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The latter is Serbian dominated, while Bosniaks and Croats make up the majority of the population in the Bosnian federation, which is why it is informally also referred to as Bosniak-Croat Federation.

Although separated, the two political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina do share a common political apparatus - the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which comprises both a Croat and a Bosniak from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and one Serb from the Republika Srpska who rotate every 8 months between the roles of president and two vice-presidents. The current president, Borjana Krišto, is a Croat, while the two vice-presidents are Mirsad Kebo (Bosniak) and Spomenka Mičić (Serb).

Separatists within the Republika Srpska have reportedly started to make loud noises again, yet while they have a well-established and integrated political structure, the Dayton Agreement prohibits either entity from seceding from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

War criminals still at Large

Currently there are four Serb leaders indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) still at large. They are Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, Goran Hadžić, and Stojan Župljanin.

Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, assault, crimes against life and health, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions, murder, plunder, and violations of the laws or customs of war. He was almost apprehended in 1995 when he was invited to the United Nations. During this visit he was nearly handed a service of process, but this was swatted down by security before it could reach his hand and the courts ruled that he had immunity while visiting the United Nations. His current whereabouts are unknown, with Russia citied as a possible hiding place. In July, 2005, his wife, Ljiljana Karadžić, appealed to him to surrender though also stating that she was under enormous pressure to do so.

General Ratko Mladič was the Chief of Staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. Mladić was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in connection with the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of around 8,300 Bosniak men and boys on July 11, 1995 at Srebrenica. He remains at large to this day and many believe that he is currently hiding somewhere in Serbia, one of the reasons why his surrender has been made a pre-condition of Serbia signing the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement with the EU. The American government has also issued a $US5 million reward for the capture of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić.

Goran Hadžić is an ethnic Serbian politician from Croatia who faces charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in the forcible removal and murder of thousands of Croatian civilians from the Republic of Croatia between 1991 and 1993. He was nearly arrested in 2004, but disappeared from his home in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2005, Serbian media began reporting that he may be hiding in a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Irig, Serbia or in Bijela, Montenegro, while, as of 2008, he is said to be hiding in Belarus.

Stojan Župljanin is a former commander of the Bosnian Serb police. During the Balkan War, he had operational control over the police forces responsible for overseeing the detention camps where thousands of prisoners were allegedly held in horrific conditions and many were murdered. Thus, he has been charged by the ICTY with genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. Župljanin's home was raided by local police and by EU peacekeepers in October 2005, but they failed to find him, though sources suggest he has not left Serbia.