BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Three-member presidency with rotating chairmanship

Left: Dragan Covic (Croat)
Middle: Barislov Paravac (Serb)
Right: Sulejman Tihic (Bosniak, Muslim)

Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of five successor states to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), is located in southeastern Europe, between Croatia to the north and west and Serbia and Montenegro (which has also been known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) to the east. Its land area is 51,129 sq km (19,741 sq mi). Bosnia refers to the entire republic, except for the mountainous southwestern region of Herzegovina.

The population of Bosnia was estimated at 3.9 million in 2002, of whom 48% are Bosniaks, 37% ethnic Serbs, and 14% ethnic Croats. The breakdown of Muslim (40%), Serbian Orthodox (31%), and Roman Catholic (15%) religious communities closely corresponds to the ethnic breakdown. Before the 1992–95 war, many parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina resembled an ethnic patchwork. "Ethnic cleansing" and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people during the war have brought about a much greater separation of the three communities. The official languages are Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian.

The official currency of Bosnia is the convertible marka (KM), pegged from 2002 to the euro . The Yugoslav dinar circulates widely in the Republika Srpska (RS), while the Croatian kuna circulates in Croat-dominated areas.