A NEW WAVE OF HOUSEBREAKINGS

In Split, which was already notorious in this respect, only in the past few days at least five families were thrown out from flats belonging to the former YPA, and it is assessed that at least as many have found themselves in the street. Now too the tenants are being thrown out by "unidentified persons in uniforms of the Army of Croatia". It seems that those who claim that a well organized military mafia engaged in war profiteering and taking advantage of the war - patriotic situation is behind all that, are right.

AIM, SPLIT, February 1, 1994

When at the beginning of December Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission for the Observance of Human Rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia paid one of his "routine" visits to Croatia, he added another item to the long list of well-known, classical examples of the violation and non-observance of human rights - the forcible breaking into flats and the throwing out of people, mainly from flats of the former YPA. The outcry and criticism made at that time concerning these problems, were addressed directly to the highest Croatian authorities, and to the Ministry of Defence - because it is, on the one hand currently the owner of all the former military flats and, on the other, because forcible housebreaking is mainly done by members of the Army of Croatia - and instilled hope, as did official promises, that an end would be put to this form of terrorism.

However, after a short respite, it seems that a new "offensive" has been mounted against military flats. In Split, already notorious in this respect, only in the past few days unidentified persons in uniforms of the Army of Croatia threw at least five families out of their flats, but it is assumed that the number is even twice larger.

As reported by the Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights which was recently established, among other things, precisely with the aim of efficiently opposing such terrorism, on January 30, this year in the evening hours, more precisely at 8.30 p.m, some fifteen uniformed members of the Army of Croatia broke into a flat at 19, Cimic Street and threw out the family of Branko Lunic.

On January 28, also in the evening, eight uniformed persons threw out the family of Biserka Radosavljevic from their flat in 29, Poljicka Street. On January 30, at about 10:30 a.m. some ten persons broke into the flat of Mirjana Softic and threw the family out. On January 29 at 1:00 a.m. four uniformed persons threw out the family of Tatjana Beukovac from their flat in 23, Cimunic Street. Already on January 27, Nuzija Begovic had been ordered to vacate her flat and several days later people in uniform broke into the flat, changed the lock on the door and told her to leave the flat with her belongings, as soon as possible. According to Tonci Majic, the President of the Dalamtian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, whose activists have organized duty watches in several other flats, whose tenants have for the time being been threatened with throwing out only by phone, this probably does not exhaust the list.

How this terrorism actually looks like is perhaps best illustrated by some stories of the people who have been thrown out. For instance, the seven-year old daughter of Branko Lunic was thrown out of their flat in her nightgown, after a knife had been put to her throat, presumably with the intention to cause special "effects". She was not even allowed to take away her first school books. And in the flat of Mirjana Softic, a gun was pointed and cocked at the head of her two-year old child. The possible attempts of neighbours to come to their assistance can also have a tragic outcome. Thus, the neighbour who called the military police to intervene when the flat of the family Radosavljevic was broken into, was beaten and, and according to some of those who say that they believed that it was their civil duty to demand the intervention of the civil or military police authorities, they often get the, now already classical reply, "And what do you, Chetnik whores, want?"

In the current wave of the forcible "taking" of flats, the housebreakers no longer choose their victims. Namely, the national affiliation of the tenant being thrown out is no longer important. As witnesses report, they simply break into flats, claiming that they are the property of the Army of Croatia, that they will clean all those flats of their hitherto tenants, and that they have to be given to the invalids and fighters of the war for the homeland. They also claim that they already have the necessary papers for those flats, although as a rule they can never produce them.

On the other hand, there are the people with provisional or final papers for the flats from which they are now being thrown out by force. For instance, Mirjana Softic has the Decision of the Communal Court of Split from 1992 giving her exclusive tenancy rights to the flat after her divorce a long time ago from her husband, a member of the military, who withdrew from Croatia with the former YPA. Similar is the case of Biserka Radosavljevic. However, it is unequivocal that none of the current tenants can be evicted from the flat they occupy, by any other than legal means and according to the legal procedure, which Croatia accepted by signing a number of treaties and documents when the former YPA left.

Regrettably, all attempts to avoid terrorism and forcible breaking into flats by invoking legal procedures and alerting the law enforcement authorities, have no results whatsoever. After drawing up a report, the civil police generally avoids having to take action by claiming that the matter is in the competence of the military police (even when it has the grounds to react beacuse of the brutality of the case), while the military police is most often a direct accomplice because it, as a rule, only registeres the case post festum, although it is invited to prevent the use of force, and is most often present while the tenants are actually being thrown out.

The latest cases in Split have, through the Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights and the Croatian Helsinki Board, reveberated in the international public and the military police authorities of Split have , as testified to by the evicted tenants, announced that they would, because of the decision and pressure of the Ministry of Defence in Zagreb, take certain measures and try to return the tenants to their flats. However, already today after the first storm has passed, this initial "enthusiasm" has subsided and the evicted tenants were told that the military police can do nothing and that they should try to seek redress directly from the Ministry of Defence in Zagreb.

This is, most probably, the beginning of a calvary of homelessness which can hardly have a positive outcome. Among the cca 5,000 people evicted from their flats by force, the figure presented during the visit of the already mentioned Tadeusz Mazowiecki, rare exceptions are those who have managed to solve their problem in a positive manner, and get back their tenancy rights, i.e. return to their flats, even if so decreed by the court.

In this whole story, intriguing are the recently published facts and provisional data on the number of invalids and fighters of the war for the homeland who got regular papers according them tenancy rights to the vacated flats of the former YPA, which show that, in relative terms, these categories probably fared the worst. Right seem those who claim that a well organized military mafia is behind all this, which takes advantage of the war - patriotic situation, and which, screened by the non - functional state, to which this too comes in handy as a special form of ethnic cleansing, build up their business and actually engage in war profiteering.

STOJAN OBRADOVIC