SUMMARY
[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain (when applicable) more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onward, as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]
Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia on 1 March 1992. The country was recognized as an independent state in early April the same year, when it received the sanction of the USA and the EU. Alija Izetbegovic, the leader of the predominantly ethnic Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA), became the first president of the country.
Before independence Bosnia-Herzegovina had been a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, created in 1946 by Josip Broz Tito. Tito’s death and the fall of communism led to an increase in nationalist rhetoric, however, as political elites scrambled for electoral support in the early 1990s. Bosnia-Herzegovina’s independence came soon after the secession from Yugoslavia by Slovenia and Croatia, where nationalist parties had seized power, which precipitated the complete division of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Bosnia’s heterogeneous ethnic make-up of approximately 43% Bosniaks (who are Muslim), 31% Serbs and 17% Croats in 1991 placed the country in a difficult situation as nationalism grew in the republics that constituted Yugoslavia at the time. Both Slovenia and Croatia had become involved in intrastate conflicts with the central government as they proclaimed independence, and Serbs in Croatia had also proclaimed a state of their own. The politicians in Bosnia – both nationalist and more moderate ones – failed to assuage the fears and live up to the demands of Bosnia’s constituent peoples and following independence a spate of intrastate conflicts broke out.
Bosnian Serbs proclaimed their own state (the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in territories neighboring the remnants of Yugoslavia and fought the government of Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. In western Bosnia, nationalist Croats also proclaimed their own political entity (the Croatian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and engaged the government in armed conflict in 1993 and 1994. Also, in north-western Bosnia, a rebellious member of the Bosnian state presidency formed an autonomous region (the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, and fought the government between 1993 and 1995. The conflicts during the early 1990s saw the large-scale use of one-sided violence, and the posting of tens of thousands of UN peacekeepers to the country.
The Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia was defeated militarily by the government in 1995, while the conflicts with the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats were resolved by peace agreements in 1995 and 1994 respectively. The two peace agreements that resolved the conflict created a new state of Bosnia-Herzegovina comprising two political entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (created from Croat- and Bosniak-held territory) and the Republika Srpska (created from Bosnian Serb-held territory). This new state is heavily decentralised, so as to preserve the autonomy of each of its constituent peoples.
Since 1946 Bosnia-Herzegovina has experienced the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
