Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine
?????????? ????? ? ???????????
Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Flag
Coat of arms of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Coat of arms
Location of the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina (yellow) within Bosnia and
Herzegovina.Brko District is shown in pale green.a
Location of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (yellow) within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Brko District is shown in pale green.a
Capital
and largest city Sarajevo
4352'N 1825'W
Official
languages[1]
Bosnian
Croatian
Serbian
Ethnic groups (2013)
70.40% Bosniaks
22.44% Croats
2.55% Serbs
3.6% other[2]
Government Federated state
President
Marinko avara
Prime Minister
Fadil Novali
Legislature Parliament
Upper house
House of Peoples
Lower house
House of Representatives
Formation
Washington Agreement
18 March 1994
Recognized
14 December 1995
Area
Total
26,110.5 km2 (10,081.3 sq mi)
Population
2013 census
2,219,220[2]
Density
91/km2 (235.7/sq mi)
Currency Convertible mark (BAM)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
Summer (DST)
CEST (UTC+2)
Calling code +387
ISO 3166 code [[ISO 3166-2:|]]
Formally, Brko District is held in condominium by both parts of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (namely, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika
Srpska). De facto, however, it is a third entity, as it has the same powers as the
Federation and Republika Srpska and is under the direct sovereignty of BiH.[3]
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: Federacija
Bosne i Hercegovine, Cyrillic script: ?????????? ????? ? ???????????; pronounced
[federa?t?sija bsne? i xrt?sego?ine?] (About this sound listen)) is one of the
two political entities that compose Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being
Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 10
autonomous cantons with their own governments. It is inhabited primarily by
Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is sometimes informally referred to as
the Bosniak-Croat Federation (with the Bosnian Serbs as the third constituency of
the entity). It is sometimes known by the shorter name Federation of B&H
(Federacija BiH).

The Federation was created by the 1994 Washington Agreement, which ended the part
of the conflict whereby Bosnian Croats fought with Bosniaks. It established a
constituent assembly that continued its work until October 1996. The Federation has
a capital, government, president, parliament, customs and police departments, two
postal systems and an airline (BH Airlines). It had its own army, the Army of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was merged with the Army of the
Republika Srpska to form the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The capital
and largest city is Sarajevo with 438,443[4] inhabitants and the total population
of 688,354 in its metropolitan area.

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Bosnian War
1.2 Creation and post-war
2 Geography/Boundary
3 Politics
3.1 Political divisions
3.2 Proposed Croat entity
4 Economy
5 Demographics
6 Symbols
7 Image gallery
8 See also
9 References
10 Sources
11 External links
History[edit]

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article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template
message)
Bosnian War[edit]
Main articles: Bosnian War and CroatBosniak War
The Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army attacked Croatia from Bosnia and
Herzegovina.[5] Their first target was Croatian village Ravno that was attacked on
2 November 1991 and completely destroyed.[5] Yugoslavia effected an economic
blockade of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus trying to keep it as part of Yugoslavia.
[6] Later, Yugoslavia claimed territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Serb
majority and the capital Sarajevo.[6] Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was
declared on 27 March 1992 with the goal to incorporate parts of Bosnia and
Herzegovina into Yugoslavia. The objective of Serbian politics in Bosnia and
Herzegovina was to unite Serbian autonomous provinces into a single unit that would
join Yugoslavia, and with total blockade of Sarajevo, break Bosnia and Herzegovina
into smaller, unconnected and hardly defensible enclaves. Because of superiority in
armaments, support from Belgrade and an embargo on the importation of arms into
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbs achieved their goals by June 1992.

The Bosniak leadership was still indecisive concerning a major conflict, so the
Croats were the first to participate in the war. They organized military units,
Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) in November 1991 and the Croatian Defence Council in
April 1992. Those units were partly composed of Bosniaks. The Territorial Defence
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
effectively organized in autumn of 1992. In Serb-controlled areas, Serbs performed
mass murders, ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs, primarily Bosniaks and Croats,
established concentration camps and destroyed Bosniak and Croat cultural
inheritance. By November 1992 Serbs had conquered 70% of the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina and held Sarajevo in limbo by terrorizing its population by
shelling and constant sniper fire.

The creation of a Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia was a matter of dispute for

Bosniaks. Croats accused Bosniaks of Islamization of the country and attempts to
create Bosniak domination in all areas. So they withdrew the ethnic Croat
representatives from Parliament, Government and the Presidency. Due to expulsions
by Bosnian Serbs, Bosniaks moved to other areas and thus disrupted the Croats' area
and altered their pre-war ratio. Political disputes and minor incidents in central
and northern Bosnia and in northern and central Herzegovina led to Croat-Bosniak
War in November 1992.

The Vance-Owen plan was presented in January 1993. It was planned to create 10
cantons on the territory of the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This plan
increased conflict between Croats and Bosniaks. The Army of the Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina (ARBiH) launched four offensives and conquered a large area which
was under control of HVO; almost the whole Central Bosnia (except Novi Travnik,
Vitez, Busovaa, Kiseljak, Kreevo and epe and the wider areas around those towns
and Usora, part of Municipality of Travnik, Zavidovii and part of Municipality of
Vare) and part of Herzegovina, Konjic, Jablanica and eastern and northern parts of
Mostar. A number of crimes against civilians were committed on both sides.
Hostility between Croats and Bosniaks ended with mediation by the United States and
the signing of the Washington Agreement on 18 March 1994. The cooperation between
Croats and Bosniaks was renewed, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a
Bosniak and Croat controlled area was established. There was also a proposal to
create a confederation of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of
Croatia.

The joint command of ARBiH, HVO and Croatian Army (HV) was established in March
1995. The closer cooperation between Croats and Bosniaks was made through the Split
Agreement where Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslim leaders allowed the Croatian Army
to free western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina with cooperation with ARBiH. After
the Operation Storm, the Serbian hoop around Biha was broken and Croatian and
Bosnian armies continued to liberate western Bosnia. The UN unsuccessfully tried to
establish peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina by trying to create a successful
structure for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The UN showed a total inability when Serbs
conquered UN-protected towns, Srebrenica and epa. Serbs launched an attack on the
UN-protected town of Biha, but they were stopped by the Croatian army during
Operation Storm. Joint Croatian-Bosnian military successes made peace negotiations
possible.

Creation and post-war[edit]

Croat- and Bosniak- controlled parts of the Federation in 1997

Bosniak-controlled areas Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croat Herzeg-Bosnia Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
Main article: Washington Agreement
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed by the Washington Agreement of
March 1994. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Army of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council forces was to
be divided into ten autonomous cantons. The cantonal system was selected to prevent
dominance of one ethnic group over another. However, much of the territory Croats
and Bosniaks claimed for their Federation was at that point still controlled by the
Bosnian Serbs.

In 1995, Bosnian government forces and Bosnian Croat forces of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated forces of the Autonomous Province of Western
Bosnia, and this territory was added to the federation. By the Dayton Agreement of
1995 that ended the four-year war, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was
defined as one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and comprised 51% of
country's area. The Republika Srpska comprised the other 49%. Cantons and federal
structure were built rather slowly after the war. Croatian institutions of Herzeg-
Bosnia existed and functioned parallel to Federation ones up until 1996-97, when
they were phased out. On 8 March 2000, the Brko District was formed as an
autonomous district within Bosnia and Herzegovina and it was created from part of
the territory of both Bosnian entities. Brko District is now a condominium that
belongs to both entities.

In 2001, the Office of the High Representative in the country imposed amendments to
the Federation's constitution and its electoral law, complicating its structure and
impairing the parity between Bosniaks and Croats that was up until then in force in
the Federation. Dissatisfied Croat politicians set up a separate Croatian National
Assembly, held a referendum parallel to the elections and proclaimed Croatian
federal unit in Croat-majority areas in the Federation. Their attempts ended
shortly after a crackdown by SFOR and legal proceedings.

Geography/Boundary[edit]

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citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
The Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL) that distinguishes Bosnia and Herzegovina's
two entities essentially runs along the military front lines as they existed at the
end of the Bosnian War, with adjustments (most importantly in the western part of
the country and around Sarajevo), as defined by the Dayton Agreement. The total
length of the IEBL is approximately 1,080 km. The IEBL is an administrative
demarcation and not controlled by the military or police and there is free movement
across it.

Five of the cantons (Una-Sana, Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, Bosnian Podrinje and Sarajevo)
are Bosniak-majority cantons, three (Posavina, West Herzegovina and Canton 10) are
Croat-majority cantons, and two (Central Bosnia and Herzegovina-Neretva) are
'ethnically mixed', meaning there are special legislative procedures for protection
of the constituent ethnic groups.

A significant portion of Brko District was also part of the Federation; however,
when the district was created, it became shared territory of both entities, but it
was not placed under control of either of the two, and is hence under direct
jurisdiction of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Currently the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina has 79 municipalities.

Politics[edit]
The government and politics of the Federation are dominated by two large parties,
the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (Stranka demokratske akcije, SDA) and the
Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Hrvatska demokratska
zajednica, HDZ).[7]

Entity-level institutions include:

bicameral Parliament:
House of Representatives as the lower house and
House of Peoples as the upper house, protecting the interests of three constituent
nations;
Federation's Government with guaranteed ethnic representation,
Federation's President with two Vice-Presidents as well as
Federation's Constitutional Court.
Since Bosniaks compose roughly 70.4% of Federation's population, Croats 22.4% and
Serbs just around 2%, Parliament's House of Peoples (with equal representation for
all three nationalities) is supposed to ensure that the interests of Croats, Serbs
and national minorities are fairly represented during government creation and in
the legislative process. Since 2001-02 and foreign-imposed amendments to the
constitution and electoral laws, Bosnian Croats have claimed the election system
for the deputies in the House of Peoples is rigged, depriving them of their rights
to representation and in fact enabling Bosniaks to control the majority in the
upper house as well.[8] Namely, after 2002 each nations' deputies to the House of
Peoples are elected by 10 Cantonal assemblies, 6 of them with clear Bosniak
majority. This dismantled checks the Federation's Croats and Serbs had on the
Federal legislature as well as the executive, particularly government-building.
[citation needed] In 2010-14 Federation's Government was formed by Bosniak SDP
without the consent of major Croat political parties. After Croatian politician
Boo Ljubi filed an appeal, in December 2016 Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina found the election system of the deputies in the House of Peoples
unconstitutional and abrogated the controversial rules.[9]

Federation is also divided into ten highly autonomous cantons, which are in fact
federal units. They each have their own governments, assemblies and exclusive
competencies. After Croats' appeal, Federation's Constitutional Court ruled in 2010
that the two Federation's ministries - Ministry of Education and Science and
Ministry of Culture and Sports - are unconstitutional since education and culture
are an exclusive competence of cantons, not the federation.[10]

In September 2010, the International Crisis Group warned that "disputes among and
between Bosniak and Croat leaders and a dysfunctional administrative system have
paralyzed decision-making, put the entity on the verge of bankruptcy and triggered
social unrest".[7][dead link] Dissatisfied with the representation of Croats in the
Federation, Croat political parties insist on creating a Croat-majority federal
unit instead of several cantons. SDA and other Bosniak parties strongly oppose
this. In January 2017, Croatian National Assembly stated that if Bosnia and
Herzegovina wants to become self-sustainable, then it is necessary to have an
administrative-territorial reorganization, which would include a federal unit with
a Croatian majority. It remains the permanent aspiration of the Croatian people of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.[11]

Political divisions[edit]
Main article: Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Una-SanaPosavinaTuzlaZenica-DobojBosnian
PodrinjeCentral BosniaHerzegovina-
-NeretvaWest
HerzegovinaSarajevoCanton 10Republika
SrpskaRepublika
SrpskaBrko
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina comprises ten cantons (Bosnian: kantoni
Croatian: upanije):
No. Canton Center No. Canton Center
Coat of arms of Una-Sana.svg 1 Una-Sana Biha Coat of arms of Central
Bosnia.svg 6 Central Bosnia Travnik
Coat of arms of Posavina.svg 2 Posavina Oraje Coat of arms of
Herzegovina-Neretva.svg 7 Herzegovina-Neretva Mostar
Coat of arms of Tuzla Canton.svg 3 Tuzla Tuzla No coats of arms.svg 8
West Herzegovina iroki Brijeg
Coat of arms of Zenica-Doboj Canton.svg 4 Zenica-Doboj Zenica Coat
of arms of Sarajevo Canton.svg 9 Sarajevo Sarajevo
Coat of arms of Bosnian Podrinje.svg 5 Bosnian Podrinje Gorade No
coats of arms.svg 10 Canton 10 Livno
Proposed Croat entity[edit]
Main article: Croat entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Economy[edit]
[icon]
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2015)
Demographics[edit]
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina comprises 51% of the land area of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and is home to 62.85% of the country's total population.[12]

Year Bosniaks % Croats % Serbs % Yugoslavs % Others

% Total
1991 1,423,593 52.3% 594,362 21.9% 478,122 17.6% 161,938 5.9% 62,059
2.3% 2,720,074
2013 1,562,372 70.4% 497,883 22.44% 56,550 2.41% 79,838
3.6% 2,219,220

Ethnic composition in 1991 (pre-war)

Ethnic composition in 2013

v t e
Largest cities or towns in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
2013 Census[13]
Rank Canton Pop. Rank Canton Pop.
Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Tuzla
Tuzla 1 Sarajevo Sarajevo Canton 438,443 11 Sanski Most Una-Sana
Canton 47,359 Zenica
Zenica
Mostar
Mostar
2 Tuzla Tuzla Canton 120,441 12 Lukavac Tuzla Canton 46,731
3 Zenica Zenica-Doboj Canton 115,134 13 Teanj Zenica-Doboj
Canton 46,135
4 Mostar Herzegovina-Neretva Canton 113,169 14 Velika Kladua
Una-Sana Canton 44,770
5 Ilida Sarajevo Canton 71,892 15 Srebrenik Tuzla Canton
42,762
6 Cazin Una-Sana Canton 69,411 16 Gradaac Tuzla Canton 41,836
7 ivinice Tuzla Canton 61,201 17 Visoko Zenica-Doboj
Canton 41,352
8 Biha Una-Sana Canton 61,186 18 Zavidovii Zenica-Doboj Canton
40,272
9 Travnik Central Bosnia Canton 57 543 19 Kakanj Zenica-Doboj
Canton 38,937
10 Graanica Tuzla Canton 48,395 20 Livno Canton 10 37,487
Symbols[edit]

Former flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Coat of arms of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been deemed unconstitutional by the
Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and were due to be replaced by
September. On 31 March 2007, the Constitutional Court placed its decision into the
"Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina" officially removing them.[14] The
federation has not yet adopted a new anthem or coat of arms, but uses the symbols
of the central state as a provisional solution.[15]

Image gallery[edit]

Poitelj, old town near Mostar

Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar

Sarajevo, view from the east

Pliva Waterfall

Troglav

Vrelo Bosne
See also[edit]
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Republika Srpska
Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Official
Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
^ Jump up to: a b "CENZUS OF POPULATION, HOUSEHOLDS AND DWELLINGS IN BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA, 2013 FINAL RESULTS" (PDF). Sarajevo, juni 2016: BHAS. Retrieved 30
June 2016.
Jump up ^ Office of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jump up ^ http://www.bhas.ba/obavjestenja/Preliminarni_rezultati_bos.pdf
^ Jump up to: a b Human Rights Watch 1999, p. 17.
^ Jump up to: a b Human Rights Watch 1999, p. 18.
^ Jump up to: a b "Federation of Bosnia And Herzegovina A Parallel Crisis".
International Crisis Group. 28 September 2010. Archived from the original on 13
October 2010.[dubious discuss]
Jump up ^ Bose, Sumantra: "Bosnia After Dayton: Nationalist Partition and
International Intervention", Oxford University Press, 2002; p. 82
Jump up ^ Rose, Eleanor: "Bosnian Court Ruling Lends Weight to Croat Agitation",
Balkan Insight, 15 Dec 16
Jump up ^ Odluka USBiH, Broj: U-29/09 28. septembra 2010. godine
Jump up ^ Rose, Eleanor: "Bosniaks Slap Down Calls for Bosnian Croat Entity",
Balkan Insight, January 30th, 2017
Jump up ^ "CENSUS OF POPULATION, HOUSEHOLDS AND DWELLINGS IN BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA, 2013 FINAL RESULTS" (PDF). Federal Office of Statistics.
Jump up ^ "Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Bosnia and Herzegovina
2013" (PDF). Federal Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
Jump up ^ "30th Plenary session". Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Archived from the original on 13 March 2007.
Jump up ^ Reuters (16 July 2008). "Muslim Outcry Over Bosnian Serbs `State`
Symbols". Dalje. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012.
Sources[edit]
Human Rights Watch (1999). War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Human Rights Watch.
ISBN 1-56432-083-9.
Rudman, George (1996). "Backtracking to Reformulate: Establishing the Bosnian
Federation". International Negotiation. 1 (3): 525545.
doi:10.1163/157180696X00205.
Slipicevic, Osman; Malicbegovic, Adisa (2012). "Public and private sector in the
health care system of the Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina: Policy and strategy".
Materia socio-medica. 24 (1): 54.
Pilav, Aida; et al. (2007). "Cardiovascular risk factors in the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina". The European Journal of Public Health. 17 (1): 7579.
Ljubic, Bozo; Hrabac, Boris (1998). "Priority setting and scarce resources: case of
the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina". Croat. Med. J. 39: 712.
McMahon, Patrice C.; Western, Jon (2009). "The death of Dayton: How to stop Bosnia
from falling apart". Foreign affairs: 6983.
Ivankovi, Ante; et al. (2010). "Health status of population in Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 15 years of transitional period". Collegium
antropologicum. 34 (1): 325333.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Website of the Federation Government
Parliament of the Federation
Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Website for persons unaccounted for in connection with the conflict on the
territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, International Committee of the Red Cross.
BalkanInsight - Future of Bosnia and Hercegovina
[hide] v t e
Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[show] v t e
Entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg
[show] v t e
Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[show] v t e
Districts of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[show] v t e
Municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
[show] v t e
Bosnian War
Authority control
WorldCat Identities VIAF: 125452751 GND: 4584229-2
Categories: Federation of Bosnia and HerzegovinaEntities of Bosnia and
HerzegovinaSubdivisions of Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnian-speaking countries and
territoriesCroatian-speaking countries and territoriesSerbian-speaking countries
and territories1994 establishments in Bosnia and HerzegovinaStates and territories
established in 1994Regions of Europe with multiple official languages
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