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About Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. Introduction
2. Land and Resources
3. People of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1. Ethnic groups, religions and languages
  2. Ethnic Discord
  3. Education
  4. Way of life
4. Culture
  1. Literature, film and music
  2. Cultural institutions destroyed
5. Economy
  1. Wartime collapse
  2. Tentative recovery
  3. Energy
  4. Foreign trade
  5. Currency and banking
  6. Transportation and communication
6. Government
  1. Executive
  2. Legislature
  3. Judicary
  4. Political parties
  5. Social services
  6. Defense
7. History
  1. Ottoman rule
  2. Austro_Hungarian rule
  3. Integration into Yugoslavia
  4. Tito's Yugoslavia
  5. Independence
  6. Aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina
  7. Postwar Bosnia
  8. Recent development
I INTRODUCTION
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian Bosna i Hercegovina), officially the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, country in southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence in March 1992. Civil war then broke out among the country's Muslims, Croats, and Serbs (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 Muslims and Croats. The Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic together constitute the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In reality, since the war, the country has remained divided three ways-among the Muslims, 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 and south by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), the federation of Serbia and Montenegro, which claims to be the successor state to Yugoslavia. 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 RESOURCES
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 Magliè, measuring 2,387 m (7,831 ft), on the border with the FRY. 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.

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 the continental 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.

Pollution from metallurgical plants greatly affected Bosnia's air quality during the second half of the 20th century. Water pollution has also been a problem, and drinking water tends to be scarce. The most polluted river is the Sava; its water requires treatment even before industrial use. The country is also prone to earthquakes.


III THE PEOPLE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
In 1991, in the last census taken in Yugoslavia, Bosnia had a population of 4,364,574. In 1998, after Bosnia's civil war, which left hundreds of thousands dead and forced many thousands of others to flee, the United States government estimated that Bosnia's population was 3,365,727. 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 the FRY, Germany, Croatia, and Sweden.

Bosnia's population density in 1998 was 66 persons per sq km (170 per sq mi). In 1997, 42 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 Muslims (in Bosnia, Muslim is an ethnic designation for Muslim Slavs), Serbs, and Croats. Since the Muslim-Croat federation formed in 1994, Bosnian Muslim leaders have insisted that their people be called "Bosniaks." A small number of Roma (Gypsies) also live in Bosnia. The primary difference among the largest ethnic groups is religious, the Serbs being traditionally Orthodox Christians and the Croats Roman Catholics. The Bosnian Muslims, descendants of Slavs who converted to Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries, are generally Sunni Muslims (see Sunnites). Bosnia also has a small number of Jews.

The people of Bosnia speak the Bosnian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language. However, according to the Bosnian government, the country officially has three languages: Serbian, "Bosnian" (the language associated with the Muslims), and Croatian. In writing, the Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, while the Muslims and Croats use the Latin alphabet.

No single ethnic group comprises a majority of the population 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. In 1995 the U.S. government estimated that Muslims constituted 40 percent of the population, Serbs 38 percent, and Croats 22 percent. The civil war pitted the three largest groups against one another, with Serbia and Croatia supplying arms and troops to the Bosnian Serbs and Croats, respectively. Muslim emigration and the immigration into Bosnia of approximately 200,000 Serbs who were expelled from Croatia contributed to the changed percentages. The "Yugoslav" identity claimed in 1991 was abandoned when Yugoslavia broke up.


B Ethnic Discord
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 Muslim, 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 Muslim 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 Muslim-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 Muslim before the war to 90 percent Muslim by 1996, and the Muslim authorities have permitted few non-Muslims 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 have engaged 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 a Muslim one in eastern Mostar.


D Way of Life
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 Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. Many Muslim 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. However, consumption of alcohol, once common to all, is now discouraged among Muslims and even prohibited in some Muslim-controlled areas.

The People of Bosnia and Herzegovina section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.


IV CULTURE
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 Andriæ, a Serb who was raised Catholic in Bosnia, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961. His novels include Na Drini æuprija (1945; The Bridge on the Drina, 1959), in which a bridge from the Ottoman period symbolically united the peoples of Bosnia. The novelist Meša Selimoviæ 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 Muslim authorities regard Andriæ 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. 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 ECONOMY
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 in 1998 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 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 unified customs 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 Muslim-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 entire country being reconnected. In 1997 hydroelectric plants accounted for 65 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 Muslim-Croat federation, cooperation across Muslim- 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 FRY and Croatia imposing economic blockades on the republic and supply routes being obstructed by the fighting. In 1996 imports totaled $1.9 billion and exports $171 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 Muslim, 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 Muslim-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
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 and Development (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 collective presidency with one representative from each of the three major ethnic groups. After the 1990 elections, in which Bosnians voted along ethnic lines, Muslims enjoyed a slight advantage in representation. However, the Muslim-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 central 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 the central government belong to the entities.

The Muslim-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-Bosna." Herzeg-Bosna 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 Muslim-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 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 Muslim, 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 Muslim 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 Muslim-Croat federation, and each minister must have deputy ministers from the other two national 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 Muslims, 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 Muslim-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 Muslim party has been the Party of Democratic Action (PDA). In 1998 the PDA became the dominant party in a Muslim 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. 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 party was 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 Muslim-Croat federation, services often are provided by Croat and Muslim authorities (to their respective populations), instead of by the 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 Muslim military forces are acknowledged in the national and Muslim-Croat constitutions, with some provisions for coordination but not for joint control. In 1998 the Muslim 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
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 absorbed the 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 Kotromaniæ (reigned 1322-1353). Kotromaniæ'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
Tvrtko's kingdom gradually disintegrated after his death. In 1448 Stephen Vukèiæ, 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 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 the Bosnian 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 People of Bosnia and Herzegovina
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 Ýstanbul, 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.

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 Karadjordjeviæ 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 Drzava Hrvatska, or NDH in Serbo-Croatian). 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 resistance movements. These were the Serb royalist Èetniks, under Draza Mihailoviæ, 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 Èetniks and the Ustaše. The fighting was particularly fierce between the Partisans and the Èetniks. The Èetniks' 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. The congress 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 the League 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 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 Miloševiæ's militant assertion of Serb nationalism and his aggressive 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 Muslims' Party of Democratic Action (PDA), led by Alija Izetbegoviæ, won 87 seats, or 34 percent. The Serbian Democratic Party (SDP), led by Radovan Karadziæ, 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. Izetbegoviæ 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
Negotiations among the post-Communist republic leaders from January to early June 1991 failed to find a formula to preserve some kind of Yugoslavia. (Izetbegoviæ 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. Miloševiæ 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 in 1991. Karadziæ'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-Bosna also was proclaimed in November 1991. It was run by the Croat Defense Council (Hrvatsko Vijeèe 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 SDP formally proclaimed its separate Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). The United States and the EC recognized Bosnia's independence on April 6, 1992.

F Bosnian War
Full-scale 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. 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).

International efforts to achieve a cease-fire and resolution of the conflict included conferences, sanctions, peace proposals, 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 Muslims, although they were frequently violated, most notoriously in Srebrenica in July 1995.

In May 1993 a UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in The Hague, Netherlands. By early 1999 the ICTY had publicly indicted more than 50 men, including Bosnian Serb leader Karadziæ, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

G Postwar Bosnia
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 Muslim-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, Izetbegoviæ, and Miloševiæ (who represented the Bosnian Serbs with their reluctant agreement) signed the Dayton peace accord in Paris in December.

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 Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. It included provisions for the unhindered return of refugees (estimated at 2.3 million of the prewar population of 4,364,574) to their places of origin. The UNPROFOR was to be replaced with a multinational but primarily NATO Implementation Force (I-FOR) 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 I-FOR became the Stabilization Force (S-FOR) and was reduced to 31,000 troops.

The implementation of the Dayton provisions on the return of refugees has proved difficult. Hindered from returning to areas now dominated by another group, or forced to leave again upon their return, an estimated 820,000 refugees inside Bosnia remained displaced from their previous homes in mid-1998. The leaders of each ethnic group still oppose one another, and there is little free movement and provision of services across the borders of what are in actuality three entities. The international community'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 Plavšiæ, the president of the Serb Republic, abandoned much of the Serbs' nationalist rhetoric and became a NATO and U.S. favorite. A close Karadziæ ally, Plavšiæ replaced Karadziæ 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 Karadziæ'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 that election the SDP won 24 seats but lost its majority. Plavšiæ'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 Plavšiæ administration based in the western city of Banja Luka and Karadziæ'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 Plavšiæ, was a force. Still, the results were mixed and contradictory.

For Bosnia's House of Representatives, both the Muslim PDA's coalition and the Serb SDP and SRS lost votes to nonnationalist opposition parties. Svetozar Mihajloviæ, of the moderate Sloga coalition, was elected co-prime minister from the Serb Republic; Haris Silajdziæ of the moderate Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, was named co-prime minister from the Muslim-Croat federation. A Serb moderate defeated the nationalist incumbent as the Serb member of Bosnia's collective presidency. Alija Izetbegoviæ, of the PDA, and Ante Jelaviæ, of the CDU-BH, took the other seats in the presidency.

In the Muslim-Croat federation non-nationalist 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, Plavšiæ 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 Plavšiæ 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, after Poplasen tried to pressure the assembly into removing Dodik, High Representative Westendorp removed Poplasen himself from office. Westendorp asserted that Poplasen's attempts to unseat Dodik constituted a violation of the Dayton accord.

Also in March a UN arbitrator designated Brèko, a city in northeastern Bosnia at the Serb Republic's narrowest point, to be placed under the joint administration of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. The Serbs had held the strategic city, which had formerly been inhabited mainly by Muslims and Croats, since 1992.


The History section of this article was contributed by Dennison Rusinow.



Contributed By:
Dennison Rusinow
David Dyker
Robert M. Hayden



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