HUMAN RIGHTS IN B&H

Justice according to Ethnic Origin

AIM Sarajevo, June 17, 1996

Created more than two years ago, the Federation of the Bosniac and the Croat people has not become operational yet - relations between them have transformed from classical war into cold war, and the main protagonists are those who present themselves as national leaders - leaders of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ). This conflict which is still going on, has created spacious ethnically cleansed regions, and the consequence is pronounced discrimination of minority nations in almost all spheres of fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Even a superficial glance at the structure of violations of human rights on the territory of Bosnia & Herzegovina (without the Serb entity) - which is a part of the annual report on human rights written by ombudsmen of the Federation B&H Vera Jovanovic, Esad Muhibic and Branka Raguz - leads to the impression of the man, the citizen under the grindstone of eternal conflict between justice and injustice, rights and lack of rights. Especially because both rights and justice are dominated by the ethnic characteristic.

The gravest consequence of such a situation is violation of the right of refugees and banished persons to return which is included in all international conventions, the Constitution of the Federation, and which is also "underlined" by the signatures from Dayton. With the exception of return of a part of Fikret Abdic's supporters from the camp in Kuplensko in the Republic of Croatia to Velika Kladusa, Cazin and other places in the Una-Sana Canton, this process has not even started in other parts of the Federation. Although signed by the highest officials of the Federation, Republic of B&H and Republic of Croatia, the agreement on pilot return of 200 and 100 families to Jajce, Bugojno and Stolac respectively has not been carried out yet, and just an insignificant number has returned to Travnik. In fact, only the bravest are returning, on their own initiative (for example, return of the Croats to Vares), but due to their status of citizens of the second order there, they are not enabled to exercise their fundamental rights prescribed by the Constitution and other laws, they have neither personal security nor security of their property, nor even the right to humanitarian aid.

In the Federation of B&H, iuris prudence is dominated by politics. The legal state has been pushed to the margins, and only that which is in the interest of one's own ("my private") nation is articulated as supreme and the only political interest. In this sense, the position of the judiciary is interesting: since, depending on the place they are located in, judges and jurists in courts and tribunals are all members of a single ethnic group, it is logical that the citizens have bo confidence in them. This is often proved by numerous examples in a very painful manner.

Competent state agencies as a rule ignore official statements of ombudsmen of the Federation in their efforts to protect threatened rights of the citizens who appeal to them. Such attitude towards ombudsmen has spread from the highest to almost all government agencies in all spheres. The Second Corps of the Army of B&H, for instance, wrote to the ombudsmen: "The Army of B&H is a well established institution which, pursuant legal regulations, resolves housing issues of all its members. Mediation of any agency in this system means disturbance of the system of management and command in the Army, which we as an institution, cannot allow anyone outside the system of the Army to do, not even ombudsmen."

It sometimes happens that the current laws are a source of violation of human rights and freedoms. Such are the Law on Citizenship, the Law on Tranfer of Funds of the Former SFRY to the Property of the Republic of B&H and the Law on Abandoned Housing Units. Their most important provisions are contrary to the Constitution of the Federation and international conventions B&H has signed and and incorporated into its Constitution. All attempts of the ombudsmen to change the controversial provisions of these laws have remained unsuccessful.

The fact that right to housing and property are most commonly violated is quite logical, in view of the fact that millions of people have been forced to move from their homes and that ruling national parties are quietly but persistently implementing their policy of "humane moving of nations". Refugees and banished persons have lost their tenancy rights, but even their private property. By application of the method of force and ethnically apt, the authorities have left many people without anything at all. The worst of all is the fact that attempts were made to legalize this illegal behavior, and such practice was most common in Sarajevo.

It was expected that abolishment of the state of war would bring some order in this sphere. However, the legislator has determined that the refugees and the banished persons must return and begin using their housing units within seven or fifteen days which was practically unfeasible considering the circumstances. Even if some did return within this time limit, it was impossible for them to actually get into their apartments, because with a "temporary" permit of a competent agency, some other people had already been living in them. Acting in this manner, the state practically prevented return of (unwanted) people to their homes.

The example of Bosniac families banished from three villages in Jablanica municipality and from Prozor (controlled by the Croat Defence Council-HVO) is drastic: these unfortunate people, by order of the municipal authorities of Jablanica were accomodated in Croat houses where the Croats had already lived. And the members of these families had been shooting at each other for two years! If the state is capable of interpreting the tenancy right any way it chooses, private property is inviolable, as stated by the Constitution. In practice, however, for example in Western Mostar, members of minority nations and mixed marriages are losing their private property even several months after Dayton: armed policemen and soldiers with insignia of the HVO simply break into an apartment or a house and throw the owner with his family out into the street. Even the Euuropean administration of Mostar is closing its eyes to the truth.

In the region of Tuzla, Zivinica and Srebrenik, Bosniac authorities have forcibly taken away housing units and thrown 57 families of Serb nationality out of them, mostly elderly and ailing people. In the region of Livno, as minority group, the Bosniacs were forced to surrender their business premises to the Croats who are the majority population there. The same situation is in Bugojno, but with the only difference that Bosniacs are the majority population over there. In Western Mostar, Livno and Bugojno, minority groups are also deprived of the right to work, and in Sarajevo and Tuzla by application of the notorious method of "workers waiting for jobs" the authorities have created a large number of ethnically cleansed enterprises, health services, faculties and other institutions.

All the parties in power, are swearing by bell, book and candle that they are in favour of a state of law, but Bosnia & Herzegovina is still a long way from it. For the situation of human rights, everybody still blames the other party.

DRAGAN STANOJLOVIC