With the Brussels Declaration on Yugoslavia dated December 17th, 1991, the International Arbitration Commission, better known as the Badinter Commission, gave an Opinion in which it was said that Yugoslavia had entered the process of dissolution. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) had two options, to stay in Yugoslavia, from which Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia had already left, or to go on the path of independence.
“At that time, the authorities of BiH, the Presidency and the Government, made a decision to apply for international recognition, while the representatives of the Serbian people in both the Presidency and the Government refused to support such a request. The European Community has given very clear criteria according to which international recognition will be carried out and requested that documentation be attached for each of these criteria. And in those seven or eight days, with great efforts, we completed the documentation and took it to Brussels,“ said Kasim Trnka, former president of the Constitutional Court of Republic of BiH (RBiH).
Prior to that, the Assembly of BiH adopted the Act on the Reaffirmation of the Sovereignty of BiH on the night of October 14th-15th, 1991.
“This is the path you want to take BiH on, the same road of suffering that Slovenia and Croatia took. Don’t think that it won’t take BiH to hell and the Muslim people to extinction,“ told Radovan Karadzic.
“His presentation, his manner of presentation, his messages, perhaps explain in the best way why we may not stay in Yugoslavia anymore. The Muslim people will not disappear,“noted Alija Izetbegovic.
The use of violence and the setting up of barricades on the roads in many places, mostly by SDS supporters, is becoming more frequent. Due to the disturbed public order and peace, the Presidency is requested to mobilize the reserve police force.
“That agenda item was adopted. Koljevic asks: ‘Mr. Hebib, what percentage of the reserve police force do you want?‘ I said then, don’t talk about percentages, where public order and peace are disturbed, I will assess how much police I need to restore public order and peace, and I will agree on that beforehand with Professor Plavsic, who was then the president of the Commission for Protection constitutional order. Koljevic said: ‘Alija, we accept this immediately‘. After a certain time, I give orders to all security service centers to mobilize the reserve police force,” said Avdo Hebib, former Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of RBiH.
By boycotting and leaving the sessions of the BiH Assembly and by not participating in the work of the institutions, SDS representatives oppose the idea of independence and organize a plebiscite.
“We had to annul both that decision and the subsequent decision on the establishment of the Republic of the Serbian People in BiH in the Constitutional Court. The whole process actually began with the violent overthrow of the constitutional order of BiH, the formation of so-called Serbian municipalities, Serbian areas and autonomies, and then there was the formation of the Assembly of the Serbian People in BiH and on January 9th the proclamation of the so-called Serbian Republic of BiH. Croatian politics did not immediately follow the call for the breakup of BiH, the abolition of BiH, but followed a gradual path, first by forming the so-called cultural and economic community of Herceg-Bosna, which, unfortunately, would be later renamed the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, which was also created in an unconstitutional way,“ said Kasim Trnka, former president of the Constitutional Court of RBiH.
The Assembly of BiH passed the Resolution on the sovereignty of the RBiH on January 14th, 1992, and after that the Badinter Commission issued its Opinion.
“It states that the representatives of the Serbian people did not give consent for this application. And then there is a famous sentence from that Opinion of the arbitration commission that says; Because of this, BiH does not meet the conditions for international recognition, but this attitude can change if the BiH authorities organize a citizens’ referendum under international control,“ stated Kasim Trnka, former president of the Constitutional Court of RBiH.
“The adoption of the Referendum Law based on the Constitution of RBiH was proposed. Consensus for such a decision was secured by the two ruling parties SDA and HDZ and five opposition parties,“ told Mirko Pejanovic, former member of the RBiH Presidency.
The referendum was announced for February 29th and March 1st, 1992. The referendum question read: “Are you in favor of a sovereign and independent BiH, a state of equal citizens, the people of BiH – Muslims, Serbs, Croats and members of other nations who live there.”
A total of two million 73 thousand 568 voters voted. The turnout was 63.7%. Of these, 99.4% voted for independence. Organizing the referendum was not easy.
“Approximately 30% of the municipalities of BiH at the time, where there was a majority Serb population, did not allow either referendums or voter lists, etc. We make a decision that we will make reserve voter lists for municipalities where they do not give us voter lists. There were especially problems in places where citizens of Serbian nationality came out to vote in the referendum,“ said Avdo Hebib, Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of RBiH.
The barricades were temporarily removed and anti-war protests followed, where thousands of Sarajevo citizens took to the streets to oppose the war. But war soon followed. On April 6th, the siege of Sarajevo began, the longest siege of a city in modern history. The first recognition of independent BiH was given by Bulgaria at the end of January 1992.
“On April 6th, all the European Union (EU) members gave international recognition to BiH, followed by the United States (U.S.), the great powers of the world. So that BiH received recognition from 76 countries of the world by November 1992,“told Mirko Pejanovic, former member of the RBiH Presidency.
BiH received the highest international recognition on May 22nd, 1992 by joining the United Nations (UN).
“BiH deserved to be part of the UN, part of that club. But, even at the moment when we were accepted, they tried to push us to the second or third status because they did not want to hear our voice, but it took two or three months after that for BiH to have the first voice before the Security Council,“ told Muhamed Sacirbegovic, the first ambassador of BiH to the UN.
“When I came to Cairo, the war had already started, the aggression and there were only two embassies. It was the Yugoslav and Tudjman’s Croatian embassy. Both embassies had a joint bulletin every morning that a war was being waged here by a fundamentalist who wanted to create ISIL in the heart of Europe. I used all my possible connections and activities both with politicians and with the media to say that this is not true,“told Edhem Pasic, former BiH ambassador and diplomat.
The war lasted from 1992 to 1995, causing mass casualties, crimes, destruction, expulsions and genocide. The end of the war was followed by the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace agreed in Dayton on November 21st and signed in Paris on December 14th, 1995.
Dayton confirmed BiH’s internationally recognized borders, its territorial integrity, sovereignty and international legal subjectivity, but also the division into two entities: the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS).
BiH’s cooperation within the Action Program for NATO membership is structured through the Reform Program.
EU leaders decided in December 2022 to grant BiH candidate status, with the hope that the country will start negotiations, after the legal reforms that BiH the authorities should implement within the framework of 14 priorities for membership in the EU.