Lawyer Gredelj said he had recently acquainted Fulvio Bianconi, an official of the European Union's Delegation to Croatia, with this problem.
He also announced lawsuits to be lodged with the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, seeking damages for the unlawful activities of the state authorities.
Gredelj said that a score of families had previously asked for the restoration of some 650,000 square metres of their farmland in accordance with the law on compensation for property nationalised during the Yugoslav Communist federation. After that, the authorities in Dubrovnik-Neretva County decided that the families' request could not be subject to the said legislation. However, the Justice Ministry gave the greenlight to the families' restoration request with an explanation that the land could not be given back to those owners as it was declared to be of strategic military importance, the lawyer said recalling the developments in this case.
After that, the owners were offered HRK 0.80 per square metre although the value of that land is EUR 200 to 300 per square metre, he said.
In the meantime, a strategic plan, adopted in 1995 at the urging of the international community, paved the way for treating Prevlaka exclusively as a tourist area.
The owners' appeals have been on the shelf of the Justice Ministry for seven years. In the meantime preparations have been made to begin construction of hotels in the area, Gredelj said, accusing the judicial system of playing "a shameful role" in the case.
The lawyer said he had informed Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, former Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic and his successor Drazen Bosnjakovic, but in vain.