Stef Jansen, who has systematically been unravelling the unexpected outcomes of repatriation schemes in Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than a decade, (28) has discovered other interesting facts hidden behind the statistics: that half of
Bosniac repatriates were actually "majority repatriates," and that many
Bosniac returnees (who would have become minority returnees had they indeed returned to their homes of origin after reclaiming property, as expected by the Dayton Peace Agreement) ended up relocating within Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to settle among their nationals.
Where this lingering bitterness sought targets, they were easy to find: About 40 percent of the Bosnian population are
Bosniacs (Muslims), descended from a largely heretic Christian population whose relative openness to Islam allowed it to take root in BiH, (In Serbia and Croatia the Orthodox and Catholic church organizations remained more influential.) In Kosovo, now a semiautonomous province of Serbia, much of the population are Muslim ethnic Albanians.
Of the Federation's ten cantons, eight are mono-ethnic, two are "Croat" cantons (Herzegovina and Hercebosanska), and six are "
Bosniac" cantons (Bihac, Posavska, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, and Gorazde).
Bosniac is more adequate in describing those who were the victims of the genocidal violence of the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Groat armies than the somewhat mistaken designation Muslim.
In Krnjeusa, a predominantly Serbian village destroyed during
Bosniac and Croatian militia advances, for example, Canadian SFOR soldiers based at the nearby town of Coralici constructed a children's playground adjacent to the village school.
The second message was to the Serbs (and to the
Bosniacs and Croats as well) and that was the value we place on the lives of our people.
Another provision of significant importance is Annex 4, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.(122) It provides for the formation of "Bosnia and Herzegovina" from the BH Republic and recognizes as its "constituent peoples" "
Bosniacs, Croats, and Serbs .
The Human Rights Chamber is to be composed of fourteen members, but normally acts in two chambers of seven members each.(39) There will be two Croats, two
Bosniacs, and two Serbs, each appointed by their own governments,(40) and eight outside members, appointed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg organization.(41) Each seven member chamber will thus consist of three members from the ethnic groups and four outsiders.
"Dragan Covic's assertions about the Left as a Bosniak structure, accordingly as the SDP as an exclusively
Bosniac party, are just as incorrect as the assertions that Croats are not represented in the public life of Tuzla, which was recently decisively denied by Jasmin Imamovic and the SDP Tuzla City Committee', Mikulic said.
But this would be rather difficult to prove using concrete data, while language (= dialect cluster/bundle) split into separate languages is what can be seen before our eyes, e.g., Serbo-Croatian splitting into Croatian, Serbian, and
Bosniac; Bulgarian resulting in Bulgarian and Macedonian; Romanian splitting into Rumanian and Moldavian; Persian into Persian and Tadjik, etc.
