BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Official name: Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Location: Central Europe International organisations: The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, The United Nations Borders: Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro Coastline: Adriatic Sea Land area: 51,129 Km2 Population: 3,900,000 Ethnicity: Bosniak 48%, Serb 37%, Croat 14%, other 0.5%. (Bosniak is the term now used for Bosnian Moslems. It is debatable whether Bosniaks and Serbs are really separate ethnic groups since the only difference between them is religious.)

Languages: Bosnian 48%, Serbian 37%, Croatian 14%. These are in fact the same language, Serbo-Croatian, but the three ethnic groups insist on regarding them as separate.
Religion: Sunni Moslem 40%, Christian 50% (Orthodox 31%, Catholic 15%, Protestant 4%).
Form of government: Federal parliamentary democratic republic. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a federation between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine), which covers the Bosniak and Croatian areas, and the Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska). The Federation is divided into ten cantons, which allow local self-government for the Bosniak and Croatian communities. The Brcko district is not part of either of these entities but is administered by the Bosnia and Herzegovina federal government under international supervision.

Capital: Sarajevo
Constitution: The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina came into effect with the signing of the Dayton Accords on 14 December 1995.
Head of state: Bosnia and Herzegovina has a three-member Presidency, elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. The three members of the Presidency are elected by and represent the three ethnic communities described above. The post of Chairman of the Presidency rotates among the three members every eight months.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the Chairman of the Presidency. The Prime Ministership also rotates every eight months among the elected leaders of the three ethic communities. The Prime Minister is accountable to the legislature.
Legislature: Bosnia and Herzegovina has a unicameral legislature, the House of Representatives (Zastupnicki dom), which has 42 members elected by proportional representation from the two federal entities.
Electoral authority: The Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina conducts national elections.
Freedom House 2005 rating: Political Rights 4, Civil Liberties 3

Political history

Bosnia and Herzegovina were part of the mediaeval Kingdom of Serbia until they were overrun by the Ottomans in 1463. During the 400 years of Ottoman rule many Bosnians converted to Islam. As Ottoman rule weakened in the 19th century, Austrian influence increased, and in 1878 the area came under Austrian administration, while remaining under nominal Ottoman sovereignty. In 1908 Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzogovina outright.

In 1918 Bosnia and Herzogovina became part of the new South Slav kingdom, called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929. When Yugoslavia was dismembered by the Germans in 1941, Bosnia was placed within the collaborationist Croatian state, while Herzegovina was annexed by Italy. In 1945 Bosnia and Herzogovina became a republic of the new communist Yugoslavia.

As Yugoslavia disintegrated after 1990, conflict broke out in Bosnia and Herzogovina, with the Bosniaks wanting independence, the Serbs wanting to remain part of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, and the Croats wanting their areas to be annexed by Croatia. Civil war broke out following the declaration of independence in 1992, accompanied by "ethnic cleansing" and many war crimes, committed mainly but not exclusively by the Serbs.

After a number of failed peace plans, the United States brokered the Dayton Accords in 1995, which created a federal state of Bosnia and Herzogovina with a very weak federal government and virtual independence for the Serbs in the Serbian Republic. The Bosniaks and the Croats were placed in an uneasy partnership in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, within which each community administers its own areas.

These arrangements ended the civil war, but Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a country in name only, since neither the Serbs nor the Croats have any real committment to it. The precarious peace is kept by the United Nations and the European Union. Some of those responsible for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina are being tried or pursued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Human Rights Watch's 2003 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina comments:

"Bosnia and Herzegovina made some progress toward the return of displaced persons, accountability for war crimes, and constitutional protection of its citizens regardless of their ethnicity. In each of these areas, however, much remained to be done before the country could be considered a stable democracy genuinely respectful of human rights."