Who is deliberately prolonging the Census results: Officials of competent institutions face criminal liability

The publication of the results of the 2013 Census is being deliberately prolonged, raising questions about the criminal liability of the heads of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entity statistical institutes, says a source from the Patria agency, warning that the Census results, if they are ever published at all, could be rejected.

Velimir Jukić (HDZ BiH) was appointed head of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2015, and to date no significant activity has been undertaken to publish the Census results as soon as possible. Although the recommendations of the IMO and EUROSTAT are clear, and during the last visit at the beginning of February it was emphasized that question 40 cannot be used to determine the status of non-resident population (it refers to the place of work and education of BiH citizens), the managers of the state agency, as well as the two entity statistical institutes, Radmila Čičković and Emir Kremić, still do not have a unified stance.

- It is impossible for the key document "Unique Program for Processing Census Data of the Population, Households and Dwellings in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013" to be adopted under the current circumstances, as announced today by the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina - claims our source, stating that the results of the BiH Population Census will most likely be rejected.

It is precisely question 40 that is the stumbling block, and the RS does not want to give in, which would significantly reduce the number of Bosniaks.

According to the preliminary results of the Census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, published in November 2013, a total of 3,791,622 persons were enumerated, in the Federation of BiH 2,371,603 persons, in the Republika Srpska 1,326,991 persons, and in the Brčko District of BiH 93,028 persons were enumerated.

Of these, as unofficially reported, 1,836,603 persons declared themselves as Bosniaks, 1,239,019 as Serbs, 553,000 as Croats, and 163,000 as Others.

According to the data, Bosniaks in the Federation of BiH make up 69 percent of the population, Croats 20.9 percent, Serbs four percent, and six percent of people declared themselves as Others. In the Republika Srpska, there are 83.2 percent Serbs, 13.2 percent Bosniaks, 2.5 percent Croats, and 1.1 percent Others. Taking into account the results from 1991, when there were 760,852 Croats, it is clear that the new results do not favor the Croatian political corps in BiH, especially Dragan Čović, the president of HDZ BiH, as the position of Croats in the distribution of functions and portfolios could be significantly diminished compared to the current situation.

However, the preliminary results of the Population Census were used by the federal Minister of Finance, Jelka Milićević (HDZ BiH), to reduce the coefficients for the distribution of public revenues. Compared to the previous period, the coefficients were reduced, thereby reducing the annual revenue for the Sarajevo Canton by 5.5 million marks, the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton by 3.5 million, the Tuzla Canton by 6.8 million, and the Zenica-Doboj Canton by about 4.3 million KM.

Interestingly, just before the submission of BiH's application for EU membership, the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Dragan Čović, said he hoped the Census results would be published by the end of February, and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Denis Zvizdić (SDA), spoke similarly.

The Minister of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coordinator for the census on behalf of the Council of Ministers, Adil Osmanović, spoke today with the leadership of the Agency for Statistics of BiH and representatives of the entity statistical institutes, and called on them to reach an agreement at next week's session of the Census Bureau of the Agency for Statistics of BiH regarding the unified processing and publication of data.

The European Union considers the population census in BiH one of the key issues, not only because of its importance within the European integration process but also due to its crucial significance for economic and social planning, which is of particular urgency in the context of the Reform Agenda, of which the population census is an integral part.