THE STATE OF HELPLESS PEOPLE

Human Rights in B&H

AIM Sarajevo, 5 May, 1997

The regular annual report of the federal Ombudsmen, Vera Jovanovic, Esad Muhibic and Branka Raguz, on the status of human rights and freedoms on the territory of the Federation, but whole of B&H too, is in fact a list of methods by application of which ethnic division begun in the war is being completed now as an introduction to final division of territories.

It is true that the Ombudsmen have stated that the Federation and the state of B&H have in their Constitutions the most progressive system of protection of human rights, but with the prefix - theoretically. That is why the Ombudsmen assess: "Big differences between regulations concerning human rights and the reality in the sphere of protection of human rights cause a feeling of helplessness among the citizens... The present situation in which there are no sanctions for violators nor mechanisms with a powerful mandate, is convenient for the state of anarchy and absence of the rule of law". This anarchy is present even in regulations, which is caused by "postponement or refusal to have the legal system of the Federation established, that is, to adopt the federal legislature, but also laws on the level of the state". Along with everything else, the Ombudsmen say, this brought about an increase of - absence of authority.

At the same time, in the thousand-year long history of B&H, there have never been more authorities and laws, but only normatively speaking. In the state of B&H, three legal systems and three state apparatuses are operating nowadays independently of each other, and on the level of the Federation, there are two systems and two state apparatuses. On the other hand, four municipalities which are the key for reintegration of the Federation - Bugojno, Vares, Stolac and Capljina - have not been constituted even formally pursuant the federal legislature. Those which have, however, have authorities which meet once in a few months. To be honest, even that is unnecessary, because "municipal authorities are not independent and operate on the basis of instructions of the political top echelons of the authorities".

Reminding of Montesquieu's saying that "every man who has power is inclined to abuse that power", V. Jovanovic, E. Muhbic and B. Raguz claim that those who are by the nature of their profession predetermined to protect laws - lawyers - "in practice are neither ready nor have the courage to implement rules of their profession". Indeed, the Constitution of B&H (Item 2 of its Article 2) outlined the rights and freedoms pursuant the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. And the Constitution is the supreme law. However, the Ombudsmen claim that despite that, "laws whose provisions are not coordinated with the quoted Convention are in force or are implemented", and list the following: the Law on Criminal Proceedings, the Law on Citizenship, the Criminal Law...

The authorities implement even laws which should have ceased to be in effect after abolishment of the state of war, and the immediate danger of war: The Law on Abandoned Housing Units, the Law on Abandoned Real Estate, the Law on Mobilization of Material Resources, and numerous other laws - in fact, about 400 of them!

"This directly leads to the situation in which laws are direct source and foundation of violation of human rights", the Ombudsmen conclude.

The biggest source of violation of human rights and the most frequent manner of ethnic cleansing in the Federation is the Law on Abandoned Housing Units which is applied in almost identical form in both parts of the Federation - the Bosniac and the Croat. The Law on Housing Relations is founded on it, and for abusing it, the authorities even use "their men" in regular courts. For instance, a procedure was instigated in the court in western Mostar for breaking housing contracts with the total of 271 persons, in Livno such procedures have been instigated against a hundred, and in Sarajevo against 700 persons. Members of the minority nations are to be left without their apartments, of course, but also members of the majority nation who are not in good graces of the authorities.

The authorities are in great hurry to end these cases. The Government of Tuzla-Podrinje Canton (members of the Party of Democratic Action-SDA) without any pretext demands from the head of the Tuzla municipality (member of the opposition Union of B&H Social Demiocrats) to ask presidents of the courts to give top priority to these cases, while people against whom these court litigations are instigated most frequently have no idea about it.

As housing laws are the most frequent sources, housing authorities are the most frequent violators of human rights, and "among them, the most prominent is the City Secretariat for Housing Issues of Sarajevo", the Ombudsmen say. In the end of last year, by establishment of the Sarajevo Canton, the city assembly was dissolved, and with it the mentioned city secretariat which transferred a part of its jobs to municipal agencies, and a part to the Canton. However, transformation of the city into the canton was not accompanied by amendment of legal regulations. "That is what brought about impossibility of any legal protections and the situation in which citizens have noone to turn to for practicing their rights", the Ombudsmen claim, noting that almost the same thing happened in Mostar where two municipal councils have been abolished, and the city council has not been formed yet.

In order to return to an apartment from which he was banished in one way or another, a citizen must present to the housing authority thirteen different certificates, plus the identity card with the new address, because according to the papers the authorities manipulate, nobody has ever lived at his old address any more. In case by some miracle he manages to collect all these certificates, the citizen's demand to have his apartment returned to him is rejected as - havinmg arrived too late. If he logdes an appeal to the court of the second instance and if this court determines that the demand has after all been lodged in due time, and for that reason returns it to the court of the first instance for final resolution, the citizen still has no chance to win: the court of the first instance simply will not take it into consideration any more.

In a part of their report, the Ombudsmen state as follows: "In the region of Sarajevo, it has been noticed that the housing authorities of the Canton, as the authority of the second instance, although not authorized for it, issue approvals for colonization if the housing units reconstructed by the UNHCR under condition that their previous tenants, members of minority nations, the Serbs and the Croats, return to live in them, to members of the majority nation - the Bosniacs. The support for such behavior is found in the 'interpretation' of the Ministry of Justice of the Sarajevo Canton, which continued with the practice of the City Secretariat for housing affairs. This Secretariat was directly involved in proclaming that the apartments of refugees were abandoned and for their allocation contrary to criteria it had prescribed itself".

Should it be mentioned at all that Jusuf Zahiragic from the SDA who was just until recently the President of the City Secretariat for Housing Affairs and a close associate of Alija Izetbegovic is nowadays that controversial minister of justice of the Canton?! The very same person. Bosnia & Herzegovina - from the top to the botton of its state structure - is full of "democratically" elected officials of this type. That is why Izetbegovic "advised" his party fellow-fighters not to put up as candidates in the elections men who "take big apartments" for themselves, and not to do it "although objectively they can do it", because "the people see and know it all", appears to be, to say the least, tragicomic. Somebody will have have to exclaim very soon - our emperor is also naked!

Dragan STANOJLOVIC