Overcoming the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Göttingen
Almost eleven years after the end of the war (1992-1995) Bosnia-Herzegovina is still far from a normalisation of the political situation and a stable economic recovery. The Peace Agreement of Dayton (1995) has not ended the policies of so-called ethnic cleansing and deportation. The international community is trying to replace the Peace Agreement of Dayton, which has served the country as a constitution since 1995, with reforms in order to make possible the integration of Bosnia-Herzegovina into the western alliances (EU and NATO). After the rejection of the constitutional reforms by the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina the responsibility for the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina is being given over to the politicians of the two entities, the Serbian Republik Srpska (RS) and the Bosnian-Croatian Federation. This will make the clearing up of the past more difficult and cement the division of the country. More than 50% of the non-Serbs have been expelled from what is today the Republika Srpska. Only eight percent of them have up to the present time returned. In East-Bosnian towns like Rogatica, Foca or Visegrad hardly anyone has returned. In the administrative district of Srebrenica (the former UN protected zone), which is the scene of the most dreadful mass murders in European history after the holocaust (before the war 74.8% Muslim with 37,200 inhabitants), there live today 1000 Bosniaks. Only 4,000 Bosniaks have returned to the surrounding 59 villages. 341,649 persons are still living as displaced persons within Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ethnic discrimination at the place of work, at school and in the neighbourhood is preventing in the RS a safe return for those people who have been driven out. In the courts, in the police and in government persons who are probably war criminals and their accomplices still hold important positions. The chief war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic have still not been arrested. The visa procedure of the EU countries for citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina is in its present form quite unacceptable and is felt to be discriminating particularly by business people, experts and students. Bosnia and Herzegovina need the support of the international community for entry to EU and NATO. The Annual General Meeting of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) demands of the European Union, the international community and the United Nations that:

- All war criminals, among them Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, be arrested and delivered to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. The refugees and displaced persons must be enabled to return to their homes in safety.

- The reform of the police must be carried out and a unified police force set up for the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

- The present entities of the RS and the Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina must be broken up. Bosnia-Herzegovina must in future be organised as a democratic, free, constitutional republic, consisting of cantons and municipalities with a self-government system.

- Bosnia-Herzegovina must become a land organised on democratic principles of the equality of all its citizens, regardless of creed or ethnic origin.

- The general situation of the Roma minority must be improved.

- The United Nations have failed in Srebrenica. They must make sure that Srebrenica receives a special status, that the survivors of the genocide are given protection and that their town and he 59 villages are rebuilt and developed

- The visa regulations for the citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina are lifted in order to advance the economic development of the country.