Croatian ethnic areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the regulation of political and legal status of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats 1990-1995

The fall of the communist system & democratisation of society for Bosnian-Herzegovinian constitutive peoples, the Croats, Serbs & Muslim/Bosniacs meant in the first place an opportunity for a more adequate regulation of their political-legal status. Without that the mentioned phenomena & processes could have resulted in a much broader collective degradation than the previous one. For each of the peoples could have experienced the replacement of the dictatorship of one ideological group, which at least formally presented itself as a protector of ethno-particular interests, with the position of inferiority to (any of) the other Bosnian-Herzegovinian communities. The above situation produced a supply of a number of very different models directed at resolving the issues of internal order & regulation of inter-ethnic relations in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Regardless of social environments within which they appear & the active positions of their creators, their main characteristic is in the fact that they stem from the political-interest or ideological basis or from one of almost mechanical translation of patterns established in other environments. The assessment given in the article of the qualities of achieved political-legal positions of the Croatian people in Bosnia & Herzegovina is based on its connection with the possibilities for the regulation of the Croatian as well as other constitutive peoples provided by the Constitution of Bosnia & Herzegovina & based on the description of historically determined realities. The ultimate conclusion is that post-war i.e. the current position of the Croatian people in Bosnia & Herzegovina presents but a partial realisation of its constitutive rights/possibilities. 2 Maps, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.