In Bosnia, Census Raises Specter of War's Horrors
When a devastating war has displaced half the population, it might be time for a new census. But many in Bosnia say such a reckoning would entrench the ethnic divisions that were forced upon it with a brutal violence unknown in Europe since World War II.
Bosnia's last census was in 1991, a year before it seceded from the former Yugoslavia. At the time, its population of 4.4 million consisted of 43 percent Muslim Bosniaks, 31 percent Eastern Orthodox Serbs and 17 percent Catholic Croats, many of them living in a patchwork of mixed communities. But then came the spring of 1992 and a war that would leave 2.2 million uprooted and at least 100,000 dead by the time it ended three years later.
The European Union is pushing hard for a census next year and warns that failure would damage Bosnia's prospects of joining the union. Yet such a count would end up reflecting a demographic reality skewed by war and ethnic cleansing.
The obvious compromise -- a census with optional questions about religion and ethnicity -- is being debated in parliament. But if many people in a municipality choose to respond to these questions, the census will still give a fairly detailed picture of the ethnic composition....
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Bosnia's last census was in 1991, a year before it seceded from the former Yugoslavia. At the time, its population of 4.4 million consisted of 43 percent Muslim Bosniaks, 31 percent Eastern Orthodox Serbs and 17 percent Catholic Croats, many of them living in a patchwork of mixed communities. But then came the spring of 1992 and a war that would leave 2.2 million uprooted and at least 100,000 dead by the time it ended three years later.
The European Union is pushing hard for a census next year and warns that failure would damage Bosnia's prospects of joining the union. Yet such a count would end up reflecting a demographic reality skewed by war and ethnic cleansing.
The obvious compromise -- a census with optional questions about religion and ethnicity -- is being debated in parliament. But if many people in a municipality choose to respond to these questions, the census will still give a fairly detailed picture of the ethnic composition....