RACE FOR SERB HOUSES

AIM Split, July 18, 1996

One house was blown up, a woman eight months pregnant was thrown out in the street, a well-known lawyer is being threatened as a "defender of the Serbs", houses are being broken into, locks are forcibly changed, whole families chased away from dynamited houses.

This is not a script of an American horror movie, but a realistic picture of what has been happening during the past few days in Sibenik, where the decision of the Croatian Government to bring houses and weekend cottages of foreign citizens (read: the Serbs) "under control", was practically the signal for the beginning of the race to get hold of Serb property.

Just a reminder that this is a matter of implementation of the Law on temporary taking possession and management of certain property, which was adopted by the Croatian Assembly after last-year's operation "Storm" against Krajina.

To say it in simple terms, the Croatian state has decided to control all realestate of the Serbs who had fled from the territory called until last year "Serb Krajina", which was abandoned by its owners or which is not used by them.

Pursuant this Law, Croatia became "temporary administrator" (but not the owner, at least not until the final solution of relations between Zagreb and Belgrade) of property of those foreign citizens (read: Serbs, again) who possess the "red Yugoslav passport", but do not use this property (mostly weekend houses along the Adriatic coast).

The Law was adopted on September 27, 1995, when hundreds of magnificent houses and a humble weekend cottage here and there in the region of the city of Sibenik as if in a lottery, were suddenly put in a drum to be drawn out, intended to accomodate at least temporarily, mostly those who had felt the effects of the war the most - banished persons and refugees, families of those killed and lost, disabled veterans and other victims of the war.

The plan of Croatian authorities was simple: to accomodate victims of the Homeland War (Croats) into abandoned houses or summer cottages along the coast until their own demolished houses in former Krajina were made fit for living, and in this way empty hotels for the forthcoming tourist season (majority of banished persons and refugees were accomodated in hotels along the Adriatic), and it would not be bad to have an "ace up one's sleeve" in tedious negotiations with Belgrade on division of property of former SFRY.

Indeed, as experts in property relations say, it is not impossible that this "abandoned property" may some day be included in the package of the so-called "succession", or simply said in division of property of the former joint state between the newly established states.

In the first round of the race for "Serb weekend cottages" in Sibenik, 146 citizens applied to participate, but only fifty endured the competition and received decisions in writing from a special Commission. About 60 houses in weekend settlement called Jadrija were put in the drum, as well as hundred odd ones in Bilice, a little less in Zaborice, and about fifty in the region of Brodarice, Grebstica and on the islands.

But, as by a rule, the Law did not survive the test of reality - instead of banished persons and refugees, or invalids without housing or permanent residence (which might have been a justified move of Croatian authorities from the humanitarian aspect), those who are absolutely in no need of accomodation have begun entering the "Serb houses", those who already have houses of their own, those who are close "to the altar of power", those who by a system of connections and privileges, or by application of mere force, interpret prescriptions of the mentioned Law in their own way.

Let us mention just two cases. Professor Ljiljana Uzunovic (a Serb) owns a house in Zaborici near Sibenik. After a serious cancer surgery in the Military Hospital in Belgrade in 1991, she goes to her daughter's in the capital of the FRY. She tries to return in 1992, because the house in Zaborrici is her only property, her only residence which she has never cancelled her registration from, she still receives her Croatian pension. And yet, she has never managed to return, because she did not have the opportunity to obtain Croatian citizenship certificate, and still owns the old, "red passport". In her house until a few days ago, together with a family from Drnis, lived Ladislava Mihelcic (a Croat) with her four-year old son and husband, Croatian soldier. They are all Croatian citizens.

But, a few days ago, Ladislava Mihelcic, who is eight-months pregnant, was thrown out into the street, without any of her things, abused and threatened by the "new owner", worker of the Croatian counter intelligence service (SIS), a retired disabled veteran of the Homeland War, who without the decision of the famous Commission, changed the lock at the entrance and said: "Out you go, this is mine".

The other "Sibenik case" blew up one of the most beautiful villas in Sibenik. Its owner, Nikola Dumic, lives in Belgrade, but having been informed that his ancestral property has also ended up in the "drum", he managed to reach Sibenik and prove to the Commission that he possessed all the necessary papers on ownership. But his joy did not last long. In a deafening detonation, one night, at 20 minutes past one, his villa "blew up". The owner, scared to death, left Sibenik, taking away with him the clear message of those who put the dynamite: "When we cannot have it, neither will you".

The race for Serb weekend houses in Sibenik continues, and as the renowned Sibenik lawyer, Vera Bego-Macura, who represents in court some of the damaged owners, told us, these two were not cases of abandoned property (which would imply implementation of the mentioned Law), but of prevention of legal owners to return to Croatia and practise their rights.

When and how this "race" in Sibenik will end, it is hard to tell, but according to the words of lawyer Vera Bego-Macura, the only chance the owners have is to wait for the status of banished persons of those who are in their houses to expire (September 1 this year) and then try to assert their rights.

What will become of those houses taken by those who are neither banished persons nor refugees, but got the keys of "Serb houses" for other "merits", remains in the sphere of speculations and hope of the owners that some day they might after all be "guests in their weekend houses".

DARKO BARAC