SARAJEVO, STOLAC AND CAPLJINA SARAJEVO, Dec 8 (Hina) - Authorities in Sarajevo Canton and municipalities of Capljina and Stolac (southern Bosnia-Herzegovina), are held responsible for mass violations of property rights of citizens,
particularly of refugees, read reports of Bosnian Croat-Moslem Federation's ombudswomen, which were presented at a news conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday. Ombudswoman Branka Raguz said results of special check-ups conducted in the last 15 months showed that none of 2,000 requests for the return of flats, submitted by tenancy-right holders to municipal authorities had been processed to date and she labelled it as flagrant violation of the right to the return of property. Capljina authorities even failed to set up an adequate office to solve such applications and local authorities tried to shift the responsibility for this mater onto the cantonal level. In addition, local authorities a
SARAJEVO, Dec 8 (Hina) - Authorities in Sarajevo Canton and
municipalities of Capljina and Stolac (southern Bosnia-
Herzegovina), are held responsible for mass violations of property
rights of citizens, particularly of refugees, read reports of
Bosnian Croat-Moslem Federation's ombudswomen, which were
presented at a news conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday.
Ombudswoman Branka Raguz said results of special check-ups
conducted in the last 15 months showed that none of 2,000 requests
for the return of flats, submitted by tenancy-right holders to
municipal authorities had been processed to date and she labelled
it as flagrant violation of the right to the return of property.
Capljina authorities even failed to set up an adequate office to
solve such applications and local authorities tried to shift the
responsibility for this mater onto the cantonal level.
In addition, local authorities allotted almost 1,500 plots of
agricultural land or construction sites (to illegal users)
although those plots and sites are subject to the Restitution Act.
Another report drawn up by the ombudswomen referred to the breaches
of property rights in the area of Sarajevo. The 20-page report shows
that authorities in the Bosnian capital are obstructing the return
of refugees by making impossible for them to take over their flats
where they had lived prior to the war.
This year the office of ombudswomen received about 2,000 complaints
of the citizens who are illegally denied of their tenancy rights.
"Every day between 40 and 50 people are coming to our offices
appealing against the conduct of authorities that strip them of
their elementary rights," Raguz told reporters.
A particular problem is the failure of local authorities to
cooperate with the offices of ombudswomen and offer adequate and
necessary information in disputable cases.
So far, ombudswomen have asked additional information for about
4,000 cases, but no answer has been given for 3,536 cases.
Matei Hoffman, a deputy of the international community's High
Representative to Bosnia, told reporters that the ombudswomen's
reports proved that it was necessary to dismiss several people in
power in Bosnia. The High Representative has recently decided that
22 officials in Bosnia have to step down. Municipal mayors of Stolac
and Capljina are among the replaced ones.
(hina) ms