Bosnia needs Attention to Save itself from Disintegration

A quarter of a century after the end of the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a dangerous situation. The people who live there are worried. After all, more than 100,000 people were killed or disappeared in the 1992-1995 conflict. Among them were about 8,000 men and boys killed in the genocide after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords and the end of the war, much has been done to address the effects of mass violence. Many of the missing have been found. Some of those responsible for the killing, rape and beating of more than a thousand people have been persecuted and imprisoned.

However, what has been achieved does not seem to be enough. Fears are now growing that violence could erupt again.

State of dysfunction

Since the end of 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been stuck in a dysfunctional constitutional structure. The peace agreement creates two units: the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Together with the small but strategically located district of Brcko, they make up the nation-state.

The federation is run jointly by representatives of Bosniaks (formerly called Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats. Meanwhile, the creation of an independent Republika Srpska was a political project conceived and supported by former leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, along with their sponsors in Serbia. Among the latter is Slobodan Milosevic, who provided the funding and weapons needed to wage war.

Karadzic and Mladic were sentenced in The Hague to life in prison for crimes committed to their territorial and demographic ambitions. Many of the heinous crimes were committed during the armed campaign to create an independent,...