Bosnia Hertegovina

A heritage commission has declined to loan the famous Sarajevo Haggadah to the New York Metropolitan Museum, although it currently lies locked up and unseen in a closed museum.Bosnia’s Commission on National Monuments on February 6 said that it had turned down a request from the Metropolitan Museum in New …

Hundreds of Bosnians joined a memorial ceremony to more than 60 civilians killed when a mortar was fired into an open-air market in February 1994.Families of those who died and representatives of Sarajevo’s cantonal government came to lay flowers at the ceremony on Tuesday marking the 19th anniversary of the …

After women lawmakers in Bosnia’s Federation entity agreed to form a special women’s caucus, a Sarajevo mayor has caused controversy by calling it an exercise in ‘brain washing’.Members of the Women’s Network, an association of women’s groups and individuals in Bosnia, have condemned a Sarajevo mayor’s onslaught on their idea, …

Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly has changed its constitution to allow ethnic minorities the same rights as the three major ethnic groups.Lawmakers in the Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly adopted changes to their Constitution on January 30 and gave the same rights to minorities as to constituent peoples thus implementing the Sejdic and Finci …

Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister says Croatian companies should open subsidiaries in Bosnia – if they want to retain their markets in the country – once Croatia joins the EU.Mirko Sarovic, Bosnia’s Minister of Foreign Trade, on January 29 expressed concern that Bosnia will lose access to the Croatian market, and …

Dealing with a backlog of hundreds of pending war crimes investigations will be a top priority, said Bosnia’s newly-appointed chief prosecutor Goran Salihovic.Salihovic, who takes office on Friday, said he wanted to speed up approximately 600 war crimes investigations which are currently pending at the Bosnian state prosecutor’s office. He …

As the crisis in Bosnia’s Federation entity continues, its president, Zivko Budimir, has suggested new elections and the appointment of an entirely new government.Zivko Budimir said the best solution for the political crisis in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of two autonomous entities in the country, would be …

The World Bosniak Forum has asked the UN secretary general to commemorate the wartime massacres by declaring July 11 International Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day.The United Nations should officially mark the worst killings of the Bosnian conflict, said Mustafa Ceric, president of the World Bosniak Forum, in a letter sent to …

Local authorities in Tuzla in north-east Bosnia are to cancel a law which forces solar energy generators to pay them to use the sun as a power source.Tuzla’s cantonal government said this week that it would scrap the legislation, which decreed that people using solar panels to generate electricity for …

If Bosnia fails to act fast on the 2009 ‘Sejdic and Finci’ rights ruling, Brussels may not recognise the next Bosnian elections, the EU Enlargement Commissioner has warned.Speaking to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fule on January 24 said that Bosnia’s failure …