Refugees and Political Manipulations

VICTIMS OF POLITICAL MANIPULATIONS

According to rough data in the course of last year, 10,065 Bosniacs and Croats have returned to the Republic of Srpska, 7,697 Serbs to the B&H Federation and only 191 Serbs to Croatia.

AIM Banja Luka, March 1, 1999

The horrors of the war waged in the territory of former Yugoslavia have caused the exodus of some two million displaced and exiled persons, out of which about 1.2 million found temporary shelter in all countries of the world and the rest in the republics of the former common state. Although all international and national political factors agree that the resolution of the problems of refugees constitutes the most important and delicate part of the Dayton Peace Accord, it is obvious that the desired results have not been achieved in this field so far.

The last year was declared the year of return. Early last year two regional conferences were held - in Sarajevo and Banjaluka - dedicated to the return of refugees. The Banjaluka Declaration envisages the return of some 120 thousand pre-war inhabitants of the Republic of Srpska (RS) of non-Serbian nationality. However, this never went further from wishes and projections. No one has precise indicators on the number of Bosniacs and Croats who have returned to the RS, nor of Serbs who have returned to the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H), or Croatia for that matter.

According to Miladin Dragicevic, Minister for Refugees and Displaced Persons in the RS Government, the exact figures are not available even in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as there is still no uniform information system or data base. Dragicevic said that according to unofficial indicators in the course of last year, 10,065 Bosniacs and Croats have returned to the Republic of Srpska, 7,697 Serbs to the FB&H and only 191 Serbs to Croatia.

He pointed out that the RS has ensured both legal and political preconditions for the return and couldn't be blamed that the plan and pace of this process were not implemented last year. In other words, the economic factor represented the greatest obstacle as not even the subsistence level was provided for the returnees nor was this process accompanied by the planned reconstruction of houses. He also reminded that a plan for the reconstruction of 4,500 houses for returnees was offered at the Banjaluka Conference last April, but that it was not carried out due to the shortage of funds.

In addition, it is a fact that 416 thousand Serbs displaced from the FB&H and additional 60 thousand who have fled from Croatia and Slovenia are living in the Republic of Srpska at the moment. Of this number, some 18 thousand families have no accommodation at all and are living with relatives, friends, neighbours or as subtenants. About 6,550 people are still living in 59 collective centers in 22 communes of the Republic of Srpska in conditions unfit for human beings. For the closing of these centers the RS needs DM 45 million, which was impossible to achieve according to the last year's plan. Last year only some DM 15 million were secured for that purpose.

Pointing out that in resolving the problem of refugees it is necessary to respect the principle of voluntary return, Minister Dragicevic said that only 580 people from collective centers have stated that they wanted to return to their previous places of residence, while all others wanted to stay in the RS in the communes in which these centers are located. However, the problem is that the international community does not want to help the construction of new houses for these people as it thinks that it would mean the "cementing" of the ethnical situation. He also pointed out that only people from collective centers in the Republic of Srpska have been officially interviewed and not the entire refugee population.

It is also a fact that more than three years after the signing of the Dayton Agreement no one even attempted to find out what are the actual wishes of all these refugees and displaced persons, i.e. who wants to return and who wants to stay where he is living now although it is an indispensable prerequisite for the further comprehensive and synchronized efforts aimed at achieving a lasting solution to this problem, especially bearing in mind the fact that the Dayton Agreement treats equally the return, as well as the exchange, sale or restitution of property.

There is an impression that all these misfortunate people who had to abandon their homes are very frequently used for political manipulations, especially in electoral campaigns. For example, the FB&H authorities claim that about 95 Bosniacs and Croats want to return to the RS, while politicians in the Republic of Srpska say that only 2.5 percent of Serbs want to return to the Federation, i.e. Croatia.

Even refugee associations of all three Bosnian-Herzegovinian peoples have only assessments or partial indicators, at best. Kemal Ganic, President of the Association of Returnees to Banjaluka recently said that 26 thousand displaced Bosniacs want to return to this town from all over the world. And Hajrudin Sehic, President of the Coordinating Committee for the Return of Bosniacs to the RS said that 4,975 Bosniacs have returned to the Serbian entity from the time of the signing of the Dayton Accord until now.

At a recent press conference in Banjaluka, Franjo Komarica, Bishop of Banjaluka, and Vjekoslav Tripalo, President of the Association of Croat Exiles from the North-West Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in Zagreb, stated that 36 thousand Croats have lived in Banjaluka before the war. Out of that number 10 thousand have permanently settled outside B&H, while 18 thousand want to return to this town, and that the rest will most probably exchange their property.

The Serbian refugee association also do not have impartial indicators nor information on the actual wishes of the people. Bogdan Marjanovic, President of the Association of Serbs from Croatia "Ostanak" (The Stay) claims that 99 percent of Serbian refugees and displaced persons, who have settled down in the RS, want to stay there. On the other hand, Mile Marceta, a former denizen of Drvar, from the Return Coalition, advocates the return of refugees to their homes.

Encouraging is the fact that the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons in both B&H entities, as well as the Office for Exiles and Refugees in Croatia have agreed on the necessity of introducing a uniform data base. Ministries of the RS and the Federation have already signed a joint statement on the unification and simplification of the application form for return and restitution of property irrespective of the entity in which they are filed and whether they are filed personally or through an authorized representative.

Under the UNHCR's supervision a general census of exiles and displaced population should be soon carried out in order to register the actual wishes of the people without any pressures or suggestions (forms will be coded): whether they want to return, or to perhaps exchange, sell or seek compensation for their property. This will help document the property that displaced persons and refugees had before the war and determine whether they have already exchanged it for something else or sold it without reporting it. Only then it will be possible to resolve this problem in a planned, programmed and synchronized manner as it is a time consuming process which implies the fulfillment of legal, security and economic prerequisites in order to be successful.

In Minister Dragicevic's opinion conditions for the resolution of the refugee problem in the Republic of Srpska are much more favourable compared to last year. "Last year and in the beginning of this year we dedicated all our efforts so as to ensure the adoption of legal regulations. The Republic of Srpska has passed the Law on Property and will soon promulgate the Law on Refugees. We have also adopted instructions for forms for the return, i.e. restitution of property. It was done in the same way as in the B&H Federation. The drafting of the Law on the Buying Up of Flats is in progress. We shall present the Law on the Exchange of Property to the Office of High Representative and the B&H Federation, and also the Law on the Exchange of Tenant's Rights", explained Dragicevic the activities of the RS Government.

Dragicevic who was forced to leave Tuzla, the town in which had lived before the war, pointed out the necessity to create practical conditions for the application of all modalities envisaged by the Dayton Agreement because irrespective of the fact that the return is the most desirable one, it is more important to respect the freely expressed will of each individual.

Branislava Memon

(AIM)