Country Bosnia and Herzegovina Time zone CET (UTC+1) Area 177.5 km² Area code 54 | Entity Republika Srpska Website [1] Local time Sunday 10:52 PM | |
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Weather 16°C, Wind E at 11 km/h, 40% Humidity | ||
Šamac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шамац, [ʃâmat͡s]) is a town and municipality in the northeastern part of the Republika Srpska entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, located on the right bank of the Sava river. Across the river is Slavonski Šamac in Croatia.
Contents
Map of %C5%A0amac, Bosnia and Herzegovina
History
The city was founded by Bosnian settlers from Ottoman province of Smederevo in 1862. It was part of the Ottoman province of Bosnia by the time it was annexed by Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1887. After World War I, the city became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From 1929 to 1939, it was part of Drina Banovina; and from 1939 until 1941 it was part of the Banovina of Croatia. During World War II, Šamac, as all the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was included into Nazi-controlled Independent State of Croatia. After 1945, the city was reintegrated within the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tito's Yugoslavia.
In the early stages of the Bosnian war the town was occupied by Bosnian Serbs who established the provisional municipal government. Most Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats were ethnically cleansed. During the war, a semi-permanent front line was established against Croatian and Bosniak forces towards the neighboring Orašje. In 2003, three Bosnian Serb town leaders at the time of the Yugoslav Wars were sentenced in ICTY for crimes against humanity.
The town lies on an important strategic position in Republika Srpska, near Brčko. As with most other places under Serb control, Srpska authorities removed the "Bosnian" adjective from the town's official name and changed it to "Šamac". Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats continued to refer to it by its historical name of "Bosanski Šamac" (Serbian Cyrillic: Босански Шамац, pronounced [bǒsanskiː ʃâmat͡s]) causing tension among the inhabitants. A court order had the official name changed to simply Šamac removing any ethnic divisions in its previous names.
Demographics
The ethnic composition of the municipality:
Sport
The local football club, FK Borac Šamac, plays in the First League of the Republika Srpska.