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Islamic Countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina

Taken from: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107349.html

Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Croatia
Geographic coordinates:
44 00 N, 18 00 E
Map references:

total: 51,129 sq km
water: 0 sq km
land: 51,129 sq km
Land boundaries:
total: 1,459 km
border countries:
Croatia 932 km, Yugoslavia 527 km
20 km
mountains and valleys
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m :highest point: Maglic 2,386 m
Natural resources:
Land use:
arable land: 10%
permanent crops: 3%
other: 87% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:
20 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: destructive earthquakes
n xstyle="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: tahoma">Geography - note:
within Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognized borders, the country is divided into a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation (about 51% of the territory) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska or RS (about 49% of the territory); the region called Herzegovina is contiguous to Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Montenegro), and traditionally has been settled by an ethnic Croat majority in the west and an ethnic Serb majority in the east.
Age structure:
0-14 years: 19.8% (male 403,391; female 382,037)
15-64 years: 70.6% (male 1,432,559; female 1,366,224)
65 years and over: 9.6% (male 161,659; female 218,518) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.76% (2002 est.)
noun: Bosnian(s)
adjective: Bosnian
Ethnic groups:
Serb 31%, Bosniak 44%, Croat 17%, Yugoslav 5.5%, other 2.5% (1991)
Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian
Conventional short form
: Bosnia and Herzegovina
local short form:
Bosna i Hercegovina
Government type:
emerging federal democratic republic
Administrative divisions:
there are two first-order administrative divisions and one internationally supervised district* - Brcko district (Brcko Distrikt)*, the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska; note - Brcko district is in northeastern Bosnia and is an administrative unit under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina; it is not part of either Republika Srpska or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the district remains under international supervision
National holiday:
National Day, 25 November (1943)
Executive branch:
chief of state: Chairman of the Presidency Beriz BELKIC (chairman since 14 February 2002, presidency member since 30 March 2001 - Bosniak); other members of the three-member rotating (every eight months) presidency: Zivko RADISIC (since 13 October 1998 - Serb) and Jozo KRIZANOVIC (since 30 March 2001 - Croat)
elections: the three members of the presidency (one Bosniak, one Croat, one Serb) are elected by popular vote for a four-year term; the member with the most votes becomes the chairman unless he or she was the incumbent chairman at the time of the election, but the chairmanship rotates every eight months; election last held 12-13 September 1998 (next to be held NA October 2002); the chairman of the Council of Ministers is appointed by the presidency and confirmed by the National House of Representatives
head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dragan MIKEREVIC (since 15 March 2002), position rotates every eight months
election results: percent of vote - Zivko RADISIC with 52% of the Serb vote was elected chairman of the collective presidency for the first eight months; Ante JELAVIC with 52% of the Croat vote followed RADISIC in the rotation; Alija IZETBEGOVIC with 87% of the Bosniak vote won the highest number of votes in the election but was ineligible to serve a second term until RADISIC and JELAVIC had each served a first term as Chairman of the Presidency; IZETBEGOVIC retired from the presidency 14 October 2000 and was replaced first temporarily by Halid GENJAC and subsequently by Beriz BELKIC; Ante JELAVIC was replaced by Jozo KRIZANOVIC in March 2001 when the High Representative barred him from public office
President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Safet HALILOVIC (since 1 January 2002); Vice President Karlo FILIPOVIC (since 1 January 2002); note - president and vice president rotate every year; President of the Republika Srpska: Mirko SAROVIC (since 11 November 2000); Vice President of the Republika Srpska: Dragan CAVIZ (since NA)
Legislative branch:
bicameral Parliamentary Assembly or Skupstina consists of the National House of Representatives or Predstavnicki Dom (42 seats - 14 Serb, 14 Croat, and 14 Bosniak; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the House of Peoples or Dom Naroda (15 seats - 5 Bosniak, 5 Croat, 5 Serb; members elected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Representatives and the Republika Srpska's National Assembly to serve four-year terms); note - Bosnia's election law specifies four-year terms for the state and first-order administrative division entity legislatures; officials elected in 2000 and previously were elected to two-year terms on the presumption that a permanent law would be in place before 2002
Judicial branch:
note: a new state court, mandated in November 2000, has jurisdiction over cases related to state-level law and appellate jurisdiction over cases initiated in the entities; the entities each have a Supreme Court; each entity also has a number of lower courts; there are 10 cantonal courts in the Federation, plus a number of municipal courts; the Republika Srpska has five municipal courts
Political parties and leaders:
Bosnian Party or BOSS [Mirnes AJANOVIC]; Bosnian Patriotic Party or BPS [Sefer HALILOVIC]; Civic Democratic Party of BiH or GDS [Ibrahim SPAHIC]; Croat Christian Democratic Union or HKDU BiH [Ante PASALIC]; Croatian Democratic Union of BiH or HDZ-BiH [Ante JELAVIC; note - not recognized by the international community]; Croatian Party of Rights of BiH or HSP-BiH [Zdravko HRSTIC]; Croatian Peasants Party of BiH or HSS-BiH [Ilija SIMIC]; Democratic National Alliance or DNS [Dragan KOSTIC]; Democratic Party of Pensioners or DPS [Alojz KNEZOVIC]; Democratic Party of RS or DSRS [Dragomir DUMIC]; Democratic Peoples Union or DNZ [Fikret ABDIC]; Democratic Socialist Party or DSP [Nebojsa RADMANOVIC]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Rasim KADIC]; New Croatian Initiative or NHI [Kresimir ZUBAK]; Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina or SBH [Safet HALILOVIC]; Party of Democratic Action or SDA [Sulejman TIHIC]; Party of Democratic Progress or PDP [Mladen IVANIC]; Party of Independent Social Democrats or SNSD [Milorad DODIK]; Pensioners' Party of FBiH [Husein VOJNIKOVIC]; Pensioners' Party of SR [Stojan BOGOSAVAC]; People's Party-Working for Progress or NS-RZB [Mladen IVANKOVIC]; Republican Party of BiH or RP [Stjepan KLJUIC]; Serb Democratic Party or SDS [Dragan KALINIC]; Serb National Alliance (Serb People's Alliance) or SNS [Branislav LULIC]; Social Democratic Party of BIH or SDP-BiH [Zlatko LAGUMDZIJA]; Socialist Party of Republika Srpska or SPRS [Zivko RADISIC]
Flag description:
Government - note:
The Dayton Agreement, signed in Paris on 14 December 1995, retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's exterior border and created a joint multi-ethnic and democratic government. This national government - based on proportional representation similar to that which existed in the former socialist regime - is charged with conducting foreign, economic, and fiscal policy. The Dayton Agreement also recognized a second tier of government, comprised of two entities - a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska (RS) - each presiding over roughly one-half the territory. The Federation and RS governments are charged with overseeing internal functions. The Bosniak/Croat Federation is further divided into 10 cantons. The Dayton Agreement established the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to oversee the implementation of the civilian aspects of the agreement. About 250 international and 450 local staff members are employed by the OHR.
Electricity - production:
2.615 billion kWh (2000)
wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables; livestock
marka (BAM)
Telephones - main lines in use:
303,000 (1997)
Telephone system:
General assessment:
no satellite earth stations
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 8, FM 16, shortwave 1 (1998)
Television broadcast stations: 33 (plus 277 repeaters) (September 1995)
Internet users:
3,500 (2000)
total: 1,021 km (795 km electrified; operating as diesel or steam until grids are repaired)
standard gauge: 1,021 km 1.435-m gauge; note - many segments still need repair and/or reconstruction because of war damage (2000 est.)
total: 21,846 km
paved: 14,020 Km; note
road system is in need of maintenance and repair (2001)
unpaved: 7,826 km
Ports and harbors:
27 (2001)
Military branches:
Since the time of the Roman Empire, the Balkans has been a crossroads of religions and civilizations. The ethnic groups now known as Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs are largely the result of different religious and cultural identities created by contact with neighboring empires that expanded and contracted in the Balkans over centuries. With minor differences, they speak the same language, called Serbo-Croatian or sometimes Bosnian.
Called Illyricum in ancient times, the Romans conquered the area now called Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. and folded it into the Roman province of Dalmatia. In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. Goths overran that portion of the declining Roman Empire and occupied the area until the 6th century, when theByzantine Empire claimed it. Slavs began settling the region during the 7th century. Around 1200,Bosnia won independence from Hungary and endured as an independent Christian state for some 260 years.
The expansion of the Ottoman Empire into the Balkans introduced another cultural, political, and religious framework. The Turks defeated the Serbs at the famous battle of Kosovo in 1389. They conqueredBosnia in 1463. During the roughly 450 yearsBosnia and Herzegovina were under Ottoman rule, many Christian Slavs became Muslim. Bosnian Islamic elite gradually developed and ruled the country on behalf of the Turkish overlords. As the borders of the Ottoman Empire began to shrink in the 19th century, Muslims from elsewhere in the Balkans migrated to Bosnia. Bosnia also developed a sizable Jewish population, with many Jews settling in Sarajevo after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. However, through the 19th century the termBosnian commonly included residents of all faiths. A relatively secular society, intermarriage among religious groups was not unknown.
Neighboring Serbia and Montenegro fought against the Ottoman Empire in 1876, and were aided by the Russians, their fellow Slavs. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, following the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), Austria-Hungary was given a mandate to occupy and governBosnia and Herzegovina, in an effort by Europe to ensure that Russia did not dominate the Balkans. Although the provinces were still officially part of the Ottoman Empire, they were annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire on Oct. 7, 1908. As a result, relations with Serbia, which had claims on Bosnia and Herzegovina, became embittered. The hostility between the two countries climaxed in the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand inSarajevo on June 28, 1914, by a Serbian nationalist. This event precipitated the start of World War I (1914–18).Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed to Serbia as part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes on Oct. 26, 1918. The name was later changed to Yugoslavia in 1929.
Both the Croatian and Serbian presidents had planned to partition Bosnia between themselves. Attempting to carve out their own enclaves, the Serbian minority, with the help of the Serbian Yugoslav army, took the offensive and laid siege, particularly on Sarajevo, and began its ruthless campaigns of ethnic cleansing, which involved the expulsion or massacre of Muslims. Croats also began carving out their own communities. By the end of Aug. 1992, rebel Bosnian Serbs had conquered over 60% ofBosnia. The war did not begin to wane until NATO stepped in, bombing Serb positions in Bosnia in Aug. and Sept. 1995. This was followed by a joint offensive by Bosnian Muslim and Croatian forces that took back a significant amount of critical Bosnian territory.
U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton,Ohio, led to an agreement in 1995 that called for a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb entity within the larger federation ofBosnia. Sixty thousand NATO troops were to supervise its implementation. Fighting abated and orderly elections were held in Sept. 1996. President Alija Izetbegovic, a Bosnian Muslim, or Bosniac, won the majority of votes to become the leader of the three-member presidency, each representing one of the three ethnic groups.
But this alliance of unreconstructed enemies had little success in creating a working government or keeping violent clashes in check. The terms of the Dec. 1995 Dayton Peace Accord were largely ignored by Bosnian Serbs, with its former president, arch-nationalist Radovan Karadzic, still in de facto control of the Serbian enclave. Many indicted war criminals, including Karadzic, remain at large. Despite NATO's pledge in Oct. 1997 to remain in Bosnia beyond the 1998 mandate, the largely ineffective peacekeeping force was characterized by chronic ambivalence.
The crucial priorities facing postwar Bosnian leaders were rebuilding the economy, resettling the estimated one million refugees still displaced, and establishing a working government. Progress on these goals has been minimal, and a massive corruption scandal uncovered in 1999 severely tested the goodwill of the international community. Millions of dollars from international aid projects earmarked for reconstruction and humanitarian purposes had been pilfered by Bosnian officials, according to an American-led international antifraud unit.
The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia adjourned in The Hague, Netherlands. As of 2001, more than 100 individuals had been indicted. The first genocide conviction was handed down in Aug. 2001. Radislav Drstic, a Bosnian Serb general, was found guilty of genocide in the killing of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. It was the first genocide conviction in Europe since the UN genocide treaty was drawn up in 1951. In 2001, the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic began. He was charged with crimes against humanity.
In July 2002, the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Yugoslavia met for the first time since war broke out in the Balkans more than a decade ago. The countries pledged to cooperate on the repatriation of refugees, fight organized crime, and assist each other in economic development.
In presidential elections in Oct. 2002, the rotating tripartite presidency was divided between Mirko Sarovic (Serb Democratic Party), Dragan Covic (Croatian Democratic Union), and Sulejman Tihic (Party of Democratic Action, a primarily Muslim party).

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