(ANSA) - SARAJEVO, MAR 1 - You can see thousands of national flags on public buildings and along the main avenues of Sarajevo today because Bosnia-Herzegovina is celebrating 27 years of independence. An achievement which cost a lot in terms of destruction and human lives. But the celebration always occurs in the midst of ethnic and political divisions. Today is a public holiday in the Bh Federation (with a Bosniak Muslim and Croat majority), the anniversary is not celebrated at all in the Republika Srpska (Rs, the other entity, Serbian majority). March 1 marks the anniversary of the referendum held between February 29 and March 1, 1992, supported and financed by the European Union, in which 64% of the citizens, more than 2m voters out of 4.2m residents, voted in favor of independence. According to Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, current president of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, today is a ''private party of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) that will never be celebrated in the Rs'', being a symbol of the denial of rights and suffering of the Serbs. ''It is not my party'', said Dodik, underlining that ''there is no law on public holidays approved by the three peoples of the entity'' (Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks, ed).

The referendum which was held 27 years ago was boycotted by the nationalists Serbs who had already proclaimed the Serbian Republic in Bosnia in the Sarajevo Parliament in January. One month after the referendum, the federal army (with Serbian majority) attacked Sarajevo, starting a siege of the city which lasted 3,5 yrs. At the end of the conflict, on February 28, 1995, the Bosnian parliament declared March 1 the Independence Day the country's National Day. (ANSA).