Čapljina

Čapljina апљина
Basic data
State :	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Entity :	Federation of BiH
Canton :	Herzegovina-Neretva
Coordinates :	43 ° 7 '  N , 17 ° 42'  E Coordinates: 43 ° 6 '36 "  N , 17 ° 42' 0"  E
Height :	15  m. i. J.
Area :	256  km²
Residents :	28,122 (2013)
Population density :	110 inhabitants per km²
Telephone code :	+387 (0) 36
Postal code :	88300
Structure and administration (as of 2016)
Structure :	27 local communities
Mayor :	Smiljan Vidić ( HDZ BiH )
Postal address :	Trg Kralja Tomislava 88300 Čapljina
Website :	www.capljina.ba

Čapljina ( Cyrillic  Чапљина ) is a large municipality ( Općina ) in Bosnia and Herzegovina with around 28,000 inhabitants. The predominantly Croatian community is located in southern Herzegovina and belongs to the Herzegovina-Neretva canton of the Federation .

Čapljina borders in the north on the large municipalities Čitluk and Mostar , in the east on Stolac , in the south on Neum and Dubrovnik ( Croatia ), in the northwest on Ljubuški and in the west on Metković (Croatia).

The main town of the municipality is the city of the same name. The municipality is divided into 27 local communities ( Mjesna zajednica , MZ for short) Bivolje Brdo, Bobanovo, Čapljina I, Čapljina II, Čeljevo, Doljani, Domanovići, Dračevo-Sjekose, Dretelj, Gabela, Gabela Polje, Grab, Gnjiliveš , Opličići, Počitelj -Hotanj, Prćavci, Prebilovci, Svitava, Gorica-Struge, Šurmanci, Šuškovo, Višići, Tasovčići, Trebižat and Zvirovići.

Bobanovo and Šuškovo are new settlements that were established for Croatian refugees from central Bosnia and named after Mate Boban and Gojko Šušak , respectively.

population

At the last census in 2013, there were 26,157 people in 7,916 households in the Čapljina municipality. So an average of 3.30 people per household. These included 12,947 (or 49.50%) men and 13,210 (or 50.50%) women.

Of the 23,555 people aged 10 and over, 340 (or 1.44%) were illiterate. It was 2.46% for women and 0.40% for men.

Of the 21,938 inhabitants aged 15 and over, 793 had no schooling at all (86.63% women). On the other hand, 2,237 people had a university education (proportion of women 51.27%).

Ethnic groups

Traditionally, the Croatians were the largest group in the larger municipality of Čapljina. However, between 1991 - the last census in the common state of Yugoslavia - and 2013, due to the war, there were strong shifts in the percentages. On the one hand, the number of Bosniaks and Serbs fell sharply due to the Bosnian War. On the other hand, the group of Croats grew strongly due to Croatian refugees from other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The smaller groups of Montenegrins, Albanians, Macedonians, Slovenes and Roma only numbered 5 to under 50 people each.

In addition, at the 2013 census, Yugoslavia was no longer one of the proposed choices. The Muslims in 1971, 1981 and 1991 are Serbo-Croatian Slavs, who have been officially known as Bosniaks since 1993.

Ethnic groups in the Čapljina municipality
group	1971 census		1981 census		1991 census		2013 census
	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of
Bosniaks / Muslims	6999	24.78%	6830	26.24%	7672	27.52%	4541	17.36%
Serbs	3896	13.80%	3467	13.32%	3753	13.47%	714	2.73%
Croatians	16884	59.79%	13931	53.51%	14969	53.69%	20538	78.52%
Other	461	1.63%	1804	6.93%	1488	5.34%	364	1.39%
Residents	28240	100%	26032	100%	27882	100%	26157	100%
Notes: Bosniaks listed as Muslims in 1971, 1981 and 1991; 1971 206, 1981 1591 and 1991 1047 Yugoslavs

Creeds

The distribution of the population by religion reflects ethnic affiliation. In 2013, 20,362 (or 77.85%) Catholics, 4598 (or 17.58%) Muslims, 709 (or 2.71%) Orthodox, 211 people of other beliefs, 89 atheists and 45 agnostics were recorded. The remaining 143 people refused to provide information.

geography

The Čapljina Town Hall on King Tomislav Square

The Verbandsgemeinde is determined by the course of the Neretva valley, which runs from north to south and widens from a narrow gorge in the north to the south to a lowland.

Two other rivers, the Bregava from the east and the Trebižat from the northwest, flow into the Neretva in the immediate vicinity of the main town . In the course of these rivers, steeply sloping narrow valleys have also formed.

In the south-east the lowlands become swampy and with appropriate weather the lakes Hutovo Blato and Deransko Jezero arise , which can extend up to 20 km².

The lowlands are very fertile and, apart from the swampy southeastern part, are mainly used for agriculture. The mountain ranges that adjoin the valley cuts are karstified and hardly usable for agriculture. The large community has a total area of ​​approx. 256 square kilometers.

history

Mine warning sign at the municipal boundary

In 626 Slavs came to the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia . The Ottoman occupation lasted from 1483 to 1878. From 1918 Čapljina belonged to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, whose name was changed in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia .

During the Second World War , on April 13, 14 and 15, 1941, Serbian irregulars , so-called Chetniks , massacred the civilian population in Čapljina and the surrounding area. 28 Croatians and Bosniaks were killed and 85 houses burned down. Women and children were also among those murdered:

" Then two Tschetnitzi came up to the house and smashed the door [...] the deceased sister-in-law [Frana Vego] pushed herself into a corner with the [six] children. When the Tschetnitzi were still at the door, I heard someone ask what they wanted with the children and women. The one in front of the house answered: Put them all down one by one. Then the two began to shoot dum-dum bullets in front of the door and hit their late sister-in-law four times in the head. [...] Four of her children were wounded [...] When the sister-in-law was hit, she was holding her six-month-old child in her arms [...] "

In June 1941, the committed Ustasha in the district Prebilovci a massacre of Serb civilians. More than 600 Serbian civilians were murdered by Croatians. During the Bosnian War, the memorial was destroyed by Croatian extremists.

From 1945 to 1992 Čapljina was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) .

During the Bosnian War (1992–1995) massive ethnic cleansing took place in 1993/94, mainly by HVO troops . Muslim residents have been displaced, captured or killed. The old town of Počitelj - one of the most important cultural assets of Herzegovina - was badly damaged. Since 1993 Croatian units have operated larger camps in Čapljina and some neighboring towns , including the Dretelj camp , in which Bosniak and Serb prisoners were tortured and murdered . In addition, parts of the municipality were mined; some minefields still exist today (2013), including near the Grabovina barracks used by the Bosnian military.

After the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, Čapljina became part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina .

religion

On the territory of the Čapljina commune you can find:

• six Roman Catholic churches ,
• four mosques ,
• a Serbian Orthodox Church and
• the Serbian Orthodox Monastery Žitomislići .

politics

1990 election results

• HDZ Hrvatska demokratska zajednica Bosne i Hercegovine (Croatian Democratic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina): 53% of the total vote
• SDA Stranka demokratske akcije (Party of Democratic Action): 22%
• SDS Srpska Demokratska Stranka (Serbian Democratic Party): 8%
• SDP Stranka demokratskih promjena (Social Democratic Party)

The changes in the composition of the population meant that the HDZ and Croatian parties achieved a clear majority in all post-war elections.

traffic

The M17 main road from Mostar to Ploče runs through Čapljina in north-south direction and Magistral road 6 from Trebinje to Knin in east-west direction . In the future, the municipality is to have a connection to the A1 motorway .

The electrified railway line Sarajevo – Ploče also runs through the municipality . In 1885, with the opening of the narrow - gauge Narentabahn, the city was opened to the railway. 1963 to 1966 the Yugoslav State Railways (JŽ) re-routed the line and converted it to standard gauge. The 760 mm narrow-gauge line to Dubrovnik , which was discontinued in the mid-1970s, branched off in Čapljina .

Personalities

• Slobodan Praljak (1945–2017), general and war criminal
• Jasmin Repeša (* 1961), basketball coach
• Nino Bule (* 1976), football player
• Nikola Prce (* 1980), handball player
• Nikica Jelavić (* 1985), football player

Web links

Commons : Čapljina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Municipality of Čapljina (Croatian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ European Stability Initiative: Governance and Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (PDF; 228 kB), p. 44.
2. ↑ Final results of the 2013 census
3. ↑ residents by ethnic group; final results of the 2013 census, page 57
4. ↑ residents by religion; final results of the 2013 census, page 71
5. ↑ Dr. Sušnjara: The situation of the Catholic Church in Croatia . In: Church in Need: Shocking Persecution of Christians at our Gates . Ostpriesthilfe , Königstein / Ts. 1953, p. 85.
6. ↑ statement of Ruža Vego in the Protocol of 29 VII. 1941 . In: Atrocities and devastation of the rioters in the independent state of Croatia: in the first months of the life of the Croatian national state . Croatian Bibliographical Institute, Zagreb 1942, p. 44.
7. ^ E. Michael Jones: The Ghosts of Surmanci , South Bend (Indiana) , February 1998
8. ↑ , Sociology of Religion ( Memento of the original dated May 8, 1999 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Wake Forest University , Winston-Salem , Fall 2003 
9. ↑ Bojan Aleksov, Marian Apparitions and the Yugoslav Crisis (PDF; 226 kB), Central European University , Budapest , June 2004
10. ^ Bosnia Camp Guard Convicted in Denmark , New York Times , November 23, 1994
11. ↑ Ermin Čengić: Pola desno, četvrt lijevo ( Memento from February 22, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), BH Dani from April 14, 2000.