Refugees: Return to Uncertainty

AIM Banja Luka, July 26, 2000

How to return to one's pre-war home - is a question which many refugee families are still trying to answer five years after the signing of the Dayton Accords. A large number of apartment buildings all over B&H still stand demolished.

Nevertheless, the competent B&H authorities think that in comparison to previous years, a significant progress has been made with the return process. Drago Vuleta, Assistant Minister for Refugees and Displaced Persons of RS, says that this year the process of return to the Republic of Srpska will proceed at a quicker pace. Similar is the opinion of RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, who says that only malicious people can disregard this year's results of return.

By the end of last December, out of the total number of 9,200 applications for the restitution of property in RS, only 3,130 have been realised. However, by late May this year, twice as many applications have been submitted - around 17,936. Out of that number, 5,826 have returned to RS, mostly Croats and Bosniacs. The Ministry claims that some 750 flats have been returned to their pre-war owners.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the international community is the one who is insisting most on the return of owners to their pre-war homes. The Association of Refugees claims that resources for the reconstruction of demolished homes are insufficient. They want to know what they will live on once they return. "It is not enough to have accommodation, we need electricity, water, jobs, etc.", they say.

Thirty Serbian returnees, mostly elderly people, who came to the village of Tomina near Sanski Most, have been living in the village school for the last four months. "In the demolished houses we discovered old cooking stoves which we placed in school-rooms and that's where we are living now," tells us Jelica Simic, a returnee. The largest room in this dilapidated school is used as common kitchen in which they prepare food.

Although the whole village has electricity, the school still doesn't have any although the transformer sub-station is just a few miles away. Djuro Simic says that they every ten days they got promises that they would get the electricity, and it has been four months now that the only light in the school comes from candles gathered at the nearby cemetery.

Similar is the fate of returnees to RS. In the last year, some 200 families have returned to the area of the commune of Prijedor. Although the competent communal authorities in Prijedor are more than satisfied with the number of returnees, they claim that resources from the international community and humanitarian organisations are insufficient for the reconstruction of a large number of destroyed facilities. "At this moment, the most important thing is to start the construction of housing buildings," says Muharem Murselovic, Vice-President of the Communal Assembly of Prijedor. He expects more intensive return to Prijedor till the end of this year.

However, the returnees do not share the politicians' optimism. Those who return frequently cannot move into their houses. In the commune of Prijedor the returnees to Kozarac are in the worst situation as they have been forced to live under tents for several months. "This is a great shame. We have come back just to get a roof over our heads, expecting help, and help is nowhere to be seen," explains Tahir Muhanovic the uncertainty in which the returnees live.

The return to RS is much complicated by the problem of Serbs who have fled Croatia. With their return to Croatia, the return of minorities to RS would become much easier. However, a large number of their houses and flats in Croatia have been taken by the Bosnian Croats. President of the Serbian Democratic Forum for Banjaluka and Kordun, Dragan Popovic, says that in Vojnic alone some 2 thousand Croats, who came from the Western parts of RS, are living in Serbian flats.

It seemed that the return would finally start, after RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula, issued a joint statement on the two-way return of citizens to Croatia and RS and the protection of private property rights. But, at the very outset the first problems emerged. Lovro Pekovic, Deputy Minister in the Croatian Ministry of Public Works, says that the problem is primarily the lack of alternative accommodation for all those who temporarily live in houses that should be returned to their owners. According to Pekovic, there can be no talk about funds for the reconstruction of infrastructure as there is not enough money.

After the signing of an agreement on the return of 2 thousand refugees from both sides, some 328 families came back to RS and the return of another 1,173 persons is in process. On the other hand, the number of Serbs returning to Croatia is negligible. Out of 10 thousand submitted applications for the restitution of property in the Republic of Croatia, only 3 thousand have been resolved. One of the reasons for such a small number of returnees is also the 1996 Agreement on the Mutual Legal Aid signed between the Republic of Croatia (RC) and B&H. The problem is that RS is nowhere mentioned in that Agreement, so that RS documents are still not recognised in Croatia.

Deputy Minister for Refugees and Displaced Persons, Petar Dzodan points out that major problem is that in Croatia discriminating laws on the restitution of property are still in force, notably the Law on the Suspension of Tenant's Rights, so that Serbs refuse to return to urban settlements. Irrespective of the situation on the ground, both sides think that an important step forward has been made after the signing of the Agreement on Two-Way Return.

Allun Roberts, spokesman for the UN Mission for the region of Banjaluka

• Bihac, disagrees with him. "It seems that on the official level someone is constantly congratulating someone else on the success achieved. However, the people whom this directly concerns, are unable to go back", says Roberts.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), since the start of the application of property laws in F B&H till the end of this February, 4,882 families have been evicted. In the Republic of Srpska only, 424 evictions have been carried out. However, competent RS authorities claim that in major places in the Republic, 2 to 6 families are evicted daily, and in smaller places about 2 families. Although it was decided to provide adequate alternative accommodation to evicted families, the Law on the Suspension of the Application of the Law on the Use of Abandoned Property envisages that this accommodation could also be in collective centres. And, at this moment, there are still 6 thousand refugees and displaced persons living in collective centres all over the Republic of Srpska.

On the other hand, in 7 B&H communes property laws are not implemented at all. These are mostly communes with the Croatian majority population. Consequently, in Capljina, Tomislavgrad, Glamoc and Mostar communities of Jug, Jugozapad and Zapad until today, not a single eviction of illegal tenants has been carried out.

According to the data of the International Crisis Group, a significant number of refugees in RS have returned to the communes of Srbinje, Trnovo, Zvornik, Han Pjesak, Sokolac and Rogatica. In regions where the Bosniacs are the majority, according to the findings of the International Crisis Group, the greatest number of Serbs returned to the communes in Gorazde, Sarajevo, Sanski Most, Grahovo, Kljuc and Travnik.

By all appearances, patience is still the greatest ally of the refugees and exiled population of B&H. There is not much use from declarations and rhetoric of politicians, both national and those from international organisation. Especially having in mind the increasingly frequent announcements on the reduction of donations.

Sanela Zivkovic

(AIM)