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Hello everyone,

I know that lately there has been a lot of news in international media about riots and burning of governmental buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a Croat, I thought I should write an objective article and explain what is going on currently in BiH. Its a bit long but you will be amazed by the jungle. 🙂



Bosnia and Herzegovina has population of of 3.7 million. Its a country of three constitutive nations: Bosniaks (48.4😵, Serbs (32,7😵 and Croats (14,6😵. Minorities make up 4,6% of population.(Data from census of 2013) Bosnia(northern) and Herzegovina (southern) are two regions of the country.

After the war in the '90's, which ended with Daytona accords, the country was organized in a very complicated apparatus. Country is made of two entities, Republic of Srpska(49% of the territory) and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(51% of the territory).


Ethnic composition of BiH by townships from 2005( Green-Bosniaks, Blue-Crots, Red-Serbs)

Republic of Srpska is envisioned as an entity for Serbs, while the Federation of BiH is envisioned as entity for Bosniaks and Croats.



In order to ensure that there is no dominance of Bosniaks over Croats, the Federation of BiH is organized into 10 cantons. Each canton has their own Prime Minister, Government and Parliament. And each has its own laws.


Administrative units of BiH

So, the levels of government from Federation perspective are like this:

Country
Entity
Canton
Township

Making up of total 13 Prime Ministers, around 200 Ministers, and around 1500 Parliament members.

As anyone can see this is a huge governmental apparatus, and it spends a lot of money, but unfortunately we cannot remove it, since Bosniaks and Croats want two different things.



Croats make up majority in 4 cantons:

II. Posavian Canton
VII. Herzegovian-Neretvian Canton
VIII. West-Herzegovian Canton
X. Herzeg-Bosnian Canton

Other 6 cantons have Bosniak majority. Aldough Bosnaks have 3:1 ratio of population over Croats, the both nations have majority on closely 50:50 of territory of Federation of BiH.



Bosniaks want:

Removal of Cantons, removal of constitutive nations and entities, country of 1 man=1 vote.

Croats want:

Their own entity(territorially not connected) within BiH with majority of Croatian population and financial autonomy.



RELATIONS BETWEEN CROATS AND BOSNIAKS

Aldough Federation is supposed to be run as partnership, this is not the case. Since Croats are greatly outnumbered on entity and country level, there are attempts for them to be assimilated.

1. BiH has Council of Presidents, which has 3 members. A Serb, which is elected form territory of Republic of Srpska entity, and Croat and Bosniak, which are elected from Federation of BiH entity. Latter ones are elected in a manner that each candidate announces for which constitutive nation place will run, and people, no matter which constitutive nation they belong (its not checked) can vote for him. This brought us that for the last 10 years, on a place of Croat representative, there is a Bosniak representative Željko Komšić, who is elected by a Bosniak votes. This can clearley be shown by taking a look at the map where he got the most votes, and comparing it with the map of where most Croats live.


Where Željko Komšić got the most votes

2.In the government of entity of Federation, by rules, there has to be representative of Croats, and the goverment needs to be supported by a third of representatives in Parliament. Two minor ''Croatian'' parties, ran by worst thieves of Croatian politician who got only around 3000 votes,(one of them was in jail for bribe to pardon prisoners, other one got caught for election fraud) were made part of that government, in order to kick out Croatian parties who ask for Croatian entity. But there was one problem. They did not have the 1/3 of votes. So high representative Valentin Inzko ruled that 5 is 1/3 out of 17. Thus changing the laws of mathematics.

3. Other examples include not recognizing anything having to do with Croats. Herzeg-Bosnian Canton is called Canton 10, flag of the 3/4 cantons is not recognized because all that reminds of former Croatian entity during the war.

4. TV channel on Croatian language is not permitted by the Parliament of BiH(Country level), where Bosniaks also have majority.



FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE COUNTRY

In BiH there are 550 000 unemployed people, almost 50% of working population. But the standards are not the same all over the country.

Croatian majority cantons have much more industry, trade and religious tourism (Medjugorje) and thus make much more money. For example, a township in Croatian majority cantons with population of of around 30 000 has a yearly budget 4-5 times greater than those he same size in Bosniak majority cantons.

Reason for this, that majority Bosniak cantons were in Yugoslavia centers of industrial production. During the war, some factories were destroyed in bombing, others were destroyed in transition of capitalist system, and most of them were destroyed in privatization where they were sold for a low price, only to be sold off soon afterwards. These industrial areas hold very dense population in comparison to other parts of the country.

Money is collected from taxes. Then part of it goes to cantons, then part of that goes to entity Federation and then a small part of that goes to country budget. The most of the money stays at Federation level, and it is then distributed at cantons and townships which are poorer. Thus, Bosniak townships are in part financed by the Croatian townships.

Financial prosperity is one of the main reasons Croats are seeking entity for themselves. Millions of marks would then stay at Croatian townships and could be used for improving infrastructure of townships where the taxes were collected.



RIOTS

Now that you have grasped the basics of jungle that is political spectrum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can now talk about riots.

The population of Tuzla, once giant industrial city, have been protesting calmly for several days before the riots broke out. Tuzla's industry is crushed, people are unemployed and have no money for their basic needs. The protests are just, but they were used for political gain, that is for the coup d'état (putsch). I will explain how.

In 99% of the cases, all over the world, riots break out when the police uses excessive force, beats the protesters or uses live ammo. This was not the case here. The police was only securing the entrance to the building, behind the fence. When suddenly rocks started flying at them. They were stoned just standing at the entrance to the building of Cantonal Government, until they were ordered to retreat. And then the robbing and burning of the building ensued.

Same scenario happened in Zenica and Sarajevo, Cantonal Government buildings were burned down. Plus in Sarajevo building of the Council of Presidents of BiH and National Archive of BiH.

But Mostar is an interesting story. Mostar is, we can say, the only multicultural city in BiH. The river Neretva runs trough the center dividing the town to eastern(Bosniak) and western(Croatian). The protesters gathered and went through the western part of the city. They protested in front of building of Federal Government but the leaders of the protest quickly moved in front of the building of Cantonal Government which they started to rob and burn. Problem was, there was a gap in office of the Chief of Police, who only has the authority to send Special Police, and thus rioters succeeded since there was no one to defend these buildings. On the video you can see shouting of ''This is Bosnia'', which no citizen of Mostar would ever shout, no matter what is their nationality, since Mostar is major center of region of Herzegovina. And no matter which nationality you have, you carry your regional identity very close to your heart. It is obvious that these pyromaniacs came from the north of the country, and not Mostar. They also burned the City Hall.




VIDEO GALLERY



PATTERNS AND BEHIND OF THE BURNING OF BUILDINGS

As I mentioned before, Croats and Bosniaks want 2 different things in Federation of BiH. Bosinak majorization over Croats was being supported for many years by the EU and the US. But recently that changed.

Two BiH citizens, Sejdić(Roma) and Finci(Jew) sued BiH at international court for BIH's law only allowing three constitutive nations of BiH to be presidential candidates, and won the case. So BiH electoral system now needs to be changed.

Croats are proposing that Federation be divided into two electoral units, one with Croatian majority, one with Bosinak majority. And that the law be changed in such manner that no matter what is your nationality, your candidation would be tied to a electoral unit, and thus this problem would be solved.

But Bosniaks are refusing this because they don't want that to be basis of the 2 new entities made out of Federation. And even more importantly, this would also stop them to elect their man in Croatian place in the Council of Presidents.

With Croatia's joining EU, Croats of BiH got lobbyists in the EU. So EU is now fighting for equality of all three nations in BiH.

On February 6th, EU Council brought this Resolution (2013/2884(RSP)) condemning Sarajevo (Bosniak) centralist policy:

2. Welcomes the si😜oint agreement reached in Brussels on 1 October 2013, but deplores the obstruction of its implementation by centralist forces; stresses the importance of following the principles of federalism and legitimate representation in order to ensure BiH’s path(toward EU)

This and other pressures put toward Bosniak from the EU made them realize that their dream of 1 man=1 vote type country, where they have the majority and rule is fading away.
Rightful economic protests in Tuzla were the perfect opportunity.

During the riots, not one building of the Government of entity Federation of BiH was burned down, aldought protests did happen in front of those buildings. On the other hand, Cantonal Government buildings were burned down as a rule.



THE PLAN

1. Burn down all Cantonal Government buildings in order that all Cantonal Prime Ministers and their governments give resignations.

2. Federation of BiH would then take direct control of the townships, until new cantonal elections. Which would be postponed until they were abolished.

3. As next level, unification of Federation of BiH and Republic of Srpska entities would be asked to merge and thus centralizing country with the rule of majority.



THE FAIL AND THE EVIDENCE

1. Anywhere in the world where riots occur, spark is created by the polices cruelty toward protesters. Nothing such happened here. Police just put up a fence, and stood behind it, and the rocks were thrown at them.

2. Anywhere in the world, when riots start, all governmental buildings, of all levels, are burned down, plus private owned buildings. In BiH, only cantonal government buildings were burned down, and aldough there were protest in front of Federation government buildings, there was not even one window broken on them.

3. Minister of Security of BiH, the man who's job is to stop the destruction, Fahrudin Radončić(Bosniak), in his statements supports the protesters and the burning of buildings.

4. Member of the Council of Presidents, usurpator of Croatian seat, Željko Komšić (friend of Radončić), founder of the new party Democratic Front, also supports burnings of the buildings.

5. Chief of Police of Sarajevo (while watching as they burn the building) gives statement to TV channel, that he can stop the riots in 5 minutes if he can get the clearance from his superiors. But they do not want to give him that order, so he just hast to stay there and watch the building burn. VIDEO

6. The organizers of the riots on their Facebook page demand among others the following:

- ban of national parties
- removal of cantons and entities
- building Bosnian-Herzegovian citizen identity instead of current three-national identity
- removal of 2 Presidents from the Council of Presidents, and that only Željko Komšić stays President of BiH

Exact politics of Bosinak politicians Željko Komšić and Fahrudin Radončić.


Željko Komšić

Fahrudin Radončić



CONCLUSION

Needless to say, what is hidden behind this became obvious to Croats and Serbs very quickly, and thus no Croats or Serbs were a part of these riots, not did any of the riots, or even protests happened in majority of Croatian and Serbian towns. There were only few individuals in these towns protesting. In Ljubuški 15 people protested, in Čapljina 7 people and Široki Brijeg 4 persons.

The protests happened in Bosniak majority cantons, exception of Mostar, where the protesters were imported from north, and because of bureaucratic procedures, the police was unable to react quickly and stop this group of people.

I hope this article has informed you and shed more light on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.