Yearbook 2011
Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Countryaah official site, the fragile nation building in the country seemed to threaten to run away when almost all year expired without the country having any government. Only a few days before the New Year, almost 15 months after the October 2010 elections, the leading Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian parties succeeded in agreeing on the distribution of ministerial posts. The Bosnian Croat Party HDZ was awarded the Prime Minister’s post and nominated former Minister of Finance Vjekoslav Bevanda. The lockout meant that almost all of the reform work, and the continued approach to the EU, remained largely silent during the year.
At the same time, one of the semi-autonomous sub-republics was shaken by internal divisions, while the leadership of the other continued to act as if full independence was the goal. In the Bosnian-Croat Federation, Croats did not approve the parliament formed in March, but created a parallel assembly. In the Republic of Srpska, a referendum was called for the sub-republic to withdraw from joint institutions, including courts. The referendum was canceled, but the Bosnian Serbs’ distrust of the intended national cooperation persisted. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of BIH that stands for the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For two months in the spring, Bosnia was suspended from international football competitions. The reason was that the country had three leaders for the National Football Association, in violation of the rules of the International Football Association FIFA. The division reflected the political system, with a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb who alternated. The ban was withdrawn when the rules were changed, and the national team managed to make an emergency call from missing a qualifying match for the European Championship 2012. Former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladić was arrested in Serbia in May. Mladić was taken to the War Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, where he was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes during the war in the 1990s. Survivors of the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre were delighted with the arrest, while some Bosnians rebels demonstrated in support of Mladić.
In September, Serbian Momčilo Perišić was sentenced to 27 years in prison by the War Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for supporting Mladić’s army in murders, persecution and attacks on civilians. The verdict meant that it was the first time a representative of the then Yugoslav army was convicted of war crimes in Bosnia.
Country data
Area: 51,129 km2 (world ranking: 125)
Population: 3,507,000
Population density: 69 per km2 (as of 2017, world ranking: 132)
Capital: Sarajevo
Official languages: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
Gross domestic product: 18.2 billion US $; Real growth: 3.0%
Gross national product (GNP, per resident and year): 4940 US$
Currency: 1 convertible mark (KM) = 100 Feninga
Embassy
Ibsenstr. 14, 10439 Berlin
Telephone 030 81471210,
Fax 030 81471211
www.botschaftbh.de
Government
Head of State: Mladen Ivanic, Head of State: Bakir Izetbegovic, Head of State: Dragan Covic, Head of Government: Denis Zvizdic, Outside: Igor Crnadak
National Day: 1.3. (1992 independence referendum) and 25.11. (Proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1943)
Administrative structure
2 territorial units and Brcko district
State and form of government
Constitution of 1995
Federal Republic
Parliament: House of Representatives (Predstavnicki dom / Zastupnicki dom) with 42 members (28 from the FBiH, 14 from the RS), election every 4 J.; House of Nations (Dom Naroda) with 15 members (10 from the FBiH, 5 from the RS, appointed by the parliaments of the entities)
Direct election of the 3-member state presidency (1 Bosniak, Croatian, Serbian each; rotating chair every 8 months) every 4 years
Suffrage from 18 years, employed persons from 16 years
Population: last census 2013: 3,473,078 residents 50.1% Bosniaks, 30.8% Serbs, 15.4% Croatian
Cities (with population): Brcko as of 2013: 39,893 residents.
Religions: 51% Muslims, 31% Orthodox, 15% Catholics, etc. (as of 2006)
Languages: Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian; Recognized minority languages: Romani, Albanian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, German, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Turkish, Romanian, Ruthenian, Ladino, Yiddish
Employed by economic sector: Agriculture 19%, industry 32%, business 49% (2017)
Unemployment (in% of all labor force): 2017: 25.6%
Inflation rate (in%): 2017: 1.3%
Foreign trade: import: 10.3 billion US$ (2017); Export: 6.5 billion US $ (2017)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Frontier land
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a symbol of the mosaic of populations and religions that have coexisted for centuries, often clashing violently, in the Balkans. Since 1995, at the end of the civil war following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the international community has been committed to bringing Bosnians, Serbs and Croats to live peacefully together, guaranteeing religious freedom for all and slowly rebuilding the country.
A country under reconstruction
Bosnia and Herzegovina owes its name to the Bosna River that flows through it and to the fact that part of the country was ruled by a duke (herceg) until the Turkish conquest in the 15th century. The territory is mountainous, except for the valleys of the main rivers, such as the Drina and the Sava, tributaries of the Danube, and has a continental climate. The Dinaric Alps are close to the Adriatic and the rivers flow eastward. Only the Narenta river reaches the Adriatic and its mouth is the only tiny ‘outlet’ to the sea in the country.
The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been an area of contact and contrast between different peoples for millennia: here many dominations have succeeded, bringing different customs and religions, to the point that two alphabets are in use, the Cyrillic and the Latin one.
The cost of the civil war (1992-95) was very heavy: hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees, an economy that depends on international aid, a large part of the historical and artistic heritage destroyed: the main cities, such as the capital Sarajevo (579,000 residents), Banja Luka, an active economic and cultural center, Mostar, an important city in Herzegovina, have all suffered very serious destruction.
Climate
Bosnia and Herzegovina lies in the transition area between Mediterranean and continental climates. Winters can be very cold and temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius are not uncommon. The summers are mostly very hot and the usual temperatures of 30 ° C to almost 40 ° C can be expected. This means there is a risk that forest fires will spread.