Bosnia and Herzegovina
The three main ethnic groups in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina
are Bosniak, Serb, and Croat, and languages are Bosnian, Serbian,
and Croatian (formerly "Serbo-Croatian"). Nationalities are Bosniak
(Muslim), Bosnian Serb, and Bosnian Croat. Religions include Islam,
Serb Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, some Protestant sects,
and some others. |
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For the first centuries of the Christian era, Bosnia was part of the
Roman Empire. After the fall of Rome, Bosnia was contested by
Byzantium and Rome's successors in the west. Slavs settled the
region in the 7th century, and the kingdoms of Serbia and Croatia
split control of Bosnia in the 9th century. The 11th and 12th
centuries saw the rule of the region by the kingdom of Hungary. The
medieval kingdom of Bosnia gained its independence around 1200 A.D.
Bosnia remained independent until 1463, when Ottoman Turks conquered
the region.
During Ottoman rule, many Bosnians converted from Christianity to
Islam. Bosnia was under Ottoman rule until 1878, when the Congress
of Berlin transferred administrative control to Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia in 1908. While those living in Bosnia
came under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, South Slavs in
Serbia and elsewhere were calling for a South Slav state. World War
I began when Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Following the Great War,
Bosnia became part of the South Slav state of Yugoslavia, only to be
given to the Nazi-puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia
(NDH) in World War II. During this period, many atrocities were
committed against Jews, Serbs, and others who resisted the
occupation. The Cold War saw the establishment of the Communist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito, and the
reestablishment of Bosnia as a republic with its medieval borders
within the federation of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia's unraveling was hastened by Slobodan Milosevic's rise to
power in 1986. Milosevic's embrace of Serb nationalism led to
intrastate ethnic strife. Slovenia and Croatia both declared
independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. By late September 1991,
Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic's SDS had declared four
self-proclaimed "Serb Autonomous Regions (SAO)" in Bosnia. In
October 1991, the Bosnian Serbs announced the formation within
Bosnia of a "Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina" that would have
its own constitution and parliamentary assembly. In January 1992,
Radovan Karadzic publicly proclaimed a fully independent "Republic
of the Serbian People in Bosnia-Herzegovina." On March 1, 1992, the
Bosnian Government held a referendum on independence. Bosnia's
parliament declared the republic's independence on April 5, 1992.
However, this move was opposed by Serb representatives, who had
voted in their own referendum in November 1991 in favor of remaining
in Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serbs, supported by neighboring Serbia,
responded with armed force in an effort to partition the republic
along ethnic lines to create a "greater Serbia." Full recognition of
Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence by the United States and most
European countries occurred on April 7, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
was admitted to the United Nations on May 22, 1992.
In March 1994, Muslims and Croats in Bosnia signed an agreement
creating the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This narrowed the
field of warring parties to two. The conflict continued through most
of 1995, and many atrocities were committed, including acts of
genocide committed by members of the Army of Republika Srpska in and
around Srebrenica from July 12-22, 1995, where approximately 8,000
Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed. The conflict ended with the
November 21, 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which was formally signed
on December 14, 1995 in Paris.
Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the political and military
leaders of the Bosnian Serb separatist movement, were indicted by
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(https://www.icty.org/) in The Hague in July 1995 on charges of
genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from their role in the
Srebrenica massacre. Karadzic was apprehended and transferred to the
ICTY in The Hague by Serbian authorities on July 21, 2008. Mladic
remains at large.
Bosnia and Herzegovina today consists of two Entities--the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is largely Bosniak and
Croat, and the Republika Srpska, which is primarily Serb. In July
2000, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rendered a
decision whereby Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs are recognized as
constituent people throughout the territory of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In March 2002, this decision was formally recognized
and agreed by the major political parties in both Entities.
The most recent national elections took place in October 2006,
electing new state presidency members; Entity governments; and
state, Entity, and cantonal parliaments. The wartime nationalist
parties--SDS, HDZ, and SDA--lost ground to SNSD, SBiH, and HDZ-1990,
although these parties relied heavily on ethnically based messages
to appeal to voters. A six-party coalition has formed a national
government. The next national elections are scheduled for October
2010. In October 2008, Bosnia and Herzegovina held municipal
elections where mayors and members of municipal and cantonal
assemblies were directly elected (in all municipalities except
Mostar and Brcko District).
The international community retains an extraordinary civilian and
military presence in BiH stemming from the Dayton Peace Accords. The
Dayton Accords created the position of High Representative, an
international official charged with overseeing implementation of the
civilian aspects of the agreement.
In December 1995, NATO deployed a 60,000-troop Implementation Force
(IFOR) to oversee implementation of the military aspects of the
peace agreement. IFOR transitioned into a smaller Stabilization
Force (SFOR) in 1996. With the end of the SFOR mission in December
2004, the European Union (EU) assumed primary responsibility for
military stabilization operations. |
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