Pen-ners,
A short post to explain the relative territorial distributions in
Bosnia. At the time of the unilateral declaration of independence
by the Muslim led government, Serbs and Yugoslavs represented just
under 40 per cent of the population, but they inhabited approximately
60 per cent of the land. The reason for this is that the Serbs were
disporportionately in the poorer agricultural areas while the
Muslims and Croats were more concentrated in the urban and more
developed areas. This dates back to the medieval Ottoman rule
period under the feudal system. In order to retain feudal lands,
it was required that the lords convert to the Muslim religion. Thus
the landed aristocracy, if you can call them that, became Muslims
while the peasants retained their Orthodox religion. However, under
the Ottoman land tenure system, fiefs were largely a form of allocation
of taxing ability and the lords were not necessarily, or indeed
primarily tied to the land -- and hence were more urban.
At the present time, the Bosnian Serbs control about 70 per cent of
the land area -- i.e. an additional 10 per cent.
During the last negotiations that came close to agreement, the
Serbs agreed to accept a division amounting to I think it was 52
per cent -- i.e. a reduction in both the population coverage and
of the area they now control. As well, almost all the major
industrial centres and developed areas would be included either
in the Muslim or the Croatian republics. (Sorry I can't lay
my hands on the exact municipalities at this moment but I have
them somewhere.)
I intend to take up some of the points that my postings have
engendered, but I will do so as my last post on the subject.
However, I can't let one factual matter pass since I think it
represents the kind of attempt to diminish my argument by claiming
I made a factual error. I think it was Barkley who corrected me
by saying to the effect that I had used the term "Bosnia and
Herzegovin" and he said it should be Bosnia-Herzegovina. In fact,
he is wrong. About three weeks ago I was watching news reports from
Sarajevo supplied by Bosnian television. In the corner of the
screen was the logo "BiH". What does the "i" stand for? In
Serbo-Croat, "i" is "and". But perhaps the Bosnians don"t know
the name of their republic. I rest my case.
Paul Phillips
