150 Days After Sarajevo Declaration

You Only Get What You Pay For

AIM Sarajevo, 27 June, 1998

When Carlos Westendorp, UN High Representative for civilian affairs in B&H, marks somebody as an obstacle to the international community in doing its homework in B&H, that somebody loses his/her job. That is what happened to the head of the administration for housing problems in the Canton of Sarajevo - Haris Trnka. No matter how hard the top of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of B&H, which had nominated Trnka for the post, tried to convince the public that Trnka left the post because of "fatigue and exhaustion", Westendorp was just as clear in the interview given to a political magazine when he said "the man whose name I am not sure about, I think he is called Trnka, was observed to be an obstacle to implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration and he was replaced, his party had to remove him". That Westendorp's statement is close to the truth is confirmed by the fact that Trnka himself points out that he did not have all the information and that nobody exactly asked him what his opinion was, and moreover, the same gentleman, although "tired and exhausted", immediately after his "resignation", was nominated for a new, highly influential and important post. So much for him. That the international community is not satisfied with the implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration or realization of the process of return into the Federation, primarily into the Canton of Sarajevo, is also illustrated by the recent statement of the ambassador of the USA in B&H, Richard Kauzlarich, on the occasion of his last-week's meeting with the president and vice-president of the B&H Federation, Ejup Ganic and Vladimir Soljic. Unfortunately, the media have hardly even mentioned this statement of Kauzlarich's.

At the same time, whether sincerely or only because of close attention of the international community, the authorities of the Canton of Sarajevo are not satisfied with the return of non-Bosniacs either. "There have been no encouraging results, not even 145 days after the Sarajevo Declaration", said the Cantonal minister for refugees Beriz Belkic. Let us be reminded that the Sarajevo Declaration prescribes return of 20 thousand non-Bosniacs to Sarajevo by the end of the current year, but also that it deals with their housing problems and employment.

As the main obstacle, Belkic stated the problem of insufficient housing - out of 3,692 families which have applied for return to their prewar addresses, in 2,113 cases there are people living in their homes. At the office of the advisor of the minister for refugees and displaced persons, Fadila Crnogorac gave us the latest information about the figures on persons who have applied to return - 8,231 families. Out of this number, majority are Bosniacs - 3,741; then the Serbs - 2,746; the Croats - 1,431 and others - 313. These are the figures about those who applied taken from the cantonal register, and in the office of the Ombudsman, Grett Haler, they have reached the figure of 50 thousand families which have applied, but they warn that this figure is not correct - it is possible that there have been double applications, individual and collective. The office of the Ombudsman, in its recently completed poll, asked that all interested in return to the Federation state the exact address where they wish to go, but a large number of applications has arrived with only the name of the applicant stated. It should be said that by the beginning of May 2,110 persons have returned to the Canton of Sarajevo, most of whom are the Bosniacs.

Why is that so greatly desired process so slow? Vice-prsident of the SDA, Ejup Ganic says that the international community has failed to provide money, and the spokesman of the same party further elaborates this: "Return of 40 thousand (!?) people is planned by the Sarajevo Declaration, and this is almost 12 thousand families and the same number of houses and apartments. For reconstruction of a single apartment or house, 20 thousand German marks are needed, and this means 240 million marks for the implementation of conclusions of the Sarajevo Declaration. The international community has so far implemented only 10 per cent of the necessary resources". Spokesman Grbo says also that in the SDA people wonder "whether this may not be a sign of silent sanctions imposed on Sarajevo, or resistance of the international community to return to Sarajevo and implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration?" These problems may soon be removed if one takes into into account that at the latest (IV) donors' conference in Brussels, the European Union alone allocated 191.54 million US dollars for the return, and the USA for the same purposes - 12 million US dollars, plus minor amounts from other countries.

But, it is not all in the money - our people like to say. A part of the problem is in the real estate, and this is the other part of the story. The set of ownership laws and laws linked to housing problems which greatly alleviate the process of return were adopted only in the Federation of B&H. The assembly of the Republic of Croatia has adopted a program and plan of return of its Serb refugees, but the government of Republika Srpska has not done it yet. This is all very important because return to B&H and its entities cannot be observed separately one from the other, nor separately from return of Croatian Serbs majority of whom are here in B&H, in RS. Therefore, the following ratio of figures is on the scene (examples are taken from one of the Sarajevo dailies): so far only five thousand people have returned to RS, 80 families from Derventa wish to return home, but apart from the money which is needed for repair of most of these houses (more than one million German marks), there are also Serbs living in them who are from parts of the Federation controlled by the Croat Defence Council (HVO). Sarajevo Serbs who are staying in Brcko wish to go to their homes, but the Bosniacs banished and fled from Brcko cannot go back, Belkic says. At the same time, from 3,110 polled prewar inhabitants of Sokolac, 3,077 of them would leave apartments and houses in Sarajevo and return to Sokolac, if they will be enabled to return to their own homes

• they say at the union of refugees from Sokolac. From the union of people from Foca they say that if two-way return is not insisted on, there will be 20 thousand inhabitants of Foca in the street. Along with all that, prime minister of the cantonal government of Sarajevo says that one-way return is limited to about three to four thousand people. According to all these indicators - the problem lies in the legislature of RS, and according to evaluations of some political parties, the government of RS is intentionally hesitating with passing ownership laws and laws which regulate housing problems (because it is still not sure that it enjoys confidence of the voters). Until then - one entity will be the pretext for the other, especially when the authorities in Sarajevo look the other way when those who should be evicted are concerned or those who are using more than one housing unit. But, in the beginning of July, in accordance with recommendations of Ombudsman, the existing legislature in RS ceases to be in force and the relevant ministry appeals on all the persons interested in return (owners, proprietors, tenants) to begin will submitting applications, or appeals which will be resolved only after passing of new laws - says the minister for refugees and displaced persons in the government of RS, Slvako Peric, for a Sarajevo journal.

So much for money and real estate, but as a condition for return another thing is also mentioned - safety on the entire territory of B&H for all its citizens, but also employment. There can be no safety without multiethnic police in whole of B&H, and all things considered it will not be established in the foreseeable future. At the same time, seceret lists of the indicted for war crimes are often mentioned, not only those made by the Hague tribunal, but also "private" ones. This group of obstacles also includes violations of the Amnesty Law on both B&H interentity borders, it is true that they are just minor ones - a day or two in jail and then an apology, but...

At the same time, it will be even more difficult to achieve employment, in view of the bad economic situation in the entire state, in both entities, but it is also a fact that, for example, of all the Serbs who have remained in Sarajevo after reintegration, not a single one has got a job, not even two and a half years after reintegration?! Along with the question whether the only problem is absence of new jobs, another one arises - how can anyone convince the others to return then?

As an obstacle to the whole process, there is also the problem of true will and wish. The allegation that all the Bosniacs wish to return to RS, but that none of the Serbs wish to return to the Federation seems to be losing credibility. Recently, a representative of Sarajevo Serbs who have remained in their homes after reintegration, pointed out the fact that "it is much nicer to live in Sarajevo than in Konjevic Polje, Cerska, Visegrad, Trebinje, Foca for the Bosniacs, or for the Serbs in Banja Luka, than in places from where the war had moved their inhabitants". Persons displaced within B&H who are, due to the war, living on territories controlled by extremists from their own ethnic groups, are who are by powerful propaganda, or rather anti-propaganda, or even by force, detained where the war has led them. A significant element in this is employment, that is, economic security which is uncertain in places of their prewar residence, for those who live on territories where they form the "majority" and where they have come to live when displaced - this is another element pointed out by the International Group for Crises in one of its recent analyses.

Representatives of international community stress also the complexity of the administration which greatly slows down the return, and according to some, this complexity is intentional in order to slow everything down. At the same time, it makes sense to ask the question whether in the first 150 days, with the utter chaos in the housing sphere any more could have been done? All the bodies and commissions prescribed by the Declaration have been established, offices for return were opened all over B&H, but at the same time it is a fact that for as long as the same political structures which have brought about such a large number of displaced persons and refugees are in power, one can hardly expect that anything significant will change. Some changes in RS suggest that better or at least different winds will start blowing, but patience is running out in expectation of moves of that party. Westendorp himself, in the mentioned interview, stressed that the new authorities in RS would have to make some specific moves. As long as not even the least necessary move is made by any of the interested parties in B&H, but also in the Republic of Croatia and FR Yugoslavia, this will be the pretext for the other party for similar failure to act, and all this will be the basis for Westendorp to be "up to his neck in work", especially in "marking individuals".

Rubina CENGIC

(AIM, Sarajevo)