Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
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| The location of the FBiH entity as part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Europe. | |
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| The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (blue) within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Brčko District (green) belongs to both entities.4 | |
| Capital | Sarajevo |
| Official languages | Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian |
| Government | Federal republic/Entity |
| - President | in transition |
| - Prime Minister | in transition |
| Area | |
| - Total | 26,110 km² |
| - Water (%) | n/a |
| Population | |
| - (est.) | 2,500,000 |
| - Density (est.) | 88/km2 |
| - Ethnic groups (2002 est.) |
Bosniaks: 80% Croats: 14% Serbs: 4.4% Others: 1% |
| Currency | Convertible mark {KM} |
| Time zone | CET (UTC +1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC +2) |
| Notes 1 & 2The Law on Coat of Arms and Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been found nonconforming with Article II.4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and should have been corrected by September 2006.[1] 3Although the Brčko District is formally held in condominium by both entities simultaneously (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska), it is a de facto third entity, as it has all the same powers as the other two entities and is under the direct sovereignty of BiH. [2] [3] | |
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The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine, Федерација Босне и Херцеговине) is one of the two political entities that compose the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the other entity is the Republika Srpska). The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is primarily inhabited by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is informally referred to as the Bosniak-Croat Federation. However, by decision of the Constitutional court in 2001, the Serbs were declared the third constituent ethnic group of the Federation. The same happened to Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska.
The Federation was created by the Washington accords signed on March 18, 1994, which established a Constituent assembly (Ustavotvorna skupština/Ustavotvorbeni Sabor). The Constituent assembly continued its work until October 1996.
The Federation now has its own capital, government, flag and coat of arms, president, parliament, customs and police departments, postal system (in fact, two of them), and airline (Air Bosna). It has its own army, the Vojska Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, though it is under the control of the state-level Bosnia-Herzegovina Ministry of Defense, as is the Vojska Republike Srpske. Entity armies (including Vojska Republike Srpske) should have been united by the end of the 2005 and entity-level Ministry of Defence and their armies should have been abolished by January 1, 2006. It now seems that a unified army will be created by the end of 2007 [1], although some units have already been merged. [2]
History
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed by the Washington Agreement from May 1994. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Croat and Bosniak forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons. The cantonal system was selected to prevent dominance by one ethnic group over another.
In 1995, Bosniak and Croat forces of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated forces of the Republic of Western Bosnia, thus this area was also included into Federation.
By the Dayton Agreement from 1995, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was defined as one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and included 51% of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (another entity, Republika Srpska included 49%).
On March 8, 2000, the Brčko District was formed as an autonomous entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina and it was created from part of the territory of both Bosnian entities. Brčko District is now a shared territory that belong to both entities.
Administrative divisions
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into ten cantons (kanton or županija):
- Una-Sana, Unsko-Sanski Kanton
- Posavina, Posavski Kanton
- Tuzla, Tuzlanski Kanton
- Zenica-Doboj, Zeničko-Dobojski Kanton
- Bosnian Podrinje, Bosanskopodrinjski Kanton
- Central Bosnia, Srednjebosanski Kanton or Županija Središnja Bosna
- Herzegovina-Neretva, Hercegovačko-neretvanski Kanton or Hercegovačko-neretvanska Županija
- West Herzegovina, Zapadnohercegovačka Županija
- Sarajevo, Kanton Sarajevo
- Canton 10, West Bosnia Canton (Zapadnobosanska Županija).
5 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 Brčko 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.
Cities
List of the largest cities in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- Sarajevo
- Zenica
- Tuzla
- Mostar
- Bihać
- Bugojno
- Brčko
- Travnik
- Cazin
- Velika Kladuša
- Visoko
- Goražde
- Konjic
- Gračanica
- Gradačac
- Bosanska Krupa
- Zavidovići
- Živinice
- Sanski Most
- Lukavac
- Kakanj
- Livno
- Odžak
Note: the town of Brčko is part of the Brčko District, which is part of both, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
Population
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina comprises 51% of the land area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is home to around 60% of the country's total population. All data dealing with population, including ethnic distributions, are subject to considerable error because of the lack of official census figures. In 2002, the population of the Federation was estimated to stand at about 2,500,000 people, of whom Bosniaks constituted 80%, Croats 14%, Serbs 4.4% and others 1.0%. The population of Serbs has declined significantly since 1991, due ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War, and Republic of Srpska's population resettlement policy following the Dayton Peace Accord. Some Serbs have chosen to return from exile in the Republika Srpska once again forming an ethnic majority in the communes of Drvar, Bosansko Grahovo, Glamoč and Bosanski Petrovac.
Institutions
There is a President of the Federation, and two Vice-presidents thereof, just like in Republika Srpska, the incumbents of which regularly rotate. The current president is a Croat, Niko Lozančić of the HDZ party, whereas both the Bosniak (Sahbaz Džihanović) and Serb (Desnica Radivojević) Vice-presidents come from the SDA party.
The Cabinet has 16 members with carefully delineated nationality quotas. There are 8 Bosniak, 5 Croat and 3 Serb ministers in the current Government. The present Prime minister is a Bosniak, Ahmet Hadžipašić of the SDA.
The Parliament consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples. The House of Representatives is an elected body of 98 MPs, whereas the House of Peoples consists of representatives delegated by the cantonal parliaments.
Interestingly, a number of institutions in the Federation still function under the 'componental' system; there is a Croat postal system and a Bosniak postal system, a Croat telecom and a Bosniak telecom, a Croat army component and a Bosniak army component; however, recently many systems have been merged into one single public company, eg. the pension system or the public broadcasting company of the Federation. Each of the cantons also has broad-ranging authorities, such as having its own courts and police forces.
Federation currently has its own entity police force. Police systems including entity ministries of security of both entities are to be united by 2010 into a new state-level Ministry of Security and entity level police forces are to abolished and replaced with state level police force under regional control.
Armies of both entities are now under the control of a new state-level Ministry of Defence. Entity armies are to be united by the end of the 2005 and entity-level Ministry of Defence and their armies are to be abolished by January 1, 2006.
Gallery
References
- ^ Amra Hadziosmanovic Bosnia to get single army by 2007, DefenceNews.com, 6 July 2006, accessed 13 September 2006
- ^ Nedim Dervisbegovic Bosnia's first unified army platoon deployed to Iraq, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 June 2005, accessed 13 September 2006
See also
- Republika Srpska
- Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- PBSBiH
- Federation Television (FTV)
- Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
- Western Bosnia
