KARADZIC USES MISLEADING ETHNIC MAP OF BOSNIA

During his opening statement at the Hague Tribunal on 2 March 2010, Radovan Karadzic denied the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. Then he moved to make ridiculous allegation that Bosnian Serbs were attacked in different parts of the country and that they could not protect themselves. He used misleading ethnic map to prove his allegation that Bosnia was simply separated by demarcation lines that were made up by citizens. "People came out to the borders of their territories to prevent slaughter," he claimed, showing a map which, according to him, describes the situation in Bosnia showing “ethnical territories”. In fact, his map is extremely biased - and outdated.

Map #1: Radovan Karadzic used this map in the courtroom
during his defence opening statements:

Map #2: Radovan Karadzic's map in full resolution without
war-time demarcation lines (frontlines).

If you look carefully, the above map is entitled the "Ethnic Structure of the Population of Bosnia and Herzegovina [in 1981]" according to settlements. The accuracy of the 1981 Population Census is highly questionable, concerning that Bosniaks were persecuted by Yugoslav/Serbian authorities and pressured to identify as the so called Serbs of Muslim faith. Second of all, Bosnia has never been structured according to the "settlements", but according to the municipalities. Municipalities have their own local government, and are typically based around the most significant city or place in their territory, for example: Srebrenica, Bratunac, Visegrad, Vlasenica, Gorazde, etc.

A closer look at the above map reveals the author's name - Milomir Stepic, a well known Serbian nationalist and a member of infamous propaganda machine "Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts." His map was heavily promoted as a blue-print for the legitimacy of the failed Greater Serbian project, as well as a 'proof' that more than 60% of B&H land somehow belongs to the Serbs. But, facts tell a different story.

For those interested in real ethnic make-up of Bosnia-Herzegovina, here is a map provided by the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina:

Map #3: Ethnic Map of Bosnia-Herzegovina
according to the 1991 Population Census.

In the words of Amira Dzirlo, an architectural engineer and historian from Washington DC,

"Among many false Serbian claims in connection with settlement negotiations was the statement that 'according to the registry, Serbs own 64 percent of the land of Bosnia-Herzegovina'.... This is certainly not their only fabrication, but it is nonetheless a very significant one. It can be clearly and quickly disproven by checking any geography textbook from before World War II. This will show that 51 percent of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina was classified as forested, whereas 49 percent was either tillable or used for raising livestock. Of the forested area, 95 percent was owned by the state, meaning it was the communal property of all its citizens, while only 31 percent of the land classified as agricultural was privately owned, by Muslims, Croats and Serbs. Thus, only about 15 percent of the land of Bosnia-Herzegovina was in private hands, which cannot bring the Serbs the total that they claim, except through mythology and imaginary history. "

It is not a secret that Serbs stole a total of 2.66 million acres (1,076,675 hectares) of land from the Bosniaks in the first agrarian reform in 1918 and 1919. Serbs calculated the value of Muslim land at 60% less than it's real worth. Out of 36 promised payments, only a total of 4 were made for the land Serbs forcibly confiscated from the Bosniak people in Yugoslavia. Amira Dzirlo explains:

"As an example of how this affects present realities, on the agricultural plain of Lijevce, near Banja Luka, the most fertile land of all is Bosanska Krajina. Until 1918, not one Serb lived in that area. It was completely inhabited by Muslims [Bosniaks] and Croats. After 1918, Bosanska Krajina began to be settled by Serbs from Serbia and from Lika, primarily 'Solunasi' (Serbs originally from Salonika, the northeastern extension of Greece) and their offspring. Bosanska Krajina now has become a 'Serbian region,' from which they have driven out all non-Serbs."

Then again in the second agrarian reform of 1945-1946, Serbs forcibly confiscated more land from Bosniaks, but this time not 1 dinar was paid as a compensation to Muslim landowners. All confiscated land was given to the Serbs. Another interesting point from Amira Dzirlo's analysis:

"According to the latest census of 1991, the Bosniaks and the Croats made up a total of 61 percent of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. If one takes into account the fact that there also was a reasonably large number of Bosniaks and Croats who called themselves 'Yugoslav' (reflecting either their status as participants in or offspring of mixed marriages or their objection to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia into separate republics), the Bosniak and Croat total in the population is probably closer to 66 percent.

On the other hand, out of the 31.3 percent of the population in Bosnia-Herzegovina who declared themselves Serbs in the 1991 census, about 10 percent were army officers and their families who came mostly from Serbia and Montenegro. Since the outbreak of the war, they have returned for the most part to Serbia and Montenegro. The real percentage of Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina is therefore approximately 28 percent, or significantly less than one-third of the 1991 population."

As Amira Dzirlo correctly suggests, approximately 28% of the Bosnian Serb population now enjoys 49% of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina - the same territory from which they forcibly expelled minorities through ethnic cleansing, rapes, massacres, and the genocide.