A good news Balkans story
The news from the Balkans these days is often bad: economic stagnation, interethnic friction, rampant corruption, Russian mischief-making, political stalemate. I’ve found good news in an unlikely place: unification of the three warring armies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is despite the continuing quarrel over defense property that has blocked Bosnia and Herzegovina from embarking on its Membership Action Plan for the past five years.
The Republika Srpska Army (VRS), the Croat Defense Force (HVO) and the Bosnian Republic Army fought from 1992 to 1995. The Dayton peace talks ended the war 20 years ago. In 2003/4 Bosnia embarked on an effort to reform and unify its armed forces. The years since then have not seen a lot of success in reintegrating Bosnia’s divided polity at the national level, but I’ve been wondering about the military situation.
A friend responded to my inquiry about today’s Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with this:
Three brigades and operational command of the armed forces are multiethnic and united. All are equally represented and there is no division on the entity levels. The army has purely state-level character. They are integrated to serve only state-level interests. Also, the multiethnic Presidency is in charge of commanding them.
This is the most advanced state-level institution in the country. The system has its flaws and yes ethnic-fueled politics can penetrate into its functioning mechanism from time to time, but when compared to the other state-level institutions in Bosnia, the armed forces are the best. They are the closest we can get, in the framework of Dayton reality, to united Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The only purely ethnic based component are the regiments. There are three regiments that are each formed by soldiers from the three ethnic groups: Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims in the US press), Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. The three regiments trace their roots to the armies that were created during the war. They have their distinct ethnic insignia and consist of three active battalions each.
Headquarters of regiments have no operational authority. The regimental headquarters have the following tasks: to manage the regimental museum; monitor the financial fund of the regiment; prepare, investigate and cherish the history of the regiment; publish regiment newsletters; maintain cultural and historical heritage; give guidance on holding special ceremonies; give guidance on customs, etc. The regiments are the strongest ethnic element of the military, but they are mostly ceremonial and emotional (for some).
Ceremonial regiments are miniscule, less than 50 people. They do not even comprise 1% of overall size of the armed forces (10,000 manpower).
There are in addition ethnic battalions in three regiments (4th, 5th and 6th). For example:
4th Infantry Regiment – HQ in Capljina, town where Bosnian Croats are majority
- Infantry Battalion (Livno) -Bosnian Croat
- Infantry Battalion (Gorazde) – Bosniak
- Infantry Battalion (Bileca) -Bosnian Serb
- Reconnaissance Company (multi-ethnic)
- Signals Platoon (multi-ethnic)
Two other regiments are composed in the same setup (one is in Tuzla and other in Banja Luka).
However, the Tactical Support Brigade, Logistics, Personnel Command, Air force Brigade and Ministry of Defense are completely multi-ethnic. Thirty per cent (about 3,000 out of 10,000) of the armed forces are made out of individuals that are assigned to units in ethnic battalions.
Nevertheless, their functioning is deeply intertwined in a broader system which is completely multi-ethnic and operates on national level without any association to the entities. In order for the ethnic battalion to operate they need support of multi-ethnic companies and platoons, which are commanded by a multi-ethnic army headquarters and multi-ethnic Ministry of Defense. Armed forces’ main tasks are to: protect territorial sovereignty and independence of BiH, be involved in peace support operations, conduct demining operations, be on the disposal to civilian authorities during natural disasters, etc.
The armed forces are a national level institution that serves national interests under three musketeers motto “all for one, one for all.”
RSS - Posts
