Apostolis Fotiadis
April 07, 2008 7:00 PM
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Apr. 7, 2008 (IPS/GIN) -- Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence has provoked new divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to emerge over the past few weeks.
Demonstrations organized by ethnic Serbs since the proclamation of Kosovo independence on Feb. 17 have continued to occur, and they have occasionally resulted in small riots.
Bosnian-Serb politicians, including Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Republica Srpska, the autonomous Serbian entity, have threatened to hold a referendum on Serbian independence within Bosnia.
Since the Dayton agreement of November 1995, which brought an end to the war in Bosnia, the country has remained deeply divided along ethnic lines.
Bosnia is today separated into two political entities: the federation, which is mostly inhabited by Croats and Muslim Bosniaks, and Republica Srpska, which hosts the majority of Serbs in the country.
The three ethnic groups are separated even when they live in the same environment, as they do in Mostar, southwest of Sarajevo, where Croats and Bosniaks live next to one another without sharing anything.
The chair of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina rotates among three members who originate from the three ethnic groups, each elected for an eight-month term within their four-year terms as members. Members of the presidency are elected directly by the people.
Political representatives meet in the council of the ministers, which runs the central governmental institutions.
Political and legislative processes in Bosnia are supervised by the international community’s higher representative, who has the power to block or impose legislation and to dismiss elected or non-elected officials.
People speak of the higher representative as the "little god of Bosnia."
This arrangement has brought Catholic Croatians, Muslim Bosniaks and Orthodox Christian Serbs to live in the same country -- but to nonetheless stay in separate worlds within it.
Complicated institutional arrangements have been put in place in order to preserve the sensitive balance necessary for this coexistence. Today the country hosts three telecommunication systems, three transportation networks and three educational systems. But the entities accept the local Mark as common currency.
About 60 percent of Bosnia’s budget is spent on preserving its complicated administrative system. But the arrangements, as the recent turbulence shows, may not necessarily be proof against Bosnia’s partition.
"By associating their politics with what happens in Kosovo, radicals in Republica Srpska stress that if Kosovo becomes independent, then they could become independent," said Jovan Divjak, the highest-ranking ethnic Serb officer in the Bosnian army who fought against his ethnic kin during the war in Bosnia.
"After Dayton I thought there would be some kind of agreement among the people who suffered. But people are not less separated now than they were just after the war. The fact is that people who were responsible for the wars here still have power in their hands.
"Many of them have not given up their ideas of Greater Serbia, and I can’t see any intention among them to establish relations of tolerance. They have no hesitation about it; step by step they are moving toward their target. On the other hand the idea of a 100 percent Bosnia and Herzegovina [with limited or without ethnic autonomy for Serbs] promoted by Muslim politicians indicates that not everyone is on good terms with the idea of ]Republica Srpska]’s existence."
Recent attempts to centralize power by transferring authority, especially over uniformed officials, from the ethnic entities to the state level have become a new source of tension.
Serbian politicians are resisting the pressure. Dodik has refused any centralization of police forces and has asked for the demilitarization of Bosnia in order to effectively cancel any role for the newborn centralized Bosnian army.
"Serbs are happy with what they have and can live with current divisions," said Sasa Bizic, deputy editor of "New Reporter," the political magazine published in Banja Luka. Banja Luka is the capital of Republica Srpska.
"They are aware that Muslim politicians promote unification because they want to control everything," Bizic added. "But Republica Srpska is not going to melt into Bosnia. It can only stay as it is, with its own separate institutions. Serbs will not peacefully accept anything else."
But Bizic said talk of partition of Bosnia is not realistic: "Another five to 10 years are necessary before the situation clears. Serbs’ desire for independence is not a result of ethnic hatred but of tiredness with unification pressures."
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