The Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL; Serbo-Croatian : Međuentitetska linija razgraničenja, Међуентитетска линија разграничења) is the administrative line that subdivides Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The total length of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line is 1,080 km (670 miles).
The present political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is based on Annex 4 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace, also known as Dayton Agreement, concluded at the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995, and subsequently signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. A key component of this was the delineation of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL), to which many of the tasks listed in the other Annexes referred.
In particular the IEBL affected the tasks of the Military Annexes, such as the initial and immediate "Separation of Forces", the creation of an initial "Zone of Separation", the "Transfer of Areas" between the entities and the district, and the "Removal of Forces" to "Containment Areas".
During this initial "Implementation Period", enforced by NATO-led Implementation Force or IFOR, it was required that along the IEBL a so-called 2 km "Zone of Separation" be established, which stretched toward both entities, making a zone 4 km wide in total. [1]
The IEBL mostly follows along the military front-lines as they were at the end of the Bosnian War (with some major adjustments, most notably in the western part of the country, and in-and-around Sarajevo).
The IEBL between Republika Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brčko District is no longer controlled by the military and is not policed. "Zone of Separation" is no longer in effect. There are no border controls and crossings of any kind.
Dayton marked the first occasion when three-dimensional satellite image technology and digital cartography was used to determine and delineate boundaries in an official treaty. [2] Due to the speed and intensity of the negotiations (especially towards the end), a series of Inter-Entity Boundary Line commissions still needed to be held over the first 6 months of the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) operation to iron out the remaining details of some of the boundaries (especially within Sarajevo). Over 40 changes to the IEBL were negotiated by the parties in meetings facilitated by the Chief of Staff HQ ARRC, Major General Michael Willcocks. These were signed off by IFOR Commander Admiral Leighton W. Smith, Jr. in July 1996.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has, in its first partial decision number U 5/98, ruled on the issue whether the Constitution of the Republika Srpska can use the word "border" instead of the "boundary" in its text. The Court declared:
Provision of the Constitution of RS, referring to the "border" between the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, is not in conformity with the Constitution of BiH (Article III of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina speaks of "boundary lines" between the two Entities, while Article X uses the term border in the sense of borders between states). [3]
Thus, the Constitution of the RS had to be amended, which was done with the Amendment number LXVIII, which changed the word "border" to "inter-entity line of demarcation" in the Amendment number LV on the Article 2 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of RS.
48 out of 109 municipalities were divided into two or more segments. [1]
At the time of the creation of the Dayton Accord, Brčko was also divided between FBiH and RS. Lately, however, the city was re-consolidated as the entity-neutral Brčko District, in such a way as to connect cantons Tuzla and Posavina in FBiH and municipalities Pelagićevo, Donji Žabar, Lopare, and Bijeljina in Republika Srpska.
The IEBL boundary around Sarajevo's Dobrinja was also adjusted by an international independent arbitrator, appointed by High Representative, to solve confusion around the initial boundary that passed through buildings in that neighborhood. [4] [5]
Demographic features of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina are defined by a parliamentary, representative democratic framework, where the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, named by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Legislative power is vested in both the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly are chosen according to a proportional representation system. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the official military force of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The BiH armed forces were officially unified in 2005 and are composed of two founding armies: the Bosniak and Croat Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VFBiH) and the Bosnian Serbs' Army of Republika Srpska (VRS).
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords, and colloquially known as the Dayton in ex-Yugoslav parlance, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, finalised on 21 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the three-and-a-half-year-long Bosnian War, which was part of the much larger Yugoslav Wars.
Republika Srpska is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the north and east of the country. Its largest city and administrative centre is Banja Luka, lying on the Vrbas river, and with a population of about 138,963 people.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two entities composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of ten autonomous cantons with their own governments and legislatures.
The political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina were created by the Dayton Agreement. The Agreement divides the country into two federal entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS) and one condominium of the two entities named the Brčko District.
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War. The purpose of the High Representative and the OHR is to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton agreement. They also serve to represent the countries involved in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement through the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), which chooses the High Representative.
Brčko is a city and the administrative seat of Brčko District, in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies on the banks of Sava river across from Croatia. As of 2013, it has a population of 39,893 inhabitants.
Brčko District, officially the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a self-governing administrative unit in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Republika Srpska was a self-proclaimed statelet in Southeastern Europe under the control of the Army of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War. It claimed to be a sovereign state, though this claim was only partially recognized by the Bosnian government in the Geneva agreement, the United Nations, and FR Yugoslavia. For the first six months of its existence, it was known as the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Under the "Law on Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government" adopted in 1994, Republika Srpska was divided into 80 municipalities. After the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the law was amended in 1996 to reflect the changes to the entity's borders and now provides for the division of Republika Srpska into 64 municipalities.
Istočno Sarajevo is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It consists of a few suburban areas located south of pre-war Sarajevo which are now included in the Republika Srpska entity, and newly built areas.
Dobrinja is a neighbourhood in the western outskirts of Sarajevo, part of the municipality of Novi Grad. It is estimated to have a population of 25,063 inhabitants. Its name comes from the short river Dobrinja that flows through it. It is today organised in four local communities. Dobrinja lies just north of Sarajevo International Airport.
The Brčko corridor is a name used for a narrow strip of land along the southern bank of the Sava river that connected eastern and western part of the Republika Srpska from 1992 to 2000. It was created in 1992, after military Operation Corridor 92 and was an important military and civil supply line for western parts of the Republika Srpska and Republic of Serbian Krajina during the Bosnian and Croatian war. After the Dayton Agreement was signed in 1995, the corridor remained within Republika Srpska, but subsequent international arbitration assigned this territory to a newly formed Brčko District, which became a territorial condominium shared between the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Several referendums have been held in Republika Srpska during its existence, whilst others have been proposed but not happened.
The Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian War and created the federal republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which consists of the Bosniak and Croat-inhabited Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Serb-inhabited Republika Srpska (RS). Although the Bosnian Serbs were viewed as "anti-Dayton" during the first years after the war, since 2000 they have been staunch supporters of the Dayton Agreement and the preservation of RS. Bosniaks generally view RS as illegitimate, and an independence referendum from BiH has been proposed in RS. The 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum and Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence have raised the possibility of a referendum and unification with Serbia. In 2015, after a judicial and police crisis, the governing Alliance of Independent Social Democrats said that it would hold an independence referendum in 2018 if RS's autonomy was not preserved.
The Exodus of Sarajevo Serbs was the migration of ethnic Serbs from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, between January and March 1996 after the Dayton Agreement that concluded the Bosnian War (1992–95).
These were required to withdraw to their respective territories, and a demilitarized Zone of Separation was created, extending for two kilometers on either side of the IEBL and heavily patrolled by international forces.
Digital technology had matured enough by late 1995 that Dayton marked the first significant appearance of "digital maps" in diplomatic negotiations.