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Bosnia and Herzegovina Geography 1996
Following update on Bosnia was Supplied by Muamer Bajric on 8-Jan-98.
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Bosnia has been at war from March of 1992 to December 1995. Leaders of each ethnic group (Bosnian Serb representative was Serbia's president, Slobodan Milosevic) were at peace talks in Dayton, Ohio from November to December 1995. They agreed that there would be a united state of Bosnia-Herzegovina consisting of two entities, Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Croat-Bosniac federation) and Republika Srpska (Serb controlled part of Bosnia). Federation got 51% and RS the rest of Bosnia. The state as a whole is headed by a three-member presidency, and has a central government called The Ministers' Council. There are 10 cantons within the Federation of B-H, and about 120 municipalities (comunes) in the entire country. Each entities has its own parliament, government, president and army, but all are (except of the army) responsible to the central insitutions. There were more than 150,000 dead on all sides. About a million of Bosnians (of all ethnicities) became and are still refugees all around the world.
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Location:
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SE Europe (Mediterrenean Sea area), bordering on S, W and N Croatia, and on E Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
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Area:
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51,129 km�
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Bosnia and Herzegovina is set to enter its third year of interethnic civil
strife which began in the spring of 1992 after the Government of Bosnia and
Herzegovina held a referendum on independence. Bosnia's Serbs - supported by
neighboring Serbia - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning
the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to 'greater
Serbia'. In March 1994, Bosnia's Muslims and Croats reduced the number of
warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement in Washington,
DC, creating the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A group of rebel
Muslims, however, continues to battle government forces in the northwest
enclave of Bihac. A Contact Group of countries, the US, UK, France, Germany,
and Russia, continues to seek a resolution between the Federation and the
Bosnian Serbs. In July of 1994 the Contact Group presented a plan to the
warring parties that roughly equally divides the country between the two,
while maintaining Bosnia in its current internationally recognized borders.
The Federation agreed to the plan almost immediately, while the Bosnian
Serbs rejected it.
Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Croatia
Ethnic Groups in Eastern Europe, Europe
slightly larger than Tennessee
total 1,459 km, Croatia 932 km, Serbia and Montenegro 527 km (312 km with
Serbia; 215 km with Montenegro)
as of January 1995, Bosnian Government and Bosnian Serb leaders remain far
apart on territorial and constitutional solutions for Bosnia; the two sides
did, however, sign a four-month cessation of hostilities agreement effective
January 1; the Bosnian Serbs continue to reject the Contact Group Plan
submitted by the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia,
and accepted by the Bosnian Government, which stands firm in its desire to
regain lost territory and preserve Bosnia as a multiethnic state within its
current borders; Bosnian Serb forces control approximately 70% of Bosnian
territory
hot summers and cold winters; areas of high elevation have short, cool
summers and long, severe winters; mild, rainy winters along coast
coal, iron, bauxite, manganese, timber, wood products, copper, chromium,
lead, zinc
air pollution from metallurgical plants; sites for disposing of urban waste
are limited; widespread casualties, water shortages, and destruction of
infrastructure because of civil strife
frequent and destructive earthquakes
international agreements:
party to - Air Pollution, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection
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