This March 1st, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is celebrating a great jubilee – the 31st anniversary of its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. And this year, the same story – the biggest holiday of our homeland was celebrated only in one part of it, while in the other it was just an ordinary working day.
The Assembly of the Socialist Republic of BiH (SRBiH) at the then joint session of the Council, held on January 24th and 25th, 1992, passed the Decision on calling a referendum to define the status of BiH.
The only question that the citizens of BiH had the opportunity to answer on the ballot was:
“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?”.
Many answered in the affirmative, 99.7 percent of them, after which BiH was officially declared an independent and sovereign state.
Based on the results of the referendum, the members of the European Community recognized BiH on April 7th, 1992, which became a member of the United Nations (UN) on May 22nd, 1992.
All these events resulted in brutal aggression that began not long after on the territory of our country and resulted in genocide, the largest ethnic cleansing on European soil after the Second World War.
In those turbulent times in which our country found itself, few countries dared to take a step towards its recognition.
The first country to officially recognize BiH was Bulgaria. Little is known that this country did this even before the referendum itself (January 31st, 1992) and immediately after the RBiH Assembly passed a resolution on sovereignty in January of the same year.
In honor of that, a couple of years ago in the Saraj polje settlement, a monument of friendship between Bulgaria and BiHwas ceremonially opened.
Just after Bulgaria, Turkey did it (February 6th, 1992). Exactly two months later (April 6th, 1992), BiH‘s independence was first recognized by the European Community, and a day later (April 7th, 1992) the United States (U.S.) did the same.
Membership in the UN soon followed – on May 22nd, 1992. In the same year, BiH was recognized by 76 countries around the world.
However, not all countries recognized BiH. Currently, there are 17 of them that, for one reason or another, have not done so (yet), and they are:
Madagascar, Taiwan, Togo, Papua New Guinea, Central African Republic, Lesotho, Bhutan, Bahamas, Grenada, Kiribati, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Monaco and Palau.
The last in a series of countries to recognize BiH was Somalia. This African country did so on February 4th, 2022, when diplomatic relations were established with it, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
