I.

Introduction

Bosnia and Herzegovina (in Bosnian, Bosna i Herzegovina), republic in south-eastern Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula, bounded on the north and west by Croatia, and on the east and south by Serbia and Montenegro. Formerly a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence in March 1992. Civil war then broke out in the country as Bosnia and Herzegovina became involved in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War. Bosnia and Herzegovina (often referred to simply as Bosnia) has a territory of about 51,129 sq km (30,677 sq mi). After the 1995 peace accord, however, the country was formally split into a Muslim-Croat federation controlling 51 per cent of its territory, and a Bosnian-Serb statelet with 49 per cent. Sarajevo is the republic’s capital and largest city.

II.

Land and Resources

Mountains traverse much of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territory; in particular, extensions of the Dinaric Alps, which form the republic’s western border with Croatia, traverse the northern part of the republic. Much of the republic also lies within the Karst, a barren limestone plateau broken by depressions and ridges. Bosnia, in the northern part of the republic, is heavily forested, while Herzegovina, in the south, has flatter regions of fertile soil that are primarily used as farmland. The republic also has about 20 km (12 mi) of coastline along the Adriatic Sea. Principal rivers include the Sava, which flows along the northern frontier, and its tributaries, the Una, Drina, and Vrbas.

Most of the republic is characterized by hot summers and cold winters, although short, cool summers and long, severe winters are common at higher elevations. The average temperature in January is -1° C (30° F), and in July is 20° C (68° F). Temperatures along the republic’s short coastline are warmer, and winters there are rainy.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is rich in natural resources, including large tracts of arable land, extensive stands of timber, and valuable deposits of such minerals as salt, manganese, silver, lead, copper, iron ore, chromium, and coal. Among the wildlife found in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the hare, lynx, weasel, otter, deer, fox, wildcat, wolf, grey bear, roe, and mouflon (wild sheep). The lynx, weasel, and otter have special status as endangered species.

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 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 overriding concern 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 Montreal in 1996.

III.

Population

Before the war in 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a total population of 4,124,000. The population at present is 4,552,198 (2007 estimate), which gives a population density of 89 per sq km (231 per sq mi). Muslims, primarily of the Sunni sect, constituted the largest ethnic group with about 44 per cent of the total population. The Muslims are descendants of Turks and Slavs who converted to Islam when the region was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Serbs constituted the second-largest ethnic group before the war with approximately 31 per cent of the population, and Croats made up 17 per cent of the population. The official languages are known as Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. Although they have different dialects, these languages are one and the same, differing only in name and in the alphabet they are written in: Bosnians and Croats use the Roman alphabet while Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet. The language situation is very politically sensitive, and serves to highlight and reinforce the political and cultural divisions within the country. Vlax Romani, an Indo-Iranian language, is also spoken by a number of citizens. The primary religions are Islam, the major religion of ethnic Muslims; Serbian Orthodoxy, practised by Serbs; and Roman Catholicism, practised by Croats.

Nearly two thirds of the republic’s population lived in rural areas before the war. Many of the republic’s urban-dwellers lived in the three largest cities: Sarajevo (population, 1991, 415,631; 2003 estimate, 401,696), Zenica, (1991, 145,577), and Banja Luka (1991, 142,644). The Bosnian Serbs are concentrated in the Bosanka Krajina region in north-western Bosnia, which includes Banja Luka. Before the war in 1991, this region included about 625,000 Serbs and about 550,000 Muslims and Croats. In 1994 about 875,000 Serbs lived in the region and only about 50,000 Muslims and Croats remained; most of the remaining Muslims and Croats were pushed out of the region during the summer of 1994.

All children between the ages of 7 and 15 are required by law to attend school, which is free. The war, however, has seriously disrupted educational provision in many areas of the country. Before the war, most children followed this elementary education with secondary schooling at a vocational school, gymnasium, or other school. More than 85 per cent of the population over the age of nine could read and write in the early 1990s. The republic also has six universities for students seeking a higher degree: the University of Banja Luka (1975), the University of Bihać (1997), the University of Mostar (1977), the University Džemal Bijedić of Mostar (1976), the University of Sarajevo (1949), and the University of Tuzla (1976).

IV.

Economy

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the poorest of the constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia; only the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is poorer. Following independence, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economy remained largely based on agriculture, with tobacco and fruit as the major products. The war, however, has devastated much of the country’s fertile farmland and kept farmers from producing crops. Much of the republic’s industry is located in regions occupied by Serbs, and it was estimated that 80 per cent of the industrial plants were destroyed.

In 1993 the economy was at a near standstill, with most people subsisting on foreign relief aid; inflation and unemployment continued to spiral upwards. The economy’s deterioration was further compounded by economic blockades by both Serbia and Croatia. However, an agreement forged in March 1994 with Croatia ended the blockade on the western coast and helped bolster the Bosnian economy somewhat. The country’s gross national product (GNP), which totalled US$10,700 million in 1990, or US$2,454 per capita, is currently operating at as low as 10 to 20 per cent of pre-war levels. In August 1993 industrial production stood at just 4.8 per cent of the 1992 level. Industries still in operation at that time included textiles, food processing, and military arms. By 2004 the value of exports had risen to US$1,615 million, but imports totalled US$4,933 million.

The new dinar was the standard unit of exchange in Bosnia and Herzegovina when the republic was part of Yugoslavia. In the early years of Bosnian independence, various currencies circulated: the Croatian kuna was in use in Croat-held areas, the new dinar was the standard in Serb regions, and a variety of foreign currencies were used in Muslim-dominated areas. In 1998 the Bosnian government introduced its own currency, the convertible marka of 100 pfennigs (1.50 markas equalled US$1; early 2007).

Important newspapers in Bosnia and Herzegovina include the weekly paper Oslobodjenje and the Islamic-orientated weekly Ljiljan. Other papers include the Dnevni Avaz and Hrvataska Rijec. Broadcasting in the country is run by Independent Radio and Television “Studio 99” based in Sarajevo.

V.

Government

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution was originally written in 1974 but was subsequently revised between 1989 and 1991. In order to reflect the republic’s increasing democratization, the General Assembly prepared to write a new constitution in 1991, envisaging Bosnian autonomy within a Yugoslav federation, but this effort was impeded by increasing polarization among the republic’s three main ethnic groups, and in particular by the Serbian community. The country has a multi-party system, and in 1992 the primary organizations included the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Muslim Bosniak Organization, Party of Democratic Action, Serbian Democratic Party, Socialist Alliance, and the Socialist Democratic Party.

The 1995 Dayton Peace Accord, which ended the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War, set up a new Constitution for the country. As described in the Accord, Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two entities: first, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine) covering 51 per cent of the state's territory and, second, the Republic of Srpska (Republika Srpska), covering 49 per cent. Each has its own government with a president, vice-president, and a prime minister. Overarching these is a central government (the Federal Government), with a parliament and a rotating presidency of three presidents, one from each ethnic grouping, one Bosniak and one Croat directly elected by universal suffrage from the Federation and one Serb directly elected from the Republika Srpska. Elections take place every four years. The presidency is responsible for foreign affairs, immigration, and the nomination of the prime minister.

There is a bi-cameral legislature comprising the House of Representatives (Zastupnièki Dom) and the House of Peoples (Dom Narodu). The former has 42 directly elected members, two thirds Croat and Bosniak, one third Serb. The latter has 15 members: 5 Croats, 5 Bosniaks, and 5 Serbs. Both houses have two-year terms.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is headed by a president and a vice-president, alternately a Croat or a Bosniak. There is also a 140-member House of Representatives and a 74-member House of Peoples.

The Republic of Srpska is also headed by a directly elected president and a vice-president. There is a National Assembly of 83 members voted for by proportional representation. It is this Assembly that nominates delegates to the House of Peoples.

Each of the two entities may enter into agreements with states and international organizations with the consent of the federal Parliamentary Assembly. The Parliamentary Assembly may provide by law that certain types of agreements do not require such consent.

The Ministry of Justice and the State Administration supervise all courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Supreme Court and Constitutional Court are the highest courts in the republic.

The republic employed a Territorial Defence Force prior to the war, which then separated into three ethnic factions. In late 1994 Bosnian Muslim forces numbered about 210,000; Bosnian Serbs, about 80,000; and Bosnian Croats, about 50,000. UN Protection Forces were sent in to encourage peace in the war-torn areas of the former Yugoslavia, and numbered between 35,000 and 40,000 in early 1995, about 22,000 of whom were stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country now has its own unified armed forces that in 2004 numbered about 24,672.

VI.

History

Nearly three millennia ago, the territory now considered Bosnia and Herzegovina formed part of Illyria, which became known as the Roman province of Illyricum in the 1st century bc. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, first the Goths and then the Slavs conquered the territory. Various petty Slav princes ruled the area until the 12th century ad, when Hungary made the area one of its dominions. The Hungarians later made Bosnia a banat (province) under the control of a ban (viceroy). Ban Stephen Krotomanic extended Hungarian authority over the principality of Hum (also known as Zahumlje), later known as Herzegovina. Krotomanic’s nephew and successor Stephen Tvtko further extended the boundaries, and in 1376 proclaimed himself king of Serbia and Bosnia. The kingdom began to disintegrate after the death of Tvtko. A rebellious Bosnian chieftain seized the Hum region early in the 15th century and established it as Herzegovina, which means “independent duchy”. By 1463 the Ottoman Empire had conquered most of Bosnia, and Herzegovina fell to them in 1483. The two territories remained provinces of the Ottoman Empire for the next 400 years, although unsuccessful uprisings against the Turks occurred frequently during the 19th century.

A.

Events Prior to Independence

The population of the area included Roman Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, and Muslims (Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule) by the late 19th century. Unrest among the various ethnic groups coupled with the increasing deterioration of the Ottoman Empire led to a general decline of the area. During the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the Habsburg dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire negotiated with other European rulers for administration rights over the area, and by 1908 had annexed the two provinces. Austro-Hungarian rule did little to quell the ethnic tensions in the region, and instead it became a centre of nationalist agitation for political independence and cultural autonomy. Europe began to take sides in the disputes: Austria-Hungary and Germany opposed the growing Serbian nationalism, while Russia and Great Britain, in part, supported it.

In June 1914 the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, an act that precipitated World War I. Gavrilo Princip, the assassin, was a Serb student from Bosnia. During the war, Croats and Serbs mostly fought together, hoping to create a kingdom that would unite all the South Slavic peoples. On December 1, 1918, following the overthrow of the Habsburg monarchy at the close of the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina merged and became part of the independent Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes under the Serbian monarchy of King Alexander from 1921 to 1934. When conflict between Croats and Serbs led to greater national tensions, Alexander tightened control over the country, and in 1929 he renamed the kingdom Yugoslavia (which means “Land of the South Slavs”).

During World War II Axis powers invaded and dismembered Yugoslavia. Italy formed a pro-Fascist puppet state encompassing much of Croatia and Bosnia, which was headed by native nationalists in Croatia. Yugoslavs fought against each other during the remainder of the war; in particular, the forces of Josip Broz Tito, a Croatian Communist, fought against the Italian-backed Croat Fascist puppet state. At the end of the war, Tito reconciled all the various parts of Yugoslavia and created a Yugoslav federation with Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the constituent republics, despite insistence by Serbs that the region should be made only a province like Vojvodina and Kosovo. During the 1960s Tito granted Muslims a distinct ethnic status, in an effort to put them on equal footing with Serbs and Croats. In the 1970s a collective presidency was instituted in the republic. Ethnic tensions continued, however, and worsened following Tito’s death in 1980.

In 1990 the Communist Party finally relinquished power in Yugoslavia. A panoply of political parties quickly formed throughout the country, each advocating a different cause. Most of these new parties represented distinct ethnic groups. During the three separate elections for members of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Assembly in November and December 1990, the Muslim Party of Democratic Action (PDA), which had engaged in various clashes with ethnic Serbs, won 86 seats. The Serbian Democratic Party (SDP) earned 72 seats, and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CDU-BH) won 44 seats. These three parties together filled all seven seats of the collective presidency. Alija Izetbegović, leader of the PDA, became the president of the presidency in the new coalition government.

During 1991, ethnic tensions throughout Yugoslavia helped weaken the precarious Bosnian presidency. When both Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991, many Serbs throughout the remaining republics began proclaiming their allegiance to Serb-dominated federal Yugoslavia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, as in Croatia, they formed Serbian Autonomous Regions (SARs). Rejection of the SARs by the Bosnian government led to armed conflicts between Serbs and non-Serbs. These conflicts escalated after the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in September 1991. The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) demonstrated its opposition to the secession of the three republics by sending in forces in an attempt to reimpose the federation. The JNA was defeated in Slovenia; in Croatia it helped Croatian Serbs take about 30 per cent of the country, and almost destroyed Croatia’s culturally and architecturally most important city of Dubrovnik. In Bosnia, the Serbian Democratic Party rejected proposals for independence by the presidency of the republic and by the PDA. Negotiations among the various parties ended in a stalemate. The dissenting Serbs withdrew from the National Assembly in February 1992, formed an Assembly of the Serb Nation, and held a referendum for Serbs on whether they should remain part of Yugoslavia. While nearly all participants in the referendum voted to remain with Yugoslavia, voters in a similar referendum in February and March 1992 open to all ethnic groups (but boycotted by most Serbs) voted to secede. That same month, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence. Shortly thereafter, the brutal Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War broke out as the Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav People’s Army, began battling Croats and Muslims for territory.

B.

Independence and War

Despite international recognition of the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first by the United States and European Community (now EU) in April 1992 and then by the UN in May 1992, the conflict within the country went on unabated. By May 1992, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) was established by the two remaining republics, Bosnian Serbs with JNA support had gained control of more than two thirds of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and laid siege to Sarajevo. Early mediation efforts by the EC and the UN failed, and on May 30, 1992, the UN imposed economic sanctions against the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), because of continuing Serbian government support for the Bosnian Serbian militias. The FRY was not generally internationally recognized, and was excluded from the UN as the legal successor to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The war took a new turn in July when a group of Croats, under the leadership of Mate Boban, formed a breakaway Croat state called the Republic of Herceg-Bosna. This move suspended the Croat and Muslim alliance against the Serbs, and convinced EC and UN mediators that their earlier proposal, in March 1992, which called for the division of the country into three autonomous ethnic communities under a central authority, would be necessary to end hostilities. As before, however, this proposal was rejected.

The Bosnian government continued to request UN intervention in the expanding war. It also asked the international community to recognize that the imposition of economic sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro was actually more detrimental to Bosnia, which was unable to receive supplies. The Bosnian government also protested against the international arms embargo on the republics of the former Yugoslavia, arguing that the lack of an arms supply hurt them more than the well-armed Serbs; as a result, the United States unilaterally decided to stop enforcing the ban in late 1994; in July 1995 the US Congress voted by a large majority to lift the arms embargo following a withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces. During the second half of 1992, the international community became aware of extensive violations of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, the systematic rape of an estimated 20,000 Muslim women by Serbian soldiers, in the name of so-called “ethnic cleansing”, was recognized as a barbarous atrocity. International mediation, however, was able to accomplish very little.

C.

Creation of Safe Areas

In June 1993 the UN Security Council passed a resolution to create six “safe areas” for Bosnian Muslims: Bihać, Tuzla, Srebrenica, Zepa, Gorazde, and Sarajevo. The resolution called for the deployment of up to 25,000 additional UN soldiers and gave them the mandate to use force to defend those areas. While the safe areas provided a refuge for many driven from their homes, the international community recognized the general ineffectiveness of this resolution as some of the safe areas, including Sarajevo and Gorazde, continued to come under attack by Serbian forces.

In March 1994 fighting between Bosnian Muslims and Croats ended when the two groups agreed to create a joint federation and to ally the new federation with the republic of Croatia. The federation was based on territory amounting to 58 per cent of Bosnia and Herzegovina, contingent upon the recovery of territory from the Serbs (who still controlled about 70 per cent of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The federation was based on eight cantons, four of which would be Muslim-dominated, two controlled by Croats, and the remaining two of mixed ethnicity. The new federation coexisted with the established government of the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which remained under the guidance of President Alija Izetbegovic. However, in early 1995 only one of the cantons had been created, and there were power disputes within the federation government. Izetbegovic and the Muslims remained wary of the expansion-minded Croats, which made the federation unstable.

A ceasefire between Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat federation was declared from January to April of 1995, but fighting continued, and attempts at renewing the agreement were not successful. Despite the ceasefire, fighting continued in the Bihać UN “safe area”, in the north-western border region, which had been under attack since November 1994 by Bosnian Serb forces in coalition with rebel Bosnian Muslims and Croats. These forces were supported by Croatian Serb troops from neighbouring Serb-held territory in Croatia (the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina, or RSK), with the aim of joining up the western Serb-held areas of Bosnia with the RSK. Following this alliance between the Bosnian and Croatian Serbs, the commanders of the armies of Croatia, of the Bosnian government, and of the Bosnian Croats agreed on March 6, to establish a military alliance between their respective forces. The move was followed in April and May by a new Bosnian government offensive against Serb forces surrounding the UN “safe area” of Tuzla in the northern mountains, and a Bosnian Croat offensive against Serb strongholds in the Bosnian-Croatian border area. At the same time, Bosnian Serb forces renewed attacks on Sarajevo.

D.

Further Fighting and Serb Reverses

The UN responded to the increased fighting with warnings to both the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian government forces to withdraw from the Sarajevo area. On May 25 and 26, UN air strikes were launched against Bosnian Serb ammunition dumps. The Serbs responded with an artillery bombardment of the Tuzla “safe area”, in which almost 50 people were killed, and by seizing several hundred UN peacekeepers as hostages and “human shields”. A rapid-reaction force, made up of mainly French and British troops, was authorized to bolster the UN peacekeepers (although it did not begin operations until late July), while President Clinton agreed in principle to send US troops to assist in a withdrawal, should the peacekeepers find themselves in an untenable position. In June, attacks on UN “safe areas” were escalated, leading to the fall in July of both the Srebrenica and Zepa “safe areas” in the east to the Serbs, and a new exodus of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees. The continuing conflict around Bihać during this period led to a new development in the fighting: large numbers of Croatian government troops moved into the area, under the March military agreement with Bosnian government and Bosnian Croatian troops. The initial aim of defending Bosnian Muslims in Bihać quickly developed into a wider offensive of retaking Serb-held territory on both sides of the Bosnian-Croatian border. A new exodus of both Bosnian Muslim, as well as Croatian Serb, refugees resulted from the escalation in fighting. In August the Croatian government troops turned their attention to the RSK heartland of Krajina, which they overran in five days.

Also in August, renewed Bosnian Serb attacks on Sarajevo precipitated NATO air attacks on Bosnian-Serb targets across Bosnia and Herzegovina. By mid-September the Bosnian Serbs had acceded to NATO demands to withdraw their heavy weapons from around Sarajevo. During this period Bosnian-Croatian forces had made rapid gains in the north of the country. The Bosnian Serb forces were now on the defensive, and with no support from the Serbian authorities agreed to a ceasefire which was brokered by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. On November 21, 1995, the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian governments agreed to a peace—negotiated at Dayton, Ohio, in the United States—which would formally divide Bosnia and Herzegovina into two: a Muslim-Croat federation with about 51 per cent of the country’s territory, and a Bosnian-Serb republic with 49 per cent. This internal boundary came to be known as the Dayton Line. Under the agreement the Bosnian government was to exchange territory in the north-west of the county for Serb-dominated suburbs of Sarajevo and a land corridor linking Sarajevo to Gorazde. For its part, Croatia agreed to give the Bosnia Serbs access to the Mediterranean in exchange for Serbian-held areas around Dubrovnik; Sepa and Srebrenica would remain in Bosnian-Serb hands. The accord was to be monitored, and enforced, by a NATO-contolled international Implementation Force (I-For).

E.

Peace and Recovery

Most territory earmarked for exchange under the peace accord was successfully transferred by the February 1996 deadline; although Bosnian-Serbs caused much damage to parts of Sarajevo before they left. The US-French-British I-For, which took over from the UN in December 1995, took action against disruptive elements, such as allegedly Iranian-backed “terrorist” camps in Bosnia and in Herzegovina. Reconstruction of the devastated country started during the first half of 1996, while the UN focused on attempts to bring alleged war criminals, predominantly Bosnian Serbs, before a UN tribunal. Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was one of those indicted for war crimes, along with military leader General Ratko Mladić. Although Karadžić was not arrested, strong efforts—led by the United States and backed by the threat of sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs—were made to have him step down from office. In mid-July Karadžić agreed to step down from the presidency and not run for political office in future, but he retained substantial political power.

In October 1996 Bosnia and Herzegovina established formal relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which also set up an accord with the Bosnian Serb statelet in February 1997. Feuding within the Bosnian Serb leadership from July to September 1997 was seen as a realignment of forces against Karadžić and his supporters; the settlement that ended it was brokered in Belgrade under Serbian auspices. The ensuing elections within the Bosnian Serb republic in November 1997 evicted Karadžić's party, and a pro-Western Serb leadership took office in January 1998 when moderate Milorad Dodik became prime minister.

In the presidential elections of September 1998 moderate Serb Zivko Radisic and Muslim Alija Izetbegovič emerged as joint presidents, and ultra-nationalist Nikola Poplasen became president of the Bosnian Serb republic, beating the West-backed Biljana Plavsic. On February 4, 1999, Haris Silajdzič and Zvetozar Mihajlovič were elected joint prime ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The following month Poplasen was dismissed as president of the Bosnian Serb republic by Carlos Westendorp, the high representative of the Bosnian Peace Implementation Council, for allegedly abusing his power in attempting to dismiss Milorad Dodik as prime minister. Dodik remained in his post. On June 15, 1999, hardline Croat nationalist Ante Jelavic of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CDU-BH) replaced Zivko Radisic as joint president, and in the presidential elections of September 1999, Jelavic and Zvetozar Mihajlovič were re-elected as joint presidents.

In the light of the continued absence of armed hostilities in the region NATO announced in October 1999 that its Stabilization Force (S-For) was to be reduced to 20,000 troops by April 2000, having earlier extended the mandate of S-For in Bosnia and Herzegovina until June 2000. Despite such apparent progress, in January 2000 the UN Security Council sharply criticized the leadership of Bosnia and Herzegovina for failing to implement an agreement signed in New York two months earlier designed to strengthen national unity. In March 2000 the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Croat general, Tihomir Blaskic, to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down by the tribunal. Blaskic had been charged with trying to “ethnically cleanse” central Bosnia of Muslims between 1992 and 1994.

In elections held in November 2000 the hardline Serb nationalist leader of the Serbian Democratic Party, Mirko Sarović, was elected president of the Bosnian Serb republic, defeating the Western-backed Milorad Dodik. The elections in the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina saw the nationalist parties lose control, leaving the multi-ethnic Socialist Democratic Party as the largest single group in parliament. However, the process of forming a government was paralysed by a protracted power struggle between the nationalist parties and the moderate coalition of non-nationalists, Alliance for Change, which included the Socialist Democratic Party. In February 2001, shortly after the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank warned that future loans would not be released if the crisis continued, Alliance for Change was finally able to form a government, and Bozidar Matic, a Croat from the Socialist Democratic Party, was confirmed as prime minister.

In March 2001 Vojislav Koštunica, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, signed an agreement establishing special relations with the Bosnian Serb republic. In the same month, the Croat member of Bosnia's three-man presidency, Ante Jelavic, was sacked by the international community’s top official in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, only days after announcing plans to break out of the post-war federation and establish Croat self-rule.

When Bozidar Matic resigned as prime minister in June, after Parliament had failed to approve a new election law that had been seen as a pre-requisite for joining the Council of Europe, he was succeeded by the former foreign minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, a Muslim, also from the Socialist Democratic Party.

In August 2001, the Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic was found guilty of genocide, for his role in the massacre of 8,000 men and boys in the UN “safe haven” of Srebrenica, at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was sentenced to 46 years’ imprisonment.

Former British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown was appointed High Representative to Bosnia in February 2002 with the role of furthering peaceful relations between the communities and following through the intentions of the Dayton Peace Accord.

F.

Nationalist Gains in Presidential and Parliamentary Elections

In the first elections run by local authorities rather than international agencies, parliamentary and presidential elections took place in October 2002. Elected to the three-member presidency were Mirko Sarović of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), Sulejman Tihić of the Muslim Party of the Democratic Action (SDA), and Dragan Èović of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ). The new members were sworn in for their four-year terms at the end of the month with Sarović being appointed the first chairman.

In the parliamentary elections held at the same time the SDA won 10 of the 42 seats, the SDS 5, the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) 6, the Social Democrats (SDP) 4, the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) 3, and the HDZ 5.

In the election to the Federation parliament (that is, the Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine), the SDA won 32 of the 98 seats available, the HDZ coalition 16, the SDP 15, and the SBiH 15. Seven other smaller parties also won representation. In the Republika Srpska parliament (the Narodna Skupština Republike Srpske), the SDS won 26 of the 83 seats and the SNSD 19; 13 smaller parties also took seats. Dragan Cavić (SDS) was elected president of the Republika Srpska with nearly 36 per cent of the vote and was sworn in as president at the end of November; his vice-presidents are Adil Osmanović of the SDA and Ivan Tomljenović of the SDP. The following month Cavić appointed Dragan Mikerević as prime minister-designate to replace Mladen Ivanic. Pero Bukejlović of the SDS became prime minister in 2005 after Mikerević was sacked for impeding the search for those suspected of war crimes.

On December 23, 2002, Adnan Terzić of the SDA was elected prime minister of the Bosnian Federal parliament. Niko Lozancic was elected president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in January 2003.

In order to speed up the process of war crimes trials at The Hague, a court was instituted in Bosnia in early 2005. In March, High Representative Paddy Ashdown ordered Dragan Èović of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) (one of the three presidents) to stand down, accused of corrupt practices between 2000 and 2003. He was replaced by Ivo Miro Jović. Ashdown completed his tenure as High Representative at the end of January 2006 and was replaced by the German politician Christian Schwarz-Schilling. His remit is to prepare the ground for EU membership, talks for which began in early 2006, and to attempt to bring together the three separate presidencies into a single office. However, the continuing ethnic division in the country was reflected in the results of the general election held in October 2006. Eventually a coalition was formed and Nikola Spiric (a Bosnian Serb) was named prime minister-designate in January 2007 in succession to Adnan Terzić; a new government was approved in February.