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Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of Yugoslavia from the time of the federation’s inception after World War I. From 1992 to 1995, Slobodan Milosevic and the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, led an ethnic-cleansing war by terrorizing and forcibly displacing all non-Serbs in Bosnia. The country, renowned for its harmonious ethnic diversity, was ravaged and is now struggling to rebuild. All ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered gravely during the 4-year civil war. More than 200,000 people, out of a population of 4.4 million, were killed. Another 200,000 were injured, 50,000 of them children. Millions of people were deported or forced to flee their homes. An estimated 20,000 to 50,000 Bosnian Muslim women were raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers in a systematic campaign of psychological terror. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina devastated the economy. Sixty percent of all houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, half of the schools, and a third of the hospitals were damaged or destroyed. During the conflict, 70 percent of farm equipment and 60 percent of livestock were destroyed. Large tracts of farmland have been deserted because of landmines, and approximately 50 percent of the country’s housing is no longer habitable. After the war, there were few job opportunities available, especially for war-affected groups, such as widows and demobilized soldiers. Corruption and the vestiges of state socialism have also deterred the economic recovery. |
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Population:
3,922,205
Life Expectancy:
74.65 years for females
69.04 years for males
Child Mortality:
24.35 infant deaths
per 1,000 births
Geography:
Total area is slightly smaller
than West Virginia
Languages:
• Croatian
• Serbian
• Bosnian
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Location:
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