Bosnia Progresses to a New Mess

  •  sarajevo
  • Inter Press Service

Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina last Sunday have passed without changing much. Bosnian voters had a difficult political scene to tackle. Bosnia's political system arising from the Dayton agreement of 1995 is the most complicated in Europe, if not the world. It maintains strong entities, namely the almost exclusively Serbian Republica Serpska (RS) and the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

Declared moderates Bakir Izetbegovic, son of Bosnia's wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic, and Croat Zeljko Komsic were heading the polls for the Bosniak and Croat presidency seats respectively. Separatist Nebojsa Radmanovic was being re-elected to the Serb post. Bosnia is a state in endless limbo. Unemployment rose to 42.7 percent at the beginning of this summer. Despite going into debt to limit the effects of recession, it's unlikely that economic prospects will improve as long as corruption is not tamed.

Ivana Korajlic from Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina told IPS there is evidence of widespread corruption. 'There have been many cases of conflict of interest involving highly placed officials, misuse of public funds, irregularities in public procurement, and many other forms of political corruption.'

This is in a situation when the media are not free, he says. 'The media are still exposed to political pressure and, especially in RS.' In the Federation, he said, one of the candidates for presidency is the owner of a TV station and newspapers, and another TV station (TV1) is owned by representatives of another political party (Stranka za BiH). 'Therefore, it is evident that media are commonly used for party purposes.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service