Balkans Resources
(with a special emphasis on Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Welcome to this collection of Balkans Resources.
The idea behind this site is to provide easy access to information that is otherwise hard to find, spread out all over the Internet... The choice of information is arbitrary, I include whatever I tend to find useful -- with a particular focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina... Please note that this site is still under construction!
Categories of information:
If you have any suggestions or if you find that links are broken, please let me know at semafor@gmx.net.
Your host.
General information on Bosnia and Herzegovina
The most comprehensive free media digests on BiH news are available at the OHR website (free subscription required). Alternative sources are the Balkan Crisis Report (courtesy of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting - IWPR), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline and South East European Times (courtesy of NATO).
Selected articles are provided in English translation at ex YU-press.
Local authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The "international community" in Bosnia and Herzegovina
OHR's task is to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. The Mission Implementation Plan lays out which elements of this massive task OHR is focussing on. The Communiques of the Steering Board of the PIC (Peace Implementation Council) provide political guidance to OHR and the BiH authorities and thus are vital reading. The High Representative reports to the Security Council of the United Nations and the European Parliament.
Reconstruction and its challenges: inefficiency and corruption
| [...] the unwavering emphasis on the rebuilding of the infrastructure implied that international officials turned a blind eye to rampant abuse of the system. The scheme is simple: contractor estimates are usually inflated and offered to the government agency which, after secretly agreeing to take a cut of the profit, decides to request an international loan for the project. In the end, everyone is pleased: the government officials with their cash; the company with its high profits; and the international community for having contracted a local firm which had, in theory, promised the creation of local jobs. Of course, such a rebuilding of the country is inefficient and unsustainable: firms become disinterested in both competition and re-investment in the economy. [...] |
Last updated 22 Aug 04
