THE INITIATION OF A NEW WAVE OF EVICTIONS

After a six month moratorium, a few days back the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia has initiated the eviction of tenants from the former flats of the Yugoslav People's Army. A few days before the new wave of evictions, they were announced by the Croatian Helsinki Committee, which together with other human rights organizations is decisively opposing them. Owing in the first place to them, a number of evictions has been cancelled in the last few days.

The Ministry of Defence is executing the evictions on the basis of a Decree passed by the Government of the Republic of Croatia which prohibits the disposing of immovable property of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Federal Secretariat for National Defence. The representatives of the organizations for the protection of human rights pointed out that the validity of the decree is questionable. The Croatian Helsinki Committee, therefore, proposed that the whole complicated legal issue be brought to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia. However, the Ministry of Defence and other state agencies persistently defend themselves by "keeping silent" and are continuing with their initial plan - announcing and attempting to execute almost every day an eviction or two. Their silence has only reinforced the argument that in fact the real reasons for re-initiating the evictions should be searched for in the political sphere.

The Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, drew attention to the speech President Tudjman gave at the beginning of June at a Convention of the Federation of Croatian Soldiers, in which he asks: "Why are there six thousand flats inhabited by Serbs, while you Croatian invalids have no place to live?" According to the data of non-governmental human rights organizations, updated just a few days ago, in the forthcoming period, a few hundred evictions are planned in Croatia - about a hundred in Zagreb, 190 in Pula and a few hundred in Karlovac.

It is unknown whether all the flats are in the category of those for which tenancy rights were issued after the passing of the Government decree in July 1991. According to inofficial estimates there are about 3800 such tenancy rights - which amount to 10 percent of the total military dwellings in Croatia.

AIM, ZAGREB, July 14, 1994

The Jovic family - Kristina, Darko and their two children - Domagoj (3,5 years old) and Dora ( one year old)

• have successfully weathered the fourth attempt of eviction from the flat which was given to Kristina as an employee of the then Military, and now, New Hospital in Zagreb by the Garrison of the former Yugoslav People's Army. For remaining in the flat - especially after the two last attempts of eviction which took place in a span of only four days - July 7-th and 11-th - the Jovic family has to thank most the organizations for the protection of human rights - Croatian Helsinki Committee and Civil Committee for Human Rights, whose representatives came to the announced evictions and succeeded in preventing them - at least for the time being.

The eviction execution teams - made up of two representatives from the Minicipal Secretariat for Construction, Utilities and Housing Affairs, Ministry of Defence and the police - did not succeed in implementing the plan because, as stated in their minutes - "the required conditions for executing the evictions were not fulfilled."

The Jovic case is only a drop in the once again growing wave of evictions in Croatia, which appeared after a six month calm - which began in December last year, when the Ministry of Defence, the executer of the evictions, announced their moratorium which was actually observed for half a year. The newest "revival" of the evictions of tenants from flats "given for use to Croatian nationals from housing facilities in the ownership of the former Yugoslav Army" was made known to the public, prior to its implmentation, by the Croatian Helsinki Committee. In its press release of July 3, the Committee stated that "it disposed with information that in the forthcoming period over two hundred families would be evicted from their flats."

A day after appearing, the warning of the Croatian Helsinki Committee proved grounded and justified - the members of the Ministry of Defence, aided by the civilian police, tried to evict the Melkic family - husband and wife and their two children. The holder of the tenancy right to this flat is Enes Melkic, employeed in the former Military Technical School Centre in Zagreb. This was the third attempt to move out the Melkic family which they successfully avoided - this time probably owing to the presence of an exceptionally large number of people that gathered on that occasion - members of domestic and foreign organizations for the protection of human rights, members of Parliament, representatives of the USA Embassy and a large number of journalists.

The following days only confirmed the fact that the announced series of evictions were not just " much to do about nothing". On the same day - on July 11 - when the Jovic family had to bear yet another attempt of being moved out in only four days - the same executers with the same orders came to the flat of the Cerovina family. They too were "saved"on this occasion by witnesses - the activists of organizations for the protection of human rights, especially the Croatian Helsinki Committee which held in their flat, at the time when the eviction team came, a press conference.

All the mentioned cases of the current eviction drive coincide in one thing - the tenancy rights were given to their users on the basis of the decisions brought by the bodies of the former Yugoslav People's Army, after July 24, 1991, the date when the Decree of the Croatian Goverment was passed on the prohibition of disposing with the property of the JNA and Federal Secretariat for National Defence. The Ministry of Defence, which on October 3, 1991 on the basis of a Decree of the Croatian Government became the owner of the former JNA flats, namely, the Municipal Secretariat for Housing Affirs, which issued at the request of the Ministry the eviction orders, refer to this Decree, pointing out that the decisions on the use of the flats, considering that the JNA authorities issued them at a time when the Decree was effective - are null and void.

The representatives of the organizations for the protection of human rights are continuing to point out, as they did last year at the height of the eviction drive, that the validity of the mentioned Decree is questionable. In the process they call upon the Brioni Declaration - a document which suspends for a three month periods all acts passed by the Croatian and Slovenian Assemblies on the separation and independence of states - and which was naturally signed by Croatia. According to the opinion of the non-governmental organizations for the protection of human rights, the agreement signed on November 22, 1991 also speaks in favour of the validity of tenancy rights awarded after the adoption of the "controversial" Decree, and by which Croatia undertook to guarantee " personal safety, inviolability of private property and right to unhindered use of flats to members of units, institutions and commands of the Yugoslav People's Army."

The representatives of the Croatian Helsinki Committee suggested that this complicated legal issue be brought before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, which should re-examine the constitutionality and legality of the Decree on the prohibition of disposing with the property of the Yugoslav People's Army and Federal Secretariat for National Defence. They substantiated their suggestion by pointing out the fact that the Croatian Constitution stipulates the bringing of decrees with legal effect only in cases a state of war or state of emergency is proclaimed - what has never been done in Croatia - and that the Assembly must verify every Decree - as soon as circumstances allow its convening - which has not been done in respect to the mentioned Decree. Regardless of the possible proceedings in the Constitutional Court and its outcome, the representatives of the Croatian Helsinski Committee pointed out once again in connection with the latest evictions, that they, as well as the ones executed last yer, were illegal, since decisions on evictions were brought by administrative bodies rather than by courts - the only institutions competent for bringing such decisions.

And while the Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, publicly appeals for an agreement - and proposes the proclamation of a six month moratorium on evictions and the simultaneous establishment of a commission composed of representatives of the judicature, Ministry of Defence and non-governmental organizations - the other side persistently defends itself by "keeping silent" and continues to act as planned - namely by announcing and trying to execute a few evictions every day. Therefore, there is still no official explanation why the Ministry of Defence decided - precisely at this time - to violate its own moratorium, for which it claimed at the time it was brought that it would be in force until the status of all military flats was not legally resolved.

In that respect, the situation hasn't changed for a bit - on the contrary, the Assembly took off the agenda last month the Government's bill on resolving the status of military flats and their tenants. The lack of any attempts by the "State party" to legally ad formally substantiate the newest wave of evictions, has only reinforced the argument that the real reasons or impulses for the revival of evictions should be searched for on the other side - in the political sphere. Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, the Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, drew attention to the speech given by President Tudjman at the beginning of June at a Convention of Croatian Disabled Veterans. After stating that Croatia would recognize all minority and ethnic rights to those Serbs who wish to recognize Croatia as their homeland, Tudjman asked: "Why are there 6000 flats occupied by Serbs, while you Croatian veterans have no dwellings of your own?"

Although after having said this sentence the Croatian President pleaded that "our" problems should not be resolved by threatening the rights of "other" citizens, the fact remains, as the representaitves of the HHO have pointed out,that a few weeks after Tudjman said what he said, and after a six month calm, evictions from military flats were set in motion once again. At this month's press conference, President Tudjman dit not take advantage of the opportunity to deny the foundedness of this marked coincidence.

On the contrary, after having said that there were "no unlawfull evictions" but rather that "each individual evictions was being carried out only and exclusively on the basis of a court decision", the Croatian President placed once again the problem into "a broader context" - calling to mind that the evictions were being undertaken againt "those individuals who were to blame or are in some connected with those who are responsible for the fact that we have in Croatia today 250 thousand people who have been evicted from their flats, whose homes they have destroyed as well as for the death of thousands of people."

According to the data of non-governmental human rights organizations updated just a few days ago, in the forthcoming period a few hundred evictions are planned in Croatia - about a hundred in Zagreb, to the main part flats allocated by the former Military Hospital, 190 in Pula and a few hundred in Karlovac. It is unkown whether all these flats belong to the category of those for which the tenants were given tenancy rights after the passing of the Government Decree in July 1991. According to inofficial estimates, there are about 3800 such flats, namely 10 percent of the total number of military dwellings in Croatia.

It can be assumed that the evictions which are to ensue, as well as those which have been attempted in the last few days, will be justified by the need to solve the housing problems of the disabled homeland war veterans and other soldiers. The representatives of HHO have recently voiced their dissapproval with such a "housing policy", which among other things, has generated an artificial confrontation between the representatives of the Committee and the Croatian veterans and disabled soldiers. The Croatian Helsinki Committee, as is emphasized, understands and supports the requests of the soldiers and disabled veterans, but considers that their problems cannot be resolved through evictions, but rather by the building of new flats.

The absurdity of the hitherto housing policy of the Ministry of Defence is illustrated by the case of the Jovic family. They were to be evicted from their flat which has already been allocated to Marinko Saric, a one hundred percent invalid, although Darko Jovic, the husband of the tenancy right holder, was awarded the Homeland War Memorial Medal.The difficulty of establishing the substance of the criteria behind the present eviction policy can be confirmed by the fact that the majority of latest eviction attempts concerned tenants - of Crotian nationality. This fact can serve at the same time as an argument that President Tudjman is not to "blame" for opening the eviction season - considering that in his speech he only mentioned the " flats in which Serbs live."

VESNA ROLLER