 HISTORY |
 East and West united in a single country
Multi faceted spiritual and cultural practices have been for Bosnia and Herzegovina the framework of the most naturally culturally diversified countries in Europe. Generations after generations, Illyrian, Byzantine, Western Roman European and Ottoman influences on the Slavic tribes have harvested a resounding pride of the background that is the one of Bosnia and Herzegovina as it is nowadays. There are many anthropological and historical relevant reasons to this: a common language, common origins, similar folklores and centuries of harmonious community life. The daily life has always brought various peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina together and this, regardless of ideological differences. This unusual ethno-political combination has often experienced the wraths of invading forces… but the wounds always healed, the country has always rebuilt itself and its long tradition of multi-cultural thrives remains the strongest. Bosnia and Herzegovina has emerged once again from the ashes of war and has maintained its harmonious co-existence with its three cultures. Preserving the "OLD" traditions of the past and welcoming the "NEW" ways of the modern world.
Bosnia & Herzegovina borders
The state of Bosnia was created in the 12th century and covered the territories bordering the upper course of the river Bosna, where its geopolitical centre is still situated. During the next two centuries its territory gradually expanded. The Bosnian King Tvrtko I, who reigned in the second half of the 14th century, ruled not only over the territory of the present Bosnia & Herzegovina, but also over many neighbouring countries at the east, west and south of Bosnia. European historical literature claims that the Bosnia of Tvrtko was, territorially, the closest related to the later Yugoslavia, in comparison with all the other medieval South Slavic states.
Immediately after the fall of the medieval Bosnian state in 1463, the Ottomans formed the Bosnian Sanjak on its territory. In 1580 it became the Bosnian Pashadom, which was the biggest territorial and administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire. The Bosnian Pashadom covered the whole territory of present BiH, parts of Slavonija, Banija, Lika and Krbava, large parts of Dalmatia, parts of present western and southwestern Serbia as well as western and northern Montenegro. Thus, the Bosnian Pashadom practically encompassed the neighbouring countries that have been under the rule of king Tvrtko I. In that way, Bosnia, as an Ottoman province, preserved a certain political and territorial continuity with the medieval Bosnia. With the wars that the Ottomans fought against the Habsburgs and the Venetians at the end of the 17th century and during the 18th century, the borders of the present BiH, were gradually formed. Various peace treaties confirmed these borders.
The first of these peace treaties or international agreements, in which BOSNIA was explicitly mentioned, was the Karlovci Peace Treaty. It was signed on January 26, 1699 in Sremski Karlovci by Austria, Poland, Venetia and Russia (The Holy Alliance) on one side and by the Ottoman Empire on the other. The Karlovci Peace Treaty was signed after sixteen years of the so-called "Viennese" war. In that war the Ottomans lost almost all their territories in Slavonija, Lika, Banija and Dalmatia. Thus, the northern, western and southwestern borders were defined as they are today, with only some slight differences.
The next international agreement that influenced the forming of the borders of BiH was the Pozarevac Peace Treaty. It was signed on July 21, 1718 between Austria and Venetia on one side and the Ottoman Empire on the other, after four years of war. England and Holland were mediators for the signing of this international agreement. Due to the efforts of Dubrovnik to separate and protect itself from the Venetian territories in Dalmatia and Boka, the Ottomans, on the basis of this agreement, preserved within the Bosnian Pashadom two narrow strips of the coast. Those were Neum with the Klek peninsula and the valley of the river Sutorina that empties into the bay of Topla at the entrance of Boka Kotorska.
The Pozarevac Peace Treaty lasted till the new Austrian-Turkish war in the period 1737-1739, which was ended by the signing of the Belgrade Peace Treaty. This agreement was concluded on September 18th, 1739. The border between the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires was to be on the rivers Sava and the Danube. Thus, the northern border of BiH was definitely drawn along the river Sava. Such borders were only confirmed by the Svishtov Peace Treaty signed after two years of war between Austria and Russia on one side and the Ottoman Empire on the other. This agreement was signed on August 4, 1791 at Svishtov, a Bulgarian port on the right bank of the Danube. The same borders were confirmed by the "Final Act" of the Congress of Henna in June 1815. This agreement, signed by Austria, England, Prussia and Russia, acknowledged the sultan as a legitimate ruler and master of the Ottoman Balkan territories. In that way, the borders of the Bosnian Pashadom, that is the borders of BiH, were implicitly recognized.
During the 19th century the eastern borders were historically confirmed. In 1833, Prince Milosh Obrenovic, as a reward for his faithful service to the sultan during the uprising of Captain Hussein Gradascevic, was awarded the nahijas of Jadar, Radevina and Stari Vlah. Thereby, the borders between Serbia and Bosnia were defined on the natural boundary, the river Drina. As a result of the 1876-1878 wars, Niksic became a part of Montenegro. Thus, the borders of the Bosnian Vilayet, actually and legally, were the borders of the present BiH, even before the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
These borders were confirmed by the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, by an agreement signed on July 13, 1878 by six great powers on one side: Austro-Hungary, France, Italy, Germany, Russia and Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire on the other. By the decision of the Congress of Berlin, Austro-Hungary obtained a mandate to govern BiH. The borders of BiH remained untouched and unchanged during all the forty years of the Austro-Hungarian rule, both during the period of occupation 1878-1908, and the period of annexation 1908-1918. After the dismantling of Austro-Hungary, BiH joined the State of the Slovenians, Croats and Serbs, with the same borders and with the status of a federal unit. That status was confirmed by the existence of the General Committee of the National Council of the Slovenians, Croats and Serbs and a separate National Government for BiH. As a part of the above-mentioned state, it joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians on December 1, 1918. The intactness and integrity of BiH within this new Yugoslav state were confirmed and protected by the Saint-Germain agreement and the Vidovdan Constitution. The Saint-Germain Peace Treaty was proclaimed as a temporary law on May 10, 1920, and according to the Vidovdan Constitution it was defined as a permanent law. As such, it represented the basic positive legal source of protection for the minorities in Yugoslavia in the period between the two wars.
The first constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians of June 28, 1921, known as the Vidovdan Constitution, contained the "Turkish paragraph", that is the Article 135. According to this article, BiH "remained within its present borders", and its existing districts were proclaimed "regions". The "Turkish paragraph", as the Article 135 was referred to in the press of that time, was one of the conditions under which the Yugoslav Muslim Organization was to vote in the Parliament in favour of the Constitution. It was included into the Constitution with the approval of the Radical-Democratic Party. Disregarding this political deal, this article stated the fact that the state, legal, political and territorial continuity of BiH existed since the middle Ages in the South Slavic region.
| That continuity was confirmed on the founding session of the State National Antifascist Liberation Council and during the wartime, the parliament BiH, was held in Mrkonjic' Grad on November 25, 1943. During the session of the National Antifascist Liberation Council of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) held in Jajce on November 29, 1943 it was decided that Yugoslavia was to become a federal state. BiH was to be one of the six equal members of the future federation. From June 30 to July 2, 1944, BiH was legally constituted within its historical borders as a state of equal citizens - Serbs, Muslims and Croats, and as a federal unit within the Democratic Federative Yugoslavia.
All these decisions were confirmed by the first Constitution of the Federative National Republic of Yugoslavia adopted in the Parliament in Belgrade on January 31, 1946.
By the international recognition of the Federative National Republic of Yugoslavia and the determination of its borders by the peace treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, automatically and argumento a minore ad maius were its internal borders also recognized. Therefore, it can be concluded that the borders of BiH are the result of a centuries long political, cultural and demographic development of its state borders.
Recent history
· 1990 Nationalists defeat communists in multiparty elections. PDA leader Alija Izetbegovic president.
· 1991 Parliament announces republican sovereignty.
· 1992 EC and USA recognize the state of Bosnia. Serbs announce the creation of their "Serbian Republic." The civil war started between Muslims, Croats and Serbs. UN troops guard aid convoys.
After the World War II, Yugoslavia was thus a Communist state governed by a dictator, Josip Broz Tito. When Tito died in 1980, separatist and centralist tensions began to echo the 1980s. The 1990 elections had the result of a coalition of 3 ethnically based parties: Muslims and Croats in the governing coalition favored independence for Bosnia-Herzegovina, while most Bosnian Serbs did not. In January 1992 nationalist Bosnian Serb leaders proclaimed a Serbian entity within Bosnia. In a referendum shortly thereafter, over 63 percent of Bosnians voting chose independence, meeting the criteria for recognition set forth by the U.S. and the EU several months earlier. Although the Bosnian Serb party boycotted the vote and "encouraged" the Bosnian Serb community to follow suit, many Serbs supported the government. The U.S., along with most of the international community, recognized the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 1992. In the spring of 1992, after its offensive in Croatia, Serbia launched an aggression on Bosnia. The nationalist Bosnian Serb political party, proxies of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, had removed its members from the government. In March, Serbian paramilitary forces, reinforced by the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav National Army, began a campaign of terror in eastern Bosnia. By early May the Yugoslav Army announced that it would withdraw from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In reality, however, some 80,000 men (mostly Bosnian Serbs) simply changed uniforms and, with a powerful arsenal including tanks and aircraft left behind by the truncated Yugoslav Army, continued prosecuting the war and genocide. This reconfigured Bosnian Serb force under "General" Ratko Mladic, aided by paramilitary groups, began seizing territory in northern and eastern Bosnia, expelled much of the non-Serbian population, and engaged in "ethnic cleansing." This campaign included mass killings of civilians, concentration camps, systematic rape, and the forced displacement of millions, creating the largest flow of refugees in Europe since World War II. The Serbian forces were supported by the Milosevic regime in Belgrade as part of its efforts to create a Greater Serbia.
Although the HVO, a formerly separatist force of nationalist Bosnian Croats, fought Bosnian government troops during 1993 and early 1994, a U.S.-brokered Federation agreement, which the nationalist Bosnian Serbs are invited to join but have refused, ended the conflict between the two and has greatly strengthened the forces opposing Serbian aggression. In September 1991 the U.N. imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia in an attempt to contain the fighting. Since Bosnia's recognition as an independent country, enforcement of this embargo against the government of Bosnia is a violation of the inherent right of self-defence, a right acknowledged in Article 51 of the U.N. Charter itself. The General Assembly of the U.N. has twice voted overwhelmingly in favour of requesting the Security Council to lift the embargo, arguing that it prevents the Bosnians from defending themselves. The Security Council has ignored these votes. Instead of allowing the Bosnians to defend themselves, the international community has relied on negotiations. In August 1992 at the London Conference, the U.N. and the European Community demanded that Bosnia remain a single country and that it not be partitioned into three separate, ethnically "pure" states. This policy was incorporated into the Vance-Owen plan, which would have resulted in a single country with ten semi-autonomous, ethnically based cantons. The Bosnian Serb "parliament" rejected this plan in May 1993. Later that year, the Owen-Stoltenberg plan was offered. It completely reversed the policy of the London Conference by calling for the partition of Bosnia largely along the lines of Serbian and Croatian military gains, creating separate, ethnically "pure" countries. The Bosnian government rejected the plan, declaring that it would leave them with an economically unviable and militarily indefensible state. In May 1994 the U.S. joined France, Britain, Germany, and Russia (collectively known as the "Contact Group") in endorsing a plan to leave fifty-one percent of Bosnia under control of the new Bosnian-Bosnian Croat Federation, while awarding forty-nine percent to Serbia. The Bosnian Serbs have rejected the Contact Group's "take-it-or-leave-it" plan repeatedly, but the U.S. and the Europeans continued to make this partition plan the focus of their diplomatic efforts. In an ostensible effort to force the Bosnian Serbs to accept the plan, Serbian President Milosevic claimed to have imposed an embargo against his Bosnian Serb proxies. Numerous reports, including a statement from Secretary of Defence Perry, suggest that the blockade was largely a facade. The small number of border monitors (135) sent by the U.N. to evaluate the Serbian "blockade" is widely regarded as completely inadequate; U.S. and other military sources have assessed the total number of monitors required for an effective mission at 4-5,000. Nonetheless, based on a preliminary report by the border monitors, the U.N. Security Council (with U.S. support) eased U.N. sanctions against Serbia as a reward for its purported moves to isolate the Bosnian Serb extremists, and has refused to reinstate full sanctions despite clear evidence that the Serb invasion of Bosnia continued.
1995 NATO air strikes on Serbs; US-brokered Dayton peace accord.
1996 NATO-led implementation of peace accord. First international war crimes trial since 1945 opens in The Hague. Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic resigns under international pressure. Bosnian elections held under Dayton accord. |
