By Sgt. Kerensa Hardy
First published in
SFOR Informer#116, June 27, 2001

The number of persons returning to BiH has increased noticeably in the last year. Along with these returns come owners claims to pre-war property that lawfully belongs to them. There is a program in place that is restoring that right.
Sarajevo More than 2.3 million people were displaced from their homes during the war in this country.
Now, five years later, the Property Law Implementation Plan (PLIP) is making some progress in restoring ownership of pre-war homes to the rightful owners.
PLIP is an interagency plan of the international community to support the implementation of the property law, said Paolo Artini, UNHCRs protection officer. The main agencies involved are the Office of the High Representative, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Commission for Real Property Claims and United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each agency makes contributions according to mandates set forth by GFAP. Housing authorities are monitored at a local level on their work in implementing property law.
Annex 7 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) recognises the right of displaced persons to return to their homes.
But then property laws at the entity level had to regulate the procedure for people to repossess their property, Artini said. He further explained that displaced persons were given occupancy rights during the war, but now the property law gives priority to the rights of the pre-war owners.
The aim of this plan is to have all the claims to properties resolved, Artini said. He admitted that its quite a large undertaking, but that there has been some success. The law was harmonised by a package imposed by the High Representative (Wolfgang Petritsch) in October 1999; after that there were great efforts to implement property law.
The result is that out of 254,000 claims for repossessions of flats occupied by someone else 64,000 were resolved, meaning they resulted in repossession, which is 25 percent of the claims, he added.
Fifty percent of claims have been decided, but the property has not yet been returned to the pre-war owners. The importance of getting a ruling is only second to the displaced person actually being able to move onto property that rightfully belongs to them.
Many of these situations require forceful eviction of those occupying the homes of those to whom the property lawfully belongs. Local authorities have to carry out this task, monitored by the International Police Task Force (IPTF).
Artini explained that temporary occupants who were occupying someone elses property and have nowhere to go have a right to alternative accommodation. This provision is an obligation of the local authorities.
Often the lack of alternative accommodation or the fact that the local authorities are not so active in identifying and providing (this) for the temporary occupants means that the PLIP is slow, he admitted. Alternative housing can be collective accommodation for the majority buildings that must meet minimum standards according to the law. Vulnerable people, like pregnant women and the sick or elderly, would receive a flat.
The challenge involved in this effort is that, often, people occupying someone elses home are doing so because someone is living on their property.
One step forward, two steps back
PLIP also added momentum to the return process.
If you look at the statistics on returns from last year and this year, you see an increase in minority returns, Artini said.
The year 2000 saw the highest number of returns 67,000 and the first few months of this year saw a 100 percent increase over the same time period last year more than 22,000.
While these numbers definitely prove that things are getting better, it also causes other situations. Artini explained that people who move from property that belonged to someone else try to go back to their home of origin only to find that their property is damaged or destroyed.
PLIP is not only helping people to return to properties which were occupied by somebody else, but its also stimulating returns out of occupied properties to areas ... that are destroyed, which would require a lot of international help, he said.
Artini said that donors interests in this country are decreasing in the years since the war while, unfortunately, the needs are steadily increasing.
Challenges
The main obstacles to the PLIP include a lack of alternative accommodation, funds, resources and the determination of housing authorities, Artini underlined.
What PLIP is trying to achieve is an efficient, technical, professional process of implementation of property law rather than a political process, he said. This is a very important development from the first years of the return process.
The PLIP is designed to provide support to the local authorities but also to sanction the (ones) who are not performing or are obstructing the property implementation, Artini said. For this reason, some housing officials have been removed from their posts.
So, there have been challenges as well as success.
No official deadline has been set to achieve this goal, but it would be good if it were accomplished in the next couple of years, Artini said. There is hope that the year 2001 will be a year to achieve great results.
But already compared to the previous years, the fact that at least one quarter of claims have been resolved is really progress that is promising.

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