46 refugees and 177 IDPs returned to their areas of origin in the first six months of 2011. As of mid-2011, there were 113,188 registered IDPs (including about 7,000 in collective centers), according to UNHCR, with 48,583 in the Federation, 64,359in Republika Srpska, and 246in Brcko District. Impediments to return remained similar to previous years: lack of economic opportunity in Bosnia, inadequate housing, and reluctance to return to areas where residents would be an ethnic minority.
Bosnia continued to host Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians from Kosovo under temporary protected status, many of whom had lived in the country for over a decade. As of June 2011, UNHCR reported that there were 152 Kosovo Roma in Bosnia, up from previous years.
National Security and Human Rights
In June Ahmed el-Farahat, an Egyptian national arrested and detained at Lukavica immigration detention center in October 2010 under national security legislation, was deported to Egypt without criminal charges being filed against him or the opportunity to examine evidence and appeal his deportation. El-Farahat, who had gone on hunger strike earlier in the year to protest his indefinite detention, had lived in Bosnia with legal permanent resident status since the early 1990s.Five other national security suspects were detained without charge at Lukavica, including three with cases pending before the ECtHR.
In March Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe commissioner of human rights, condemned Bosnia’s failure to implement recommendations, made after his 2007 visit to the country, on improved safeguards for national security suspects, including a judicial remedy for long-term detainees at Lukavica detention center and suspending deportations for those at risk of torture or ill-treatment in the countries of return.
In February the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina began the trial of six defendants charged with the 2010 bombing of a police station in the town of Bugojno, which killed one police officer. Three of the six defendants pleaded not guilty, while two defendants refused to enter pleas and one did not attend the hearing. At this writing only two defendants had attended the two hearings of the trial.
Freedom of Media
In August journalistOmer Hasanovic and cameraman Emir Hrncic of the Federation Radio-Television were attacked in Zivinice by 10 men who confiscated their equipment. They were reporting on Mehmed Butkovic’s activities during his suspension as the head imam of the Islamic community in Zivinice. Witnesses claimed that the assailants were Butkovic and his followers. There were no arrests in the case at this writing.
There were no significant developments in investigating threats made in 2010 against TV editor Bakir Hadziomerovic and an assault on TV journalist Osman Drina the same year. Hadziomerovic continued to receive death threats—the latest in February 2011—but no arrests had been made at this writing. Hadziomerovic has been living under police protection since 2009.
Key International Actors
The European Union played an increasingly significant role in Bosnia in 2011, opening a new office in Sarajevo to house both the EU Special Representative in Bosnia and an increasing number of staff working towards EU integration. Peter Sorensen, the new head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and EU special representative (EUSR), wasappointed in 2011 and took office in September.
Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy/ vice-president of the European Commission,assumed the main role in defusing tensions with Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik after he called for an RS referendum on national government institutions, including the war crimes tribunals, which was seen as a precursor for eventual referendum on Republika Srpska’s secession from Bosnia.
The European Commission’s annual progress report on Bosnia and Herzegovina in October identified the continued failure to form a state-level government as a key obstacle to reform, including implementation of the Sejdic and Finci ruling. The repo