an almost purely Bosniak eastern part,
with very few Serbs or “others” left in either. Under the terms of the 1995 Dayton peace accord, which ended the war,
Sarajevo, located in the Bosniak-Croat federation near the boundary of the Serb Republic, is a united city under federal
Bosnian control. However, the city’s population changed from 49 percent Bosniak before the war to 90 percent by
1996, and the Bosniak authorities have permitted few non-Bosniaks to return.
The return of refugees was mandated by the international community at the time of the Dayton agreement, but had
not occurred in any great numbers by the end of 1998. This was especially true of the return of people into areas
where their group was in the minority after the war. In April 1998 Croats in the western town of Drvar rioted against
the return of Serbs, attacking refugees and burning buildings used by the UN. In June 1998 up to 820,000 people
within Bosnia remained displaced from their previous homes. In general, the political leaders of all groups haveengaged in cultural projects aimed at ensuring that the ethnic groups regard themselves as inherently different from
one another, with conflicting cultures and interests.
C Education
Education is compulsory and free for all children from ages 7 through 15. Secondary education is also free. Wartime
destruction or damage to schools disrupted education for many children, although “war schools” were created in other
buildings. There are officially four universities in the country, in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, and Mostar. The university
in Mostar, however, has split into two unrelated institutions, a Croat university in western Mostar and an Islamic one in
eastern Mostar.
D Way of Life
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Sarajevo Olympics
The 1984 Winter Olympics were held at Sarajevo, at the time a prosperous, multiethnic city and the capital of the Yugoslav republic ofBosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo was heavily damaged during the civil war that followed Bosnia's declaration of independence in1992. While some of the city has been rebuilt, its population is no longer multiethnic; almost 90 percent of the residents are Bosniaks.Lester Sloan/Woodfin Camp and Associates, Inc.
Until 1991 Bosnia had an urban population that aspired to the standard of living of western Europe and was
increasingly intermingled ethnically by residence, occupation, friendship, and marriage. The rural population remained
more divided ethnically and less well-off. As a result of the wars, religious identification and adherence to religious
rules has risen among Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Many Bosniak women have adopted Islamic dress styles that had
not been common, at least in cities, before the war. The destruction of the economy has thrust many previously
working women into traditional female roles as housewives and mothers. Members of all groups favor a diet that is
heavy on roast meats and bread.
The People of Bosnia and Herzegovina section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
IV CULTURE
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Popular Music of Bosnia
The culture and music of Bosnia includes ancient songs and dances from the country’s Bosniak (Muslim) and Christian populations. This folk song, performed by an ensemble from a predominantly Bosniak village near Sarajevo, features pre-Islamic, Slavic two-partsinging, Ottoman-influenced improvisational instrumental and vocal techniques, and elements of American pop and country andwestern music. The Turkish ŝargija is paired with two violins, along with electric guitar and drums."Inoco Moja Krivdoco" from Kalesijski Svuci: Bosnian Breakdown (Cat.# Globestyle CDORB 074) (p)1992 Globestyle-ACE Records, Ltd.All rights reserved./Ben Mandelson/ACE Records
Bosnia’s diverse population has made the country’s cultural life rich. Epic stories, a form of traditional oral literature,
were still sung throughout the country well into the 1950s. Bosnian urban love songs, largely Muslim in origin, were
popular throughout the former Yugoslavia.
A Literature, Film, and Music
Ivo Andrić, a Serb who was raised Catholic in Bosnia, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961. His novels include Na
Drini ćuprija (1945; The Bridge on the Drina, 1959), in which a bridge from the Ottoman period symbolically united the
peoples of Bosnia. The novelist Meša Selimović was of Muslim origin but said that he wrote Serbian literature. The film
director Emir Kusturica, also of Muslim origin, made internationally acclaimed films in Sarajevo. His film When Father
was Away on Business was a finalist for the Academy Award in the United States for best foreign film in 1984. That film
had a cast and crew that included Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. Through 1991 the Bosnian rock group Bijelo Dugme was
extremely popular throughout Yugoslavia, playing music influenced by the various traditions of Bosnia.
These ethnic and cultural mixtures have declined since the war. The Bosniak authorities regard Andrić as having been
anti-Muslim, and they closed the museum devoted to him in his home town of Travnik. Filmmaker Kusturica moved to
Serbia in 1992. His internationally acclaimed 1995 depiction of the war, Underground, was condemned in Sarajevo. As
of early 1999, he had not been able to return there.
B Cultural Institutions Destroyed
The most important library in Bosnia was the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. It
was intentionally destroyed by Serb shelling in 1992 and remained in ruins as of early 1999. The world famous bridge
in Mostar, built by Ottoman rulers in the 17th century, was intentionally destroyed by Croat shelling in 1994.
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Throughout Bosnia, churches (Orthodox and Roman Catholic) and mosques were destroyed by the armed forces of the
other major ethnic groups. Among the most important losses were two mosques in Banja Luka that were on the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) register of world cultural monuments. These
mosques were leveled by Serb authorities in 1992, with even the stones removed from the sites.
The Culture section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
V ECONOMYEconomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Gross domestic product (GDP inU.S.$)
$9.9 billion (2005)
GDP per capita (U.S.$) $2,546.30 (2005)
Monetary unit 1 convertible marka, consisting of 100 convertible pfenniga. Croatian kuna, Bosnian dinar, and someother former currencies are still in use.
Number of workers 2,054,993 (2005)
Unemployment rate Not available
Bosnia was economically one of the least developed republics of the former Yugoslavia. The republic’s economy was
largely devoted to mining, forestry, agriculture, and some sectors of light and heavy manufacturing, notably of
armaments. Although Bosnia exported specialty agricultural products, such as fruit and tobacco, it had to import
staples, including more than half its food. The war shattered the newly independent country’s economy, and recovery
has been tentative.
A Wartime Collapse
In 1990, 48 percent of the labor force was employed in industry and 11 percent in agriculture. Bosnia produced
mineral products, timber, manufactured goods such as furniture and domestic appliances, and about 40 percent of Yugoslavia’s armaments. By the time war broke out in 1992, Bosnia’s inflation rate was already at 120 percent; during
the war, it rose to well over 1,000 percent. Unemployment was about 30 percent when war broke out, and by 1995 it
had risen to 75 percent. Prices of goods soared during the war, and average living standards declined sharply. All
sectors of the economy were hit hard by the war. About 45 percent of industrial plants, including about 75 percent of
the republic’s oil refineries, were destroyed, damaged, or plundered.
B Tentative Recovery
The Dayton accord allowed economic recovery to begin. Bosnia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 20 to 30
percent per year from 1995 to 1998, although the recovery was driven almost entirely by international aid. The GDP in1998 was estimated to be about $6 billion. Unemployment dropped from its wartime high of 75 percent to 42 percent
in 1998. Renewed economic growth has come mainly within the construction, trade, and services sectors, with
traditional light industries also showing some capacity for recovery. But the big industrial conglomerates that
dominated Bosnia’s prewar economic life remain largely unrestructured and are operating at a fraction of their
production capacity. Corrupt political leaders apply regulations and taxes arbitrarily, stymieing the development and
growth of new businesses. The black market remains a significant factor.
Behind this mixed pattern of recovery lie the special problems of privatization of state-owned firms in Bosnia. When
Bosnia was part of Communist Yugoslavia, its economy was controlled by the state, which effectively owned most
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enterprises. These enterprises did not have to be profitable and often were managed inefficiently. Transferring firms to
private ownership so that they can prosper or, if unprofitable, fail and cease to be a drag on the system, is a crucial
step for the success of a free-market economy. While 90 percent of Bosnia’s registered firms are in private hands, the
big conglomerates remain under state ownership. Comprehensive privatization legislation is now in place, but the
political obstacles to privatization remain formidable.
The country’s mandated division into two autonomous entities has proved a significant obstacle to economic recovery.
The central government has scored notable successes by establishing a single central bank and adopting a unifiedcustoms fee schedule for imported and exported goods. But in many essential areas of economic life the governments
of the entities, rather than the central government, make the decisions. The Serb Republic’s territory includes much of
Bosnia’s agricultural and mineral-rich land, while the industrial zones remain largely within the Bosniak-Croat
federation.
C Energy
Prior to the war, Bosnia drew electricity from coal-burning and, to a lesser extent, hydroelectric power plants. As a
result of the war, Bosnia’s electricity-generating capacity declined by about 78 percent. Aid-financed reconstruction of
the electric power grid has made substantial strides, but the political divisions create serious obstacles to the entirecountry being reconnected. In 2003 hydroelectric plants accounted for 50 percent of Bosnia’s energy production, with
coal-burning plants producing the rest. With most of the hydroelectric plants located in the Croat-controlled area of the
Bosniak-Croat federation, cooperation across Bosniak- and Serb-controlled territory is essential for the widespread
distribution of electricity. The cost of electricity varies enormously from region to region. In the Serb Republic the
government heavily subsidizes energy producers, cutting the amount users must pay.
D Foreign Trade
In 1990 Bosnia’s imports totaled about $1.9 billion. They consisted primarily of fuel, machinery, transportation
equipment, miscellaneous manufactured products, and chemicals. In the same year, exports totaled about $2.1 billion.
They consisted mainly of miscellaneous manufactured products, machinery, and raw materials. The war severely
disrupted Bosnia’s trade, with both the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now the separate countries of Serbia and
Montenegro) and Croatia imposing economic blockades on the republic and supply routes being obstructed by the
fighting. In 2004 imports totaled $4.9 billion and exports $1,615 million. The huge trade deficit reflects the degree of
Bosnia’s dependence on foreign aid.
E Currency and Banking
In January 1998, after Bosnia’s Bosniak, Serb, and Croat leaders failed to agree on a new national currency, the United
Nations introduced one, the konvertibilna marka, or just marka. Marka banknotes entered circulation in June 1998 with
a value equal to the German deutsche mark (In June 1998 1.79 deutsche marks equaled U.S.$1). Yugoslav dinars
continue to circulate in the Serb Republic, and the Croatian kuna was used in the Croat parts of the Bosniak-Croat
federation. Inflation came down in the federation following the introduction of the new currency. In the Serb Republic,
price trends were less clear. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, established in 1997 under foreign
administration, is the bank of issue for the marka. The Serb Republic and the federation each oversee their own banks.
F Transportation and Communications
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Much of Bosnia’s infrastructure, including its highways, railroads, and telecommunications network, was devastated in
the war. In 1991 Bosnia had 21,168 km (13,154 mi) of highway, of which about half was paved. During the war, about
35 percent of the country’s highways and 40 percent of its bridges were damaged or destroyed. The railroad system
consisted of around 1,000 km (600 mi) of track, of which three-quarters was electrified. Damage to the railway system
was estimated at about $1 billion. There is an international airport at Sarajevo, which was also seriously damaged in
the fighting. From 1995 to 1998 more than $1 billion in foreign aid was provided to rebuild Bosnia’s battered
infrastructure. However, reconstruction of the road and rail network also has been hampered by Bosnia’s divisions.
More is being done to reconnect the telecommunications network, with the European Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD) coordinating national reconstruction and providing a $20 million loan. The fourth donors’
conference for Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in Brussels, Belgium, in May 1998, made improvement of infrastructure a
continued priority for future aid.
The Economy section of this article was contributed by David Dyker.
VI GOVERNMENT
When Bosnia declared independence in 1992, it operated under a modified version of the Yugoslav constitution, which
provided for a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature, a government headed by a prime minister, and a collectivepresidency with one representative from each of the three major ethnic groups. After the 1990 elections, in which most
Bosnians voted along ethnic lines, Bosniaks enjoyed a slight advantage in representation. However, the Bosniak-
dominated government was paralyzed during the war as the Croats and the Serbs established governments of their
own and rejected its authority.
A new constitution was drafted as part of the Dayton accord, providing for a national government structured much as it
had been under the previous constitution. There is a three-member presidency and a bicameral legislature. The centra
government has very little authority within the country, however, and for the most part its power extends only to
foreign trade and foreign affairs. The new constitution recognizes Bosnia as a state officially composed of two entities,
the Serb Republic and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All governmental functions not given expressly to thecentral government belong to the entities.
The Bosniak-Croat federation has its own government. Its constitution was drawn up by U.S. government lawyers in
1994. The federation’s government is headed by a president and a bicameral legislature. However, this government
has no authority except over foreign affairs. In addition, the legislature can easily be deadlocked when the deputies
vote along ethnic lines. In reality, the federation has never really functioned, and the Croat-controlled areas of Bosnia
remain free of control by the federation authorities, being closely linked with Croatia instead. In 1992 the Croats
formed a breakaway state, the “Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia.” Herzeg-Bosnia continues an unofficial
existence. Its territory is integrated into the Croatian telephone and electrical networks, and residents use Croatian
money and vote in Croatian elections. Like the Bosniak-Croat federation, the Serb Republic has its own constitution
(drafted by Serb leaders in 1992) and complete governmental structure, including a president and unicameral
legislature, the People’s Assembly. The government of the Serb Republic wields authority over domestic and foreign
affairs.
In practice, the constitutional system of Bosnia does not provide the structure for a workable state. From 1995 through
1998 the only effective governmental decisions were those made by the High Representative, the position established
by the European Union and the U.S. government to oversee implementation of the Dayton accord. By 1998 the High
Representative, Carlos Westendorp, was proclaiming laws when the national legislature was deadlocked. The High
Representative also removed elected officials from the governments of the entities and disqualified candidates for the
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1998 elections on political grounds, primarily if he believed they could jeopardize implementation of the Dayton
accord. Westendorp selected the flag for Bosnia when the presidency and central legislature could not agree on a
design. The major qualification for this new flag was that its elements had no traditional political meaning to any of
Bosnia’s ethnic groups. Bosnia is a member of several international organizations, including the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations (UN).
A Executive
Bosnia’s three-member joint presidency comprises one Bosniak, one Croat, and one Serb member. All members are
formally equal, with chairmanship of the collective body rotating every six months. The members of the presidency are
elected by direct popular vote from their respective entities (two from the federation, one from the Serb Republic).
Although the first elections, in 1996, were for two-year terms, the members are to be elected for four-year terms. The
collective presidency is supposed to make decisions by consensus, and a provision exists for nullification of a non-
unanimous decision by the presidency if so demanded by the entity whose representative has been outvoted. The
presidency, as head of state, has some powers related to foreign policy and represents Bosnia internationally. The
presidency also nominates the government, composed of Bosniak and Serb co-prime ministers (with a Croat deputy
prime minister) and a cabinet known as the Council of Ministers. No more than two-thirds of the members of this
cabinet may be from the Bosniak-Croat federation, and each minister must have deputy ministers from the other twonational groups. Ministers are confirmed by the central legislature.
B Legislature
The central legislature has two chambers, the House of Peoples and the House of Representatives. The House of
Peoples has 15 members, 5 Bosniaks, 5 Croats, and 5 Serbs, elected by the parliaments of the entities. The House of
Representatives has 42 directly elected members, two-thirds from the federation and one-third from the Serb Republic
The central legislature is charged with drafting laws that implement decisions made by the collective presidency,
determining a national budget, and ratifying international treaties. Complicated procedures exist to try to ensure that
no ethnic group is outvoted on matters concerning its vital interests.
C Judiciary
Bosnia has no national court system, but rather each entity has its own system of trial and appellate courts. At the
national level there is a Constitutional Court, which decides constitutional issues and disputes between the entities.
The Constitutional Court has nine members, four elected by the parliament of the Bosniak-Croat federation, two
elected by the parliament of the Serb Republic, and three appointed by the president of the European Court of Human
Rights who must not be citizens of Bosnia or any neighboring state. The first judges appointed hold five-year terms.
Subsequent appointments are supposed to last until the judge reaches age 70.
D Political Parties
In every relatively free and fair election in Bosnia in the 20th century, starting in 1910, the population has voted along
ethnic lines. In 1945 Yugoslavia emerged from World War II controlled by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (name
changed to the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, or LCY, in 1952). The Communists, whose power extended
throughout Yugoslav government and society, were practically the only party in the country until 1990. The LCY
chapters in each of the republics officially disbanded in 1990, some taking other names. In Bosnia, nationalist parties
for each of the three largest ethnic groups formed that year. Since then the most important Bosniak party has been the
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Party of Democratic Action (PDA). In 1998 the PDA became the dominant party in a Bosniak coalition, the Coalition for
a Whole and Democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most important Croat party is the Croatian Democratic Union of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (CDU-BH), a branch of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union in Croatia. The CDU-BH answers
to Croatian party leaders.
For Bosnian Serbs, more than one party has significant backing. The overwhelming winner in the elections in 1990 and
1996 was the Serbian Democratic Party (SDP). This nationalist party advocated either that Bosnia remain in Yugoslavia
(when it still could) or that lands inhabited by Serbs in an independent Bosnia be united with Serbia. While this partywas still the largest Serb party in 1998, Sloga (Accord), a coalition of other Serb parties less opposed to Bosnia’s ethnic
reintegration, was also created. The coalition received backing from Western Europe and the United States for pledging
to support the Dayton peace accord. The third major Serb party was the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, which
staunchly advocated a “Greater Serbia.” The Serbian Radical Party is a branch of the same party in Serbia and is
controlled from there.
E Social Services
Social services are supposed to be provided by the entities, not the central government. Within the Bosniak-Croat
federation, services often are provided by Croat and Bosniak authorities (to their respective populations), instead of bythe federation government. In the 1990s foreign non-governmental organizations actually provided the bulk of social
services. Before the war, health care in Bosnia was state-administered and free.
F Defense
Separate Serb, Croat, and Bosniak military forces are acknowledged in the national and Bosniak-Croat constitutions,
with some provisions for coordination but not for joint control. In 1998 the Bosniak army (officially the Bosnian army)
numbered about 40,000; the Croatian Defense Council had some 16,000 troops in the country. The Serb Republic had
up to 30,000 troops in its army. The military forces of one entity are prohibited from entering the other.
The Government section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
VII HISTORY
Alija Izetbegović
Trained as a lawyer, Alija Izetbegović became president of Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 1990. When civil war broke outbetween Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats in 1992, he became involved in trying to protect the republic’s Bosniak population. In December1995 Izetbegović participated in the signing of the Dayton peace accord, which brought the war to an end.REUTERS/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
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The earliest known inhabitants of what is now Bosnia, traceable to the Neolithic period, were the Illyrians, a people of
Indo-European stock who are considered ancestors of the modern Albanians. By AD 9, when Rome crushed the last
Illyrian resistance in present-day Bosnia, all of Illyria had become part of the Roman Empire. Rome’s most enduring
legacy in Bosnia was the division between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian faiths along the border
between the western and eastern Roman empires. That border, first drawn around 285, passed through Bosnia.
As Roman power declined, successive waves of nomadic Goths, Alans, Huns, and Avars devastated the land before
moving on. In the
6th century Slavic tribes, probably swept along with the Avars, settled in the area and soon absorbedthe peoples, languages, and cultures that were already there. A second wave of Slavic tribes, called Serbs and Croats,
arrived in the 7th century. The names Croat and Serb probably both derive from the name of an Iranian or Sarmatian
tribe that ruled and was absorbed by them on the way.
Bosnia was first mentioned by that name in a surviving document from 958. The area became a remote mountainous
borderland between successive competing empires and kingdoms that subjugated or claimed all or parts of it during
the early medieval period. Bosnia’s Slavs were generally Christian, either Roman Catholic or Orthodox. In 1180 Ban
(“governor” or “viceroy” in Croatian and Hungarian) Kulin created the nucleus of an independent Bosnian state, which
was revived, consolidated, and expanded by Ban Stephen Kotromanić (reigned 1322-1353). Kotromanić’s conquest of
Hum (later Herzegovina) in 1326 united Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time. Medieval Bosnia reached its height
under Stephen Tvrtko (reigned 1353-1391), who was crowned Tvrtko I, king of Serbia and Bosnia, in 1377. Under his
rule, Bosnia briefly became the most powerful and prosperous Slavic Balkan state.
A Ottoman Rule
Mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Ottomans conquered most of Bosnia in 1463 and by 1483 controlled most of Herzegovina as well. The two territories, thenseparated, remained provinces of the Ottoman Empire for the next 400 years. Here, a mosque built by the Ottomans stands nearMostar. Mostar was severely damaged as a result of the civil war that began in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lasted untilDecember 1995.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
Tvrtko’s kingdom gradually disintegrated after his death. In 1448 Stephen Vukčić, lord of Hum, asserted his
independence by giving himself the title herceg (duke; from the German Herzog) of Hum, and his land soon came to
be called Hercegovina (Herzegovina; the Duchy). The Ottomans quickly conquered most of Bosnia in 1463 and
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Herzegovina in 1483. Ottoman rule, lasting more than 400 years, introduced two more sizeable religious communities:
Jews and Muslims. The Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492, and they became an important part of the cultural
and economic life in Sarajevo and other Balkan cities. Immigrants from the Ottoman Empire were among the first
Muslims to settle in Bosnia. Later, growing numbers of local converts added to their number.
Bosnia, along with Albania, was the only part of Ottoman Europe where large numbers of Christians converted to Islam
The most persuasive explanation for this, advanced in recent scholarly studies, is that all Christian faiths in this
religious borderland were weak, with few churches and clergy. Current scholars reject the theory that all or most of theBosnian Christians who embraced Islam had been members of an allegedly heretical (“Bogomil”) Bosnian church. The
Bosnian church, essentially Catholic in doctrine, was nearly extinct by the 15th century. In an empire in which Muslims
were privileged and a ruling caste, converting to Islam offered advantages. The result, unique in Ottoman Europe, was
a landholding and military nobility of native Muslim Slavs ruling over a mostly Christian peasantry.
By the 19th century the Muslim Slav nobility, like the local ruling elite in several other Ottoman possessions, was
virtually independent of crumbling Ottoman central authority. The Bosnian nobility was determined to prevent the
Ottomans from reasserting authority and implementing modernizing reforms, collectively known as the Tanzimat. The
Tanzimat threatened the Bosnian nobility’s power and exploitation of an increasingly impoverished and rebellious
peasantry. The last decades of Ottoman Bosnia were marked by repeated rebellions of two kinds: by the Muslim elite
against the Ottoman authorities, and by the mostly Christian peasants against that elite.
B Austro-Hungarian Rule
In 1875 a peasant uprising took root in Bosnia and spread to Bulgaria in 1876, prompting a major international crisis.
In 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Russian armies advanced to the gates of İstanbul, the Ottoman
capital, in 1878. The Congress of Berlin, meeting that year to resolve the crisis and prevent a wider war, decided that
Austria-Hungary should occupy and administer Bosnia. Austro-Hungarian occupation met with serious armed
resistance, primarily Muslim but also Orthodox Christian; it took 82,000 troops and four months to subdue that
resistance. But Muslim fears for their religion and privileges, which led many to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire,proved unwarranted. The Austro-Hungarian regime did not interfere with existing social and landholding relations,
focusing instead, and with some success, on economic development.
In 1908 Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia, partly to end Serb nationalist dreams of eventually incorporating it
into the Kingdom of Serbia. The province had become a prime target of Croat as well as Serb nationalist propaganda
and schemes, with Croat nationalists agitating for its union with Croatia, then a part of Hungary. Serbs claimed that the
Bosnian Muslims were Islamicized Serbs; Croats claimed that they were Muslim Croats. The idea of a single nation
whose people would be defined by their common ethnicity, not their religion, was promoted by Benjamin Kállay, the
Austro-Hungarian official in charge of Bosnia from 1882 to 1903. He wanted to counter both Serb and Croat ambitions,
but his idea emerged too late to win any except a few Muslim adherents. However, a group of Croats who in the 1830s
began advocating the union of all South Slavs, which included Serbs and Croats, was more successful. According to the
Yugoslav idea, the South Slavs were one nation or kindred nations who should be unified within a single state of their
own (Yugoslavia means “Land of the South Slavs”). The Yugoslav idea appealed to a number of primarily younger
Bosnians from the ethnic Muslim, Croat, and Serb communities.
On June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian Serb who professed to be a “Yugoslav,” shot and killed
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife. Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia a month later, igniting World War I. During the war, most Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Muslims remained loyal to
Austria-Hungary.
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C Integration into Yugoslavia
At the end of the war in 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated. Bosnia became part of the new Kingdom of
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). Serbia’s Karadjordjević dynasty and a Serb-dominated
government and administration ruled the new state. The kingdom’s political parties, suppressed under a royal
dictatorship from 1929 to 1934, were all ethnic nationalist parties except for a pan-Yugoslav Communist Party, which
was banned and went underground in 1921. The main Bosnian Muslim party, supported by nearly all Muslims, was the
Yugoslav Muslim Organization (YMO), founded in February 1919 and led by Mehmet Spaho until his death in 1939.
Spaho skillfully maneuvered himself and the YMO into a balancing position among other parties that ensured that the
YMO and Muslim interests would be represented in most Yugoslav governments and policies. Spaho died two months
before the Yugoslav government made a major concession to Croat national aspirations and created an autonomous
Banovina (Province) of Croatia that included parts of Bosnia with large Croat populations.
When Nazi Germany and its Axis allies invaded and dismembered Yugoslavia in April 1941, during World War II, Bosnia
was divided into German and Italian occupation zones. It was made part of the so-called Independent State of Croatia
(Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or NDH in Bosnian). The NDH was an Axis puppet state run by the Ustaše, a Croat fascist
and terrorist organization whose wartime attempt to exterminate the NDH’s nearly 2 million Serbs was modeled on
Hitler’s genocide of Europe’s Jews. Bosnian Serbs fled to the forests to join two violently competing resistancemovements. These were the Serb royalist Četniks, under Draža Mihailović, and the Partisans, a Communist-led
multiethnic “Army of National Liberation” organized and headed by Josip Broz Tito, the Croat head of the Yugoslav
Communist Party.
Bosnia became the Partisans’ principal zone of operations in two overlapping wars. In one war the Partisans battled the
Axis armies of occupation. In the other they fought a parallel civil war against both the Četniks and the Ustaše. The
fighting was particularly fierce between the Partisans and the Četniks. The Četniks’ anti-Communism and
determination to restore a Serb-dominated monarchy led them to join first Italian and then German operations against
the Partisans. In November 1943 Tito convened a Partisan congress in Jajce, a medieval Bosnian capital. The congress
proclaimed a new federal Yugoslavia of equal South Slav peoples, naming Tito marshal and prime minister. Thecongress included the Muslims as one of the South Slav peoples. Bosnian Muslims and Croats joined the Partisans in
growing numbers.
D Tito’s Yugoslavia
By the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, the Partisans had won both of their wars and recreated Yugoslavia, under
firm Communist control, as a federal state of six republics. Five were to be semi-autonomous 'homelands' for
Yugoslavia’s Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, and Montenegrins. The sixth, Bosnia, was to be the joint homeland
of its intermingled Serbs, Muslims, and Croats. When a new, totally Communist government was installed in November
1945 after strictly controlled elections, Tito headed the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (known after 1952 as theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia, or LCY), the government, and the armed forces.
For the next 45 years, Bosnia was part of Tito’s Yugoslavia. That state was at first a faithful copy of the authoritarian,
rigidly Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under Joseph Stalin. After Tito’s break with Stalin in 1948,
Yugoslavia underwent a gradual process of relaxation and decentralization, in which greater power was given to the
republics, including Bosnia, and their own Communist leaderships. Economic experiments with “market socialism” and
“socialist self-management” were introduced. The political changes included a strict apportioning of party and state
positions among Bosnia’s three constituent peoples. Bosnia’s branch of the LCY continued to be more repressive and
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opposed to reforms of the Communist system than party branches in most of the other republics. In 1968 the Muslims
were fully recognized as Yugoslavia’s sixth official national group.
Tito’s death in 1980 coincided with the onset of an enduring economic crisis in Yugoslavia, during which production
levels and living standards declined significantly. Tito’s successors, the leaders of republics with conflicting economic
interests and national aspirations, could not agree on effective remedies. Acceptance of the institutions and eventually
even the structure of Tito’s Yugoslavia declined everywhere, especially in Slovenia and Croatia. This trend accelerated
among non-Serbs in reaction to Serbian president Slobodan Milošević’s militant assertion of Serb nationalism and hisaggressive campaign to restore central party and state control under Serb domination. Tensions and disputes among
the republics and among the ethnic groups in the republics multiplied.
The disintegration of the LCY in January 1990 paved the way for multiparty parliamentary elections in all six republics
by the end of the year. The elections in all the republics produced absolute or relative majorities for nationalist parties.
In Bosnia’s elections, the three winning nationalist parties, one for each of the major ethnic groups, garnered 76
percent of the popular vote and 202 of the parliament’s 240 seats. The principal party of the Bosnian Muslims, the
Party of Democratic Action (PDA), led by Alija Izetbegović, won 87 seats, or 34 percent. The Serbian Democratic Party
(SDS), led by Radovan Karadžić, took 72 seats, or 30 percent. Forty-four seats, or 18 percent, went to the Croatian
Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CDU-BH), the Bosnian branch of the party that had won Croatia’s
elections in spring 1990. That party was led by Croatian president Franjo Tudjman. Izetbegović became president of
Bosnia’s seven-member trinational presidency. By pre-electoral agreement, the three parties formed a fragile coalition
government. It fell apart as Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1991.
E Independence
Siege of Sarajevo
BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc.
Negotiations among the post-Communist republic leaders from January to early June 1991 failed to find a formula topreserve some kind of Yugoslavia. (Izetbegović and President Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia kept trying to the very end.)
Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991. The Yugoslav army lost a token ten-day war in Slovenia
against Slovenia’s own police and military. In Croatia, a six-month Serb-Croat civil war ensued that left 30 percent of
Croatia under Serb control until 1995. Bosnia and Macedonia, with large majorities unwilling to stay in a shrunken
Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, also began leaning toward independence.
Bosnia’s Serbs were determined not to become a minority in an independent state, and its Croats would not stay in a
Muslim-majority state if the Serbs seceded. Milošević in Serbia and Tudjman in Croatia had already discussed
partitioning Bosnia between their two countries. The Bosnian Serbs and Croats began creating “statelets” of their own
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in 1991. Karadžić’s SDP established armed “Serb Autonomous Regions” and a self-proclaimed Serb legislature. In
November 1991 the Bosnian Serb legislature held its own referendum in which Bosnian Serbs voted almost
unanimously to “remain in a common Yugoslav state” with the rest of the “Serb nation.” Later that month Macedonia
declared its independence from Yugoslavia (it was admitted to the United Nations under the name the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia). In January 1992 the Bosnian Serb legislature proclaimed independence as the Serb Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. In western Bosnia, the Croat Community of Herzeg-Bosnia also was proclaimed in November
1991. It was run by the Croat Defense Council (Hrvatsko Viječe Odbrane, or HVO), which had the backing of the
Croatian government and army.
Slovenia and Croatia gained international recognition in January 1992. In March, the Bosnian government held a
referendum on independence demanded by the European Community (EC; now the European Union, or EU) as a
condition for recognition. Most Serbs boycotted the referendum, but 97 percent of the Muslims and Croats who
participated voted to secede. Bosnia proclaimed its independence that month, and the SDS formally proclaimed its
separate Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). The United States and the EC recognized Bosnia’s independence on April 6
1992.
F Civil War
Mostar, Bosnia, and Herzegovina
Located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the city of Mostar lies on the Neretva River, at the center of a plateau surrounded by high, barrenmountains. In 1566 Ottoman architect Mimar Hairedin designed the city’s historic stone arch bridge, seen in the distance. In 1993 thebridge was destroyed by Bosnian Croats in a conflict that left the city divided between Croats and Bosniaks.
James Hanley/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Full-scale civil war, with Serbs and Croats armed and backed by Serbia and Croatia respectively, erupted the same
week in April 1992 that Bosnia was recognized by the United States and the EC. Bosnian Muslims fought alongside
Croats against the Serbs. In May, Serbia and Montenegro declared themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)
By summer, Serb forces, which included troops from the Serb-dominated army of the former Yugoslavia, controlled
about 70 percent of Bosnia. They laid siege to Sarajevo and carried out brutal massacres and expulsions of non-Serbs
in territories they controlled, a process chillingly called “ethnic cleansing.” These atrocities produced worldwide
condemnation, but no effective international intervention other than humanitarian aid under the protection of an
otherwise ineffective United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).
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The HVO consolidated Croat administration of Herzeg-Bosnia, and the district was virtually joined to Croatia by mid-
1992. In May 1993 the Croats launched a war against their former Bosnian Muslim allies for control of central Bosnia
and the Muslim portion of Mostar, the capital of the Herzegovina region. Muslim Mostar held out, and the Bosnian
government’s initially almost nonexistent army, consisting mostly of Bosnian Muslims, held its own against the HVO in
central Bosnia. Both the Croats and the Bosnian Muslims also carried out bloody massacres and “ethnic cleansing” in
contested territories.
International efforts to achieve a ceasefire and resolution of the conflict included conferences, sanctions, peaceproposals, and charges against suspected war criminals. Conferences attended by all the parties were held in Lisbon,
London, and Geneva in 1992 and 1993. The UN began imposing economic sanctions on the FRY in 1993 and co-
sponsored a series of peace plans with the EC that one or more Bosnian factions in each case ultimately rejected. The
UN also established so-called “safe areas” for Bosnian Muslims (officially known as Bosniaks since 1994). However,
those areas were frequently violated, most notoriously in Srebrenica. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces overpowered the
UN peacekeeping troops at Srebrenica. They systematically executed about 8,000 unarmed Bosniak men and boys and
buried them in mass graves.
Civil War Destruction
Civil war erupted in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the republic declared its independence in 1992. Ethnic Serbs who opposed thedeclaration battled for territory against Croats and Bosniaks. Many cities in Bosnia were reduced to rubble. Here, governmentemployees in the capital city of Sarajevo clear the damage after a government building was struck by an artillery shell. A peaceaccord signed in December 1995 brought the war to an end.REUTERS/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
In May 1993 a UN war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was
established at The Hague, the Netherlands. By mid-2005 the ICTY had publicly indicted more than 160 individuals,
including Bosnian Serb leader Karadžić, for war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law
committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. See also War Crimes Trials; Geneva Conventions.
Meanwhile, the international community negotiated brief local or general ceasefires. Pressure from the United States
put an end to the Bosniak-Croat war, forcing the Croats to agree, on paper, to a Bosniak-Croat federation in March
1994.
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G Postwar Bosnia
War Crimes Suspects
An undated poster identifies some of the war crimes suspects indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia(ICTY). The ICTY was established in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1993 to indict, try, and sentence suspects accused of crimes againsthumanity in the former Yugoslavia.REUTERS
The war in Bosnia was finally ended in late 1995 by a combination of efforts. These efforts entailed vigorous diplomacy
led by U.S. assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke, a successful joint Bosniak-Croat offensive in western Bosnia
(the first serious Serb defeat in the war), and a major air attack on Bosnian Serb positions by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). In November 1995 the warring parties initialed a peace accord at a U.S. Air Force base near
Dayton, Ohio, after three weeks of intensive negotiations and pressure by the United States. Tudjman, Izetbegović, and
Milošević (who represented the Bosnian Serbs with their reluctant agreement) signed the Dayton peace accord in Paris
in December. The war had claimed about 200,000 lives.
In addition to dictating a new constitution for Bosnia and providing for internationally organized elections, the accord
established a formally united Bosnia made up of two entities, the Bosniak-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. It
included provisions for the unhindered return of refugees to their places of origin. The UNPROFOR was later replaced
with a multinational but primarily NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops, initially for one year but soon
extended indefinitely, to keep the peace and oversee the agreement’s military and civilian security provisions. In 1997
the IFOR became the Stabilization Force (SFOR) and was reduced to 31,000 troops. The number of troops was
gradually decreased to 7,000 by the time NATO concluded its military mission in Bosnia in December 2004. At that
time an EU-led stabilization force called EUFOR, also 7,000 strong, replaced the SFOR.
The Dayton provisions put the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in charge of the return and reintegration
of war refugees and internally displaced persons. The UNHCR estimated that the war had displaced about half the
population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or about 2.3 million people out of the prewar population of 4.4 million. The
UNHCR reported that by mid-2005 some 440,000 refugees had been repatriated to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and more
than 500,000 internally displaced persons had been returned to their homes.
Following the war, ethnic divisions remained strong between the Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. They remained divided
on the cause of the war and its outcomes, leaving open social wounds that impeded the recovery process and further
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entrenched ethnic tensions. The leaders of each ethnic group continued to oppose one another, and there was little
free movement and provision of services between their communities. The United Nation’s High Representative for
Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, had to dictate such things as a common flag, vehicle license plates, and the form of
currency. Westendorp also dismissed some nationalistic mayors and police chiefs and many observers asserted that he
was turning Bosnia into a NATO-EU protectorate.
H Recent Developments
Elections under the supervision of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were held in
September 1996 for national offices and in September 1997 for local governments. The winners, each capturing about
80 percent of its ethnic constituency in 1996, were again the nationalist parties, the PDA, SDP, and CDU-BH. The
republic and its entities remained in the hands of the parties and most of the people who had run the war.
But in 1997, Biljana Plavšić, the president of the Serb Republic, abandoned much of the Serbs’ nationalist rhetoric and
became a NATO and U.S. favorite. A close Karadžić ally, Plavšić replaced Karadžić as Bosnian Serb president when he
resigned under outside pressure after his indictment. After taking office, she promised to uphold the Dayton peace
accord and clashed with Karadžić’s supporters in the Serb Republic’s People’s Assembly. She and the assembly
dismissed each other, initiating a crisis that was not resolved by a special legislative election in November. In thatelection the SDP won 24 seats but lost its majority. Plavšić’s new Serb People’s Alliance and the extreme nationalist
Serbian Radical Party (SRP) of Vojislav Šešelj, now vice prime minister of Serbia, each won 15 seats. The deadlock
virtually split the Serb Republic into two entities, with a Plavšić administration based in the western city of Banja Luka
and Karadžić’s supporters still in control of the east from the village of Pale.
Elections for central and entity offices in September 1998 were contested throughout Bosnia by the Coalition for a
Whole and Democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina, dominated by the PDA. In the Serb Republic, the coalition called Sloga
(Accord), organized by Plavšić, was a force. Still, the results were mixed and contradictory.
For Bosnia’s House of Representatives, both the Bosniak PDA’s coalition and the Serb SDP and SRS lost votes tononnationalist opposition parties. Svetozar Mihajlović, of the moderate Sloga coalition, was elected co-prime minister
from the Serb Republic; Haris Silajdžić of the moderate Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, was named co-prime
minister from the Bosniak-Croat federation. A Serb moderate defeated the nationalist incumbent as the Serb member
of Bosnia’s collective presidency. Alija Izetbegović, of the PDA, and Ante Jelavić, of the CDU-BH, took the other seats in
the presidency.
In the Bosniak-Croat federation nonnationalist parties also gained votes, but the Coalition for a Whole and Democratic
Bosnia and Herzegovina and the CDU-BH dominated elections for the federation’s two houses. In the Serb Republic,
Plavšić was defeated by an extreme Serb nationalist, Nikola Poplasen, for the Serb Republic’s presidency. Moderates
won a significant number of seats in the People’s Assembly, and Milorad Dodik, a Plavšić ally appointed prime minister
in January 1998, kept his position at the head of a caretaker government. Poplasen nominated others to replace Dodik,
but the assembly confirmed none of them. In March 1999 High Representative Westendorp removed Poplasen from
office for obstructing political reconciliation. Westendorp asserted that Poplasen’s attempts to unseat Dodik
constituted a violation of the Dayton accord.
Also in March a UN arbitrator designated Brčko, a city in northeastern Bosnia at the Serb Republic’s narrowest point, to
be placed under the joint administration of Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks. The Serbs had held the strategic city, which
had formerly been inhabited mainly by Bosniaks and Croats, since 1992.
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The November 2000 elections for central and entity offices, like the preceding elections in 1998, produced mixed
results. Support for nationalist parties remained strong, and in the Serb Republic the SDP emerged as the largest party
Nevertheless, the SDP failed to gain an absolute parliamentary majority and was compelled under international
pressure to take a back seat in the governing coalition to the moderate Party of Democratic Progress (PDP). At the
level of the central government, and in the Bosniak-Croat federation, nonnationalist parties fared much better. A
coalition of nearly a dozen mostly nonnationalist parties, under Western tutelage and led by the center-left Social
Democratic Party, formed governments in both entities.
Elections in October 2002 were a setback for nonnationalist moderates. The three largest nationalist parties—the CDU-
BH, PDA, and SDP—won the most votes for nearly every post in the country, including seats in the central parliament,
the assemblies in the Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat federation, and for the tripartite state presidency. The three
parties united to form a coalition government in the central parliament, with support from two smaller, more
moderate, parties. The PDA, the clear victor among Bosniak voters, emerged as the leading party in the central
parliament and in the Bosniak-Croat federation, and it entered into a coalition with the SDS in the Serb Republic.
Also in October, former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavšić pled guilty to one charge of crimes against humanity
before the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Plavšić, who succeeded Radovan
Karadžić as president of the Bosnian Serb republic in 1996 (and who had earlier served as the republic’s vice president
during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina), was the first high-ranking Bosnian politician and the only
woman to plead guilty to war crimes. Plavšić admitted her involvement in the commission of atrocities against Bosnian
Muslims and Croats during the war. In February 2003 the ICTY sentenced Plavšić to 11 years in prison.
In April 2004 the ICTY conclusively ruled that the massacre of about 8,000 Bosniak males at Srebrenica in July 1995
was an act of genocide. The events at Srebrenica were recognized as the worst mass killings in Europe since World Wa
II (1939-1945). In June the Serb Republic authorities for the first time publicly acknowledged that Bosnian Serb forces
were responsible for the Srebrenica massacre. The ICTY indicted the alleged perpetrators, wartime Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadžić and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, on charges of genocide. However, both men remained at
large as war crimes fugitives.
The History section of this article was contributed by Dennison Rusinow.
Contributed By:
Dennison Rusinow
Robert M. Hayden
David Dyker Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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