Bosnia is one of the poorest countries in Europe and has 40 per cent unemployment. It has been unable to push through EU-sought reforms as politics are completely divided along ethnic lines.

The traces of war are deeply embedded in the relations between people and communities...

“The traces of war are deeply embedded in the relations between people and communities. Bosnia-Hercegovina is a prisoner of nationalist forces and is sliding backwards,” Raif Dizdarevic, a former Yugoslav President said.

Twenty years ago Bosnia plunged into war as the former communist Yugoslavia broke apart along ethnic lines.

Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats voted to break free from the former federation in a referendum, which was boycotted by the Serbs who wanted to remain in Belgrade-dominated rump Yugoslavia.

After weeks of rising ethnic tensions and incidents on April 5 and 6, 1992 more than 50,000 people gathered in front of the country’s Parliament to demand peace.

Bosnian-Serb snipers opened fire on protesters killing two women, the first civilian victims in the Bosnian conflict.

“I thought we could keep the peace but I was very naïve because the war was already prepared, all the logistics were in place,” law professor Zdravko Grebo who was at the protest, said.

War officially broke out on April 6, 1992, the same day the European Community (now the European Union) recognised Bosnia as an independent country. In the following three and a half years, the country was torn apart, divided along ethnic lines despite international sanctions imposed on the Bosnian Serbs and neighbouring Serbia which supported them.

Some 100,000 people were killed and half the population of 4.4 million fled their homes. Sarajevo suffered the longest city siege in modern history and tomorrow the town will host a concert for thousands of empty chairs to commemorate the over 10,000 people killed by Bosnian Serb shells or snipers.

The better trained and armed Bosnian Serbs embarked on a campaign of ethnic cleansing driving out Muslims and Croats from what they considered Serb territory leaving a trail of massacres and rapes.

Their political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are both facing trial for genocide before the UN war crimes court in The Hague.

It was the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims after the fall of the UN “safe area” Srebrenica by Mladic-led troops that finally led to Nato intervention which forced Bosnian Serbs into retreat.

In November 1995, the Western-imposed Dayton peace agreement was signed by the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, creating a two-entity state − Muslim-Croat Federation and Bosnian Serbs’ Republika Srpska.

While the deal brought peace it also cemented the ethnic divisions that still haunt the country today. Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities have their own political institutions, loosely connected through an almost powerless central government.

Relations with neighbouring countries like Serbia are slowly improving. The Serbian Parliament in 2010 apologised for Belgrade’s role in the Srebrenica massacre.

The 2010 elections triggered the longest political crisis since the war, when politicians bickered for 16 months before forming a central government prompting the International Crisis Group to warn that Bosnia could end up a “failed state” as divisions between Muslims, Croats and Serbs become more entrenched.

The political squabbles mean Bosnia has been trailing behind other Western Balkan EU hopefuls and has not even applied for candidate status.

How events unfolded

June, 1991: Croatia and Slovenia, two of the six multi-ethnic states making up Yugoslavia, become the first to secede.

Although the secession of Slovenia takes place relatively peacefully, that of ethnically-mixed Croatia leads to full-scale war by the end of 1991.

February, 1992: In a referendum, the citizens of Bosnia vote in favour of independence, which is declared on March 3. But while ethnic Croat and Muslim Bosnians vote mainly in favour, the Serb minority boycotts the poll.

The following month, representatives of Bosnia’s Muslims, Croats and Serbs agree to set up a loose federal structure. Bosnian Serbs, supported by the nationalist leader of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, have already carved out their own area.

April 5, 1992: Bosnian Serb troops armed by the Belgrade-controlled federal Yugoslav army, lay siege to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The siegewill last for almost four years and cause an estimated 11,000 deaths.

April 6, 1992: The European Community, now the European Union, recognises Bosnia as an independent state.

Also in April, the United Nations deploys a 14,000-strong Protection Force, Unprofor to both Bosnia and Croatia.

July 1992: UN forces, which control the Sarajevo airport, begin an airlift to provide supplies to the civilian population.

Over the year, Bosnian Serb forces gain control of much of the country, rounding up and in some cases massacring Muslim and Croat Bosnians. Tens of thousands of captives are herded into camps, where torture, rape and other human rights abuses are widespread.

April 1993: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), acting for the UN, declares an air exclusion zone over Bosnia.

The UN creates six “safe areas” for civilians, in Sarajevo and the towns of Srebrenica, Tuzla, Zepa, Gorazde and Bihac.

Diplomatic attempts to end the fighting fail.

February 1994: In one of the worst attacks on Sarajevo, a Serb shell kills 68 people in a crowded city marketplace.

Nato begins military action, shooting down several Serb warplanes.

March 1, 1994: Under US pressure the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats join forces in a newly created Muslim Croat Federation which ends 11 months of conflict between the parties.

December 1994: Bosnian Serbs and Muslims sign a ceasefire agreement brokered by former US President Jimmy Carter. A similar agreement is signed the following month by Bosnian Serbs and Croats, but the fighting continues.

May 1995: Bosnian Serb forces shell the town of Tuzla, killing 75.

In the same month, the Bosnian Serbs take over 370 UN forces members hostage, holding them for almost a month.

July 1995: In the worst single incident of the war, Bosnian-Serb forces take over the UN protected “safe area” of Srebrenica and massacre up to 8,000 Muslims men and boys.

October 1995: A ceasefire brokered by the United States comes into force over all of Bosnia.

November 21, 1995: After three weeks of talks in the US city of Dayton, the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia agree to a peace deal, which is signed in Paris the following month.

December 1995: A Nato force is deployed to keep the peace in Bosnia, which has been divided into a loose Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb entity. The Nato mission is later taken over by the European Union.

Over almost four years, the Bosnian war left some 100,000 people dead and created 2.2 million refugees and displaced persons. Many have since not been able to return to their original homes.