Between 1992 and 1995 the three major ethnic groups of today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, fought a bitter conflict for political and economic power. Tens of thousands of people were killed and millions were driven from their homes as attempts were made to create “ethnically cleansed” territories. Tens of thousands of workers in these territories were discriminated against and unfairly dismissed because of their ethnicity.
Throughout the post-war period, the international community has made efforts to encourage the return of those who fled or were driven from their homes, to reduce ethnic discrimination and to ensure that all parts of the country function as multi-ethnic communities. Despite these efforts, discrimination continues, and as such continues to be one of the most serious obstacles to the return of refugees and internally displaced persons. This report focuses on continuing discrimination against workers from ethnic minorities, including in equal access to work and full reparation for discriminatory dismissals suffered in the past. Using illustrative examples of war-time and continuing discrimination, it shows how the BiH, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS) authorities have failed to address violations of workers’ rights and allowed discrimination to persist.
The report discusses in detail the cases of the Aluminij aluminium plant in Mostar and of the Ljubija iron ore mines near Prijedor. One of BiH’s most profitable enterprises, Aluminij lies to the south-west of Mostar. Before the war it was one of the largest state-owned companies in Yugoslavia. During and after the war, non-Croat workers at Aluminij were unfairly dismissed on the grounds of their ethnicity. In the divided city of Mostar, Aluminij has pursued a policy of ethnic discrimination the effects of which continue to be felt, and elements of which continue to be practiced. From being a company with a significant number of employees from each of the three major communities of BiH, Aluminij has become a company with an overwhelmingly ethnic Croat workforce.
The formerly state-owned Ljubija iron ore mines are located at three sites in Ljubija, Tomašica and Omarska, in the vicinity of Prijedor, a town in the RS to the northwest of Banja Luka. At the beginning of the war in 1992, after the company came under the control of the local Bosnian Serb de facto authorities, the then management of the Ljubija mines systematically discriminated against at least 2,000 non-Serb workers, by dismissing them en masse solely because of their ethnicity. The company was thus directly involved in one of the elements of a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the non-Serb population. Thousands of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats in the area, reportedly including former workers at the mines, were taken to the Omarska detention camp, which was situated in the Ljubija mines complex. In Omarska, torture and mass killings were carried out.
Unfairly dismissed Ljubija workers have not been reinstated in their jobs, nor received other forms of reparation. In 2004 the international corporation LNM Holdings (now part of Mittal Steel) signed a joint-venture agreement to establish a new company, the New Ljubija Mines, 51 per cent of which is owned by the foreign investor.
In its recommendations to the BiH, FBiH, RS authorities, to the international community, to BiH companies, and to international companies which have invested in BiH, Amnesty International urges them to take appropriate measures to address ongoing discrimination in employment and to ensure full reparation to all victims of discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to work.
This report summarizes a 76-page document (31,000 words): Bosnia and Herzegovina - Behind closed gates: ethnic discrimination in employment (AI Index: EUR 63/001/2006), issued by Amnesty International in January 2006. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on this issue should consult the full document. An extensive range of our materials on this and other subjects is available at http://www.amnesty.org and Amnesty International news releases can be received by email:
http://www.amnesty.org/email/email_updates.html
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