“Ten years after Dayton, Bosnia is not a democracy”

Nationalist parties of all tendencies (Muslim SDA, Croatian HDZ and Serbian SDS) do their best to block any evolution for they fear the loss of power. The religious authorities usually support them. The authoritarian tradition of the State is still strong in Bosnia and those who favour change, the non nationalist parties and the still emergent civil society, have a hard time trying to make themselves heard.
Nationalism and corruption are tightly linked here. According to a Bosnian proverb, “if each country has a mafia, the mafia has its country in Bosnia” Trafficking women, children, arms or alcohol, everything can be bought here. The ruling nationalist parties are not that interested in changing this for they have their own network of corruption. According to Transparency International, the anti-corruption organization, about 37 million euros a year are diverted in the reconstruction field alone and according to the Europeans, the government loses some 600 million euros a year –more than the budget of the Muslim-Croatian Federation- due to frauds such as the declaration of false companies or companies held in the name of dead people!
Nowadays, there’s no democracy in Bosnia even at the constitutional level for the inhabitants of the country are not considered to be citizens but members of an ethnic community and this has an impact at the electoral level: thus, a Jew or a Buddhist can not legally run for the presidency. You have to be a representative of one of the three ethnic communities. Meanwhile, violations of Human Rights are still common.