Introduction

Background: Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October 1991, was followed by a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed a peace agreement that brought to a halt three years of interethnic civil strife (the final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995). The Dayton Agreement retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's international boundaries and created a joint multi-ethnic and democratic government. This national government was charged with conducting foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy. Also recognized was a second tier of government comprised of two entities roughly equal in size: the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (RS). The Federation and RS governments were charged with overseeing most government functions. The Office of the High Representative (OHR) was established to oversee the implementation of the civilian aspects of the agreement. In 1995-96, a NATO-led international peacekeeping force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops served in Bosnia to implement and monitor the military aspects of the agreement. IFOR was succeeded by a smaller, NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) whose mission was to deter renewed hostilities. European Union peacekeeping troops (EUFOR) replaced SFOR in December 2004; their mission was to maintain peace and stability throughout the country.

Geography

Location: Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Croatia

Geographic coordinates: 44 00 N, 18 00 E

Map references: Europe

Area: total: 51,129 sq km;land: 51,129 sq km;water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries: total: 1,459 km;border countries: Croatia 932 km, Serbia and Montenegro 527 km

Coastline: 20 km

Maritime claims: no data available

Climate: hot summers and cold winters; areas of high elevation have short, cool summers and long, severe winters; mild, rainy winters along coast

Terrain: mountains and valleys

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m;highest point: Maglic 2,386 m

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, cobalt, manganese, nickel, clay, gypsum, salt, sand, forests, hydropower

Land use: arable land: 13.6%;permanent crops: 2.96%;other: 83.44% (2001)

Irrigated land: 20 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards: destructive earthquakes

Environment - current issues: air pollution from metallurgical plants; sites for disposing of urban waste are limited; water shortages and destruction of infrastructure because of the 1992-95 civil strife; deforestation

Environment - international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands;signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note: within Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognized borders, the country is divided into a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation (about 51% of the territory) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska or RS (about 49% of the territory); the region called Herzegovina is contiguous to Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro (Montenegro), and traditionally has been settled by an ethnic Croat majority in the west and an ethnic Serb majority in the east

People

Population: 4,025,476 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 18.3% (male 378,784/female 358,784);15-64 years: 70.7% (male 1,458,405/female 1,388,793);65 years and over: 10.9% (male 188,741/female 251,969) (2005 est.)

Median age: total: 36.21 years;male: 35.81 years;female: 36.63 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.44% (2005 est.)

Birth rate: 12.49 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate: 8.44 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female;under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female;15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female;65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female;total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total: 21.05 deaths/1,000 live births;male: 23.62 deaths/1,000 live births;female: 18.31 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 72.85 years;male: 70.09 years;female: 75.8 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.71 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 900 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality: noun: Bosnian(s), Herzegovinian(s);adjective: Bosnian, Herzegovinian

Ethnic groups: Serb 37.1%, Bosniak 48%, Croat 14.3%, other 0.6% (2000)

note: Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term in part to avoid confusion with the religious term Muslim - an adherent of Islam

Religions: Muslim 40%, Orthodox 31%, Roman Catholic 15%, other 14%

Languages: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

Literacy: definition: NA;total population: NA%;male: NA%;female: NA%

Government

Country name: conventional long form: none;conventional short form: Bosnia and Herzegovina;local long form: none;local short form: Bosna i Hercegovina;former: People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Government type: emerging federal democratic republic

Capital: Sarajevo

Administrative divisions: 2 first-order administrative divisions and 1 internationally supervised district - Brcko district (Brcko Distrikt), the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska; note - Brcko district is in northeastern Bosnia and is an administrative unit under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the district remains under international supervision

Independence: 1 March 1992 (from Yugoslavia; referendum for independence was completed 1 March 1992; independence was declared 3 March 1992)

National holiday: National Day, 25 November (1943)

Constitution: the Dayton Agreement, signed 14 December 1995, included a new constitution now in force; note - each of the entities also has its own constitution

Legal system: based on civil law system

Suffrage: 18 years of age, universal

Executive branch: chief of state: Chairman of the Presidency Ivo Miro JOVIC (since 28 June 2005; presidency member since 9 May 2005 - Croat; note - Dragan COVIC was sacked by High Representative Paddy ASHDOWN on 29 Mar 2005); other members of the three-member rotating (every eight months) presidency: Borislav PARAVAC (since 10 April 2003 - Serb); and Sulejman TIHIC (since 5 October 2002 - Bosniak);head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Adnan TERZIC (since 20 December 2002)

cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the council chairman; approved by the National House of Representatives;elections: the three members of the presidency (one Bosniak, one Croat, one Serb) are elected by popular vote for a four-year term; the member with the most votes becomes the chairman unless he or she was the incumbent chairman at the time of the election, but the chairmanship rotates every eight months; election last held 5 October 2002 (next to be held NA 2006); the chairman of the Council of Ministers is appointed by the presidency and confirmed by the National House of Representatives;election results: percent of vote - Mirko SAROVIC with 35.5% of the Serb vote was elected chairman of the collective presidency for the first eight months; Dragan COVIC received 61.5% of the Croat vote; Sulejman TIHIC received 37% of the Bosniak vote;note: President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Niko LOZANCIC (since 27 January 2003); Vice Presidents Sahbaz DZIHANOVIC (since NA 2003) and Desnica RADIVOJEVIC (since NA 2003); President of the Republika Srpska: Dragan CAVIC (since 28 November 2002)

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliamentary Assembly or Skupstina consists of the National House of Representatives or Predstavnicki Dom (42 seats - elected by proportional representation, 28 seats allocated from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 14 seats from the Republika Srpska; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms); and the House of Peoples or Dom Naroda (15 seats - 5 Bosniak, 5 Croat, 5 Serb; members elected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Representatives and the Republika Srpska's National Assembly to serve four-year terms); note - Bosnia's election law specifies four-year terms for the state and first-order administrative division entity legislatures

elections: National House of Representatives - elections last held 5 October 2002 (next to be held in NA 2006); House of Peoples - last constituted NA January 2003 (next to be constituted in 2007)

election results: National House of Representatives - percent of vote by party/coalition - SDA 21.9%, SDS 14.0%, SBiH 10.5%, SDP 10.4%, SNSD 9.8%, HDZ 9.5%, PDP 4.6%, others 19.3%; seats by party/coalition - SDA 10, SDS 5, SBiH 6, SDP 4, SNSD 3, HDZ 5, PDP 2, others 7; House of Peoples - percent of vote by party/coalition - NA%; seats by party/coalition – NA;note: the Bosniak/Croat Federation has a bicameral legislature that consists of a House of Representatives (98 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 5 October 2002 (next to be held NA October 2006); percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party/coalition - SDA 32, HDZ-BiH 16, SDP 15, SBiH 15, other 20; and a House of Peoples (60 seats - 30 Bosniak, 30 Croat); last constituted December 2002; the Republika Srpska has a National Assembly (83 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 5 October 2002 (next to be held in the fall of 2006); percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party/coalition - SDS 26, SNSD 19, PDP 9, SDA 6, SRS 4, SPRS 3, DNZ 3, SBiH 4, SDP 3, others 6; as a result of the 2002 constitutional reform process, a 28-member Republika Srpska Council of Peoples (COP) was established in the Republika Srpska National Assembly including 8 Croats, 8 Bosniaks, 8 Serbs, and 4 members of the smaller communities

Judicial branch: BiH Constitutional Court (consists of nine members: four members are selected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Representatives, two members by the Republika Srpska's National Assembly, and three non-Bosnian members by the president of the European Court of Human Rights); BiH State Court (consists of nine judges and three divisions - Administrative, Appellate and Criminal - having jurisdiction over cases related to state-level law and appellate jurisdiction over cases initiated in the entities; note - a War Crimes Chamber may be added at a future date)

note: the entities each have a Supreme Court; each entity also has a number of lower courts; there are 10 cantonal courts in the Federation, plus a number of municipal courts; the Republika Srpska has five municipal courts

Economy

Economy - overview: Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to Macedonia as the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav federation. Although agriculture is almost all in private hands, farms are small and inefficient, and the republic traditionally is a net importer of food. Industry has been greatly overstaffed, one reflection of the socialist economic structure of Yugoslavia. TITO had pushed the development of military industries in the republic with the result that Bosnia hosted a number of Yugoslavia's defense plants. The interethnic warfare in Bosnia caused production to plummet by 80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to soar. With an uneasy peace in place, output recovered in 1996-99 at high percentage rates from a low base; but output growth slowed in 2000-02. Part of the lag in output was made up in 2003-2004. National-level statistics are limited and do not capture the large share of black market activity. The konvertibilna marka (convertible mark or BAM)- the national currency introduced in 1998 - is now pegged to the euro, and the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina has dramatically increased its reserve holdings. Implementation of privatization, however, has been slow, and local entities only reluctantly support national-level institutions. Banking reform accelerated in 2001 as all the Communist-era payments bureaus were shut down. A sizeable current account deficit and high unemployment rate remain the two most serious economic problems. The country receives substantial amounts of reconstruction assistance and humanitarian aid from the international community but will have to prepare for an era of declining assistance.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $26.21 billion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 5% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $6,500 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 14.2%;industry: 30.8%;services: 55% (2002)

Labor force: 1.026 million (2001)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture NA, industry NA, services NA

Unemployment rate: 44% officially; however, grey economy may reduce actual unemployment to near 20% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line: 25% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA%;highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.1% (2004 est.)

Budget: revenues: $3.618 billion;expenditures: $3.642 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products: wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables; livestock

Industries: steel, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, manganese, bauxite, vehicle assembly, textiles, tobacco products, wooden furniture, tank and aircraft assembly, domestic appliances, oil refining (2001)

Industrial production growth rate: 5.5% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production: 10.04 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity – consumption: 8.318 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports: 3.288 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports: 2.271 billion kWh (2002)