Vehicle registration plates of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina vehicle registration plates have held their current form since 1998. Currently the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) vehicle registration plate format consists of seven characters: five numbers and two letters arranged in the following order: X00-X-000 (taxis: TA-000000). The plates are uniform across the country and do not denote the place (town, municipality, canton, or entity) where the vehicle is registered, as was the case prior to 1998. Likewise the plates do not contain any heraldic symbols. The plates use only letters which are represented equally in Latin and Cyrillic script (A, E, O, J, K, M, T).

The revised registration plates were introduced as an initiative of the International High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp. In a report from the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina prior to the decision, it had been noted that police conduct around the Inter-Entity Boundary Line separating the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, had been the "greatest obstacle to freedom of movement", including intimidation and arbitrary fines.

Elsewhere it has been noted that vehicles which bore licence plates from one entity would be subject to vandalism in the other entity. The development of licence plates which would not serve as proxy identifiers of driver ethnicity was a partial solution to these problems. However, Bosnian towns typically contain all three constitutional ethnicities (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs) making ethnic identity unclear regardless of the vehicle's origin. The post-1998 system of obscuring the region is also complicated by the fact that drivers of cars, lorries and buses proud of their ethnicity will advertise this phenomenon with all the matching insignia. For example: Croats and Serbs may drive with crosses hanging from their mirrors; besides the fact that Catholic and Orthodox crosses vary in design, they may also have by the cross - or elsewhere visible - their national flags. In addition, Croats and Serbs in areas where they form a majority do not display the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina or any national Bosnian symbols, making it clear that where Bosnian national markers are shown - whether attached to the registration plate, the back of the car or the interior - the driver/family is Bosniak.

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