Bosnia decides

Bosnian woman supporter of the Serbs Democratic Party (SDS) cheers during pre-election rally in Baja Luka

General elections took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina last weekend but many Bosnians are still trying to work out what the results mean for their country's future. The winners seem to be split between those who want to reform the country and its divisions, and those who want to retain the ethnic divide between Bosnian Serbs on the one hand and Croats and Muslims on the other. The international community is planning on handing over power to local politicians next year, but says that first, controversial reforms need to take place. From Sarajevo, DW's Nicholas Walton reports.

Flags, banners, pop stars and slogans - on the face of it, elections in Bosnia are just like those in most other countries. But Bosnia is far from a normal European country. With all its different layers of government and divisions along ethnic lines, politics is a complicated business. Here’s Jan Zlatan Kulenovic of the Youth Information Centre

"Unfortunately we have 14 governments, 16 parliaments, 142 municipalities, 121 ministers and it's generally a bureaucratic rigid system."

Bosnian election workers count votes at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006. Voters went to the polls Sunday in a general election that could chose leaders to run Bosnia without international supervision for the first time since the war ended 11 years ago, if the country can overcome its bitter divisions.

This is Banja Luka, the capital of the Serb part of the country, Republika Srpska Bosnia’s ethnic divisions into two entities, this part and the Muslim Croat Federation, was a key issue in the elections. Muslim and Croat voters largely supported handing power back to a central government, fitting in with the international communitys plans for giving power back to Bosnians next year. But the Serbs did not. Milka Mimic is a young Banja Luka resident who sees no problem with wanting to protect the integrity and powers of Republika Srpska.

"I don't think nationalism is really bad. I mean it's good to feel your own nation, to love it, to cherish your culture and everything. It's just the word is brought to a level where it's equal to fascism which is really not the case. I mean I really like who I am. I feel very comfortable in the shoes of being a Serbian girl, and I like my family, my culture, all the beliefs that we really respect and everything, but they just see it as something wrong."

Reform negotiations between the more nationalist Serbs and the other newly elected Bosnian politicians are going to be closely followed by the international community, to see if the conditions for the handing over of power will be met. One area where reform would have a real impact on everyday life is education. These students are part of a new multi-ethnic school project in the city of Mostar. Srdjan, a Serb from Zvornik, describes the reaction of his friends when he told them he was going to be educated with other Bosnians of different backgrounds.

Workers fix a roof in downtown Saraevo Saturday, Sept. 30. 2006, close to a pre-election poster for the Party For Bosnia. Bosnians are to elect on Oct. 1 leaders who, for the first time since the war, might get a chance to run the country without international administrator's interventions.

"The first emotions they had when they heard I was accepted was like, 'Mostar' That's like Muslims and Croats. There are no Serbs there; you're going to hate it! Go back! Don't go there! It's like this. It's like prejudice because it's still an old fashioned country. They don't believe we can make up."

For most Bosnians, schools are divided. In many cases the same buildings are used by two sets of students from different ethnic backgrounds. They either use different entrances or swap students, teachers and text books half way through each day. Mirna Jancic is the development director of this multiethnic project in Mostar. She says the country needs to find ways for children to integrate or it will store up more ethnic trouble for the future.

"The dangers are not so much that you will have people, future leaders of Bosnia, who will disagree on what happened, but they will have been educated according to a principle that denies the possibility that what they believe is wrong. Children are educated never to question authority or the truth of what they're being taught as part of their textbooks."

Education is just one area where Bosnia remains a divided country. The country's newly elected politicians have a difficult task ahead if they are to fashion such division into a more normal country. Some, with the support of their voters, obviously don't want to. But whether or not ethnic divisions remain, with other concrete problems to deal with such as a faltering economy and high unemployment, Bosnia's voters of every type will be hoping their politicians will find enough common ground to make a difference.