Yesterday, Deputy High Representative for Return and Reconstruction, Ambassador Valerie Sluijter, met with the BiH Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Zlatko Lagumdzjia, and the BiH Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees, Vladislav Vladicic, to discuss the problem of land allocations throughout BiH, and the concerns raised by representatives of displaced persons (DP) from Kotorsko.

The Deputy High Representative and the Prime Minster agreed that fostering the self-sustaining return of refugees and displaced persons remains a priority of both the international community and the Council of Ministers. They agreed that the land allocation process should facilitate, and not hinder, the right of displaced persons and refugees to choose where they want to live, but noted that under no circumstances should that right infringe upon the legitimate rights of those who are in the process of return.

The participants of the meeting further noted that representatives of refugees and displaced persons from all ethnic communities have lodged various complaints alleging that their legal rights to agricultural and construction land are being violated through land allocations, in both the Federation and Republika Srspka. They agreed that the process of reallocating land in both the Federation and Republika Srpska urgently requires review to ensure that these allocations are transparent, in the best public interest, and non-discriminatory.

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers confirmed that the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees would urgently convene the National Commission for Refugees and establish a working group during the course of the next week, which will look at harmonizing legislation related to land allocation. Deputy High Representative Sluijter offered the technical support of the Office of the High Representative as a part of the Consultative Partnership Forum between the Government and the international community.

Deputy High Representative Sluijter and the Prime Minister also discussed the specific issue of the land allocation in Kotorsko. The Deputy High Representative confirmed that the OHR has received new information from the representatives of displaced persons from Kotorsko, which calls into question the validity of the information upon which the OHR issued the waiver on 4 December of last year. The new information concerns the beneficiary selection, which may not have satisfied the criteria for vulnerability of the beneficiaries since they may have had access to their pre-war property when the selections were carried out. In addition, the new documentation raises calls in question the validity of the Public Attorney’s certification that all legal procedures were satisfied.

The Deputy High Representative stressed that a review of the new evidence would take approximately 15 days. Today, the OHR has in writing requested the Doboj municipality to cease all construction on the Kotorsko land plots for a period of 15 days pending the completion of this review.

However, it was also noted that while the OHR is reviewing whether the Doboj authorities and the beneficiaries of the Kotorsko land allocations satisfied all conditions of the waiver, the OHR would not review the appropriateness or legality of the 1963 nationalization of the Kotorsko land plots. Those issues are now before the BIH Human Rights Chamber as the appropriate body to resolve this claim.