severely damaged; around 1000 were slightly damaged, do to vandalism and plunder, after Croats left, more than to actual fighting. Around 1,200 Croats from Kakanj gathered from Vares, in September 1993, at the Pineta Camping in Novigrad, Croatian Istria, that was set up as a refugee camp for the winter.
Between March and June 1994, Croats and Bosniaks signed the Washington Agreement, forming the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The situation in Kakanj improved, but refugees did not came back. Health and sanitation conditions are poor, even though not severe; an hepatitis epidemic is recorded in 1994. Food Security is under control, thanks to humanitarian aid, even though prices remain prohibitive and most of the family survive with company-organized distribution and kitchen gardens. Almost all productive activities are stopped, and nobody receive any salary, but monthly food packages. Most of the young people are enrolled in Armija BiH.
Kakanj after the war
After the war the population of Kakanj sum up to 48,000, of which 43,000 are Bosnjaks, 4,000 are Croats, and few hundreds are Serbs. No case of discrimination is recorded, and religious life carries on regularly. Around 10,000-14,000 people have left, and the same number came to Kakanj, strengthening the Bosniak community. The main problem is that of around 6,000 Bosnjak refugees from Republika Srpska, occupying formerly Croat houses. From 1995 to 1998, some hundreds of Croats made individual returns to Kakanj, and 3,000Bosniak refugees came back to their original towns.
The municipality was managed by a Bosniak SDA majority, while HDZ Croat refugees from Kakanj constituted a "shadow Municipality" in Čapljina, Herzegovina, pressing for re-possessing their houses and forming a separate, Croat Kakanj Municipality.
Economy in Kakanj as in Central Bosnia, notwithstanding promises, does not start off, and many young people leave or do not come back from gastarbeiter
