Geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Surrounded by Croatia in the Southwest and much of the North, by Serbia and Montenegro in the East, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not such a large country. It has borders with Croatia (at the Southwest and the largest part of the North), Serbia (at the Northeast) and Montenegro (at the Southeast). The country is only 51,100 square kilometres (as an example, Switzerland is 41,293 square kilometres), with the shape of an isosceles triangle; each side of the right angle measures about 300 kilometres, from Trebinje to Bijeljina and from Bijeljina to Velika Kladusa. It is this shape that is symbolised on the BiH national flag.
But to count in kilometers in this country doesn't make any sense. For those who regularly travel, it's better to count in hours, and it is even worse during the winter season. This is because, and everybody is aware of this fact, BiH is a mountainous country. Its mountains are not very high (the summit is a peak in the Maglic Range, at the border with Montenegro, with a height of 2,383 metres, 7,821 feet), but when you drive you never stop going up and down. The reason is that the Alps, called the Dinaric Alps here, run across two thirds of BiH, from the Northwest to the Southeast. Hence this succession of mountains, high plateaux and deep valleys. The only flat open country is located in the North: it is the beginning (or the end) of the great Hungarian plains, the former "Puszta."
The hilly relief explains the hydrology. The rivers quite unanimously flow towards the North because the natural slope of the mountains gradually climbs towards the South. From west to east, the main rivers are: the Una and its tributary, the Sana (which both give their names to the Una Sana Canton, (Canton 1); the Vrbas (which flows through Banja Luka); the Bosna; and finally the Drina (which mainly forms the border with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). All these rivers flow, directly or indirectly, into the Sava River, a tributary of the Danube. The Sava River forms the border with Croatia. The only sizeable exception is the Neretva, flowing first towards the North, but turning back in the vicinity of Konjic and finally flowing into the Adriatic Sea.
The mouth of the Neretva River is not located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in Croatia. The fact is that BiH has a very small coastline, about 12 kilometres. And if you travel from Mostar to Dubrovnik using the main roads (Pacman and Cynthia routes), you first enter Croatia in Metkovic, reach and follow the coast, enter BiH again, and finally return to Croatia. On the route, you will pass through the town of Neum, which as result of the borderline, is the only Bosnian town located on the sea. But Neum is all but a port.
To overcome the lack of a port suitable for shipping, BiH signed an agreement with Croatia for the use of the harbor in Ploce, through which an important amount of goods and commodities arrive by sea. Furthermore, BiH has its own port, but it is a river port: Brcko, located on the Sava River. But the town and the port installations were heavily destroyed during the war. That's why the International Community had a special interest for the re-opening of the facilities of Brcko.
It is important to recognize the unique geo-political structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina created as a result of the Dayton peace process. The country has a federal government and two administrative divisions, called ?Entities?: the Bosniak/Croat-led Federation of BiH and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (Serb Republic). There is also a self-governing administrative unit called Brcko, which is under the authority of the sovereignty of BiH but is not a part of the Federation or the Republika Srpska. The Federation of BiH is divided into 10 cantons, and further administratively divided into 79 municipalities. These cantons operate as local autonomous units of the Federation. Each canton has its own government, which includes cantonal ministries and agencies. The Republika Srpska has a centralized government and is divided directly into 62 municipalities. The ethnically diverse Brcko District is a division of its own under the direct jurisdiction of BiH.
In accordance with Annex 2, Article V, of the Dayton Peace Agreement that left the unresolved status of Brcko subject to binding international arbitration, an Arbitration Tribunal was formed in mid-1996. On March 5, 1999, the Tribunal issued its Final Award. The Final Award established a special District for the entire pre-war Brcko Municipality (Opština), under the exclusive sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The territory of the District belongs simultaneously to both Entities, the Republika Srpska and the Federation, in condominium. Amendment I to the BiH constitution, passed in March 2009, codifies this status in the constitution. In accordance with the Final Award, the District is self-governing and has a single, unitary, multi-ethnic, democratic government; a unified and multi-ethnic police force operating under a single command structure; and an independent judiciary. The District Government exercises, throughout the pre-war Brcko Municipality, those powers previously exercised by the two Entities and the former three municipal governments. The Brcko District is demilitarized.
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