Top European court says that Bosnian minorities are treated like ‘second-class citizens’

By SABINA NIKSIC
Associated Press

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A top European court says Bosnia’s political system set up under a U.S.-brokered peace deal amplifies ethnic divisions and undermines elections. The European Court of Human rights verdict published Tuesday says Bosnia’s power-sharing arrangements have turned it into a country in which ethnicity, and not citizenship, is the key to securing power and resources. Bosnia’s dominant ethnic groups — Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats — “control the state institutions to further their interest” while its nationals who belong to minority groups or reject ethnic nationalism are “akin to second-class citizens,” the court stated in its verdict summary. The failure to comply with such verdicts is a stumbling block for Bosnia’s EU aspirations.