According to the Property Legislation statistics released today by the PLIP agencies (OHR, UNHCR, OSCE, CRPC and UNMIBH), property law implementation reached 69 percent as of the end of 2002 throughout BiH. This represents a countrywide increase of 28% for the year 2002, compared with 20% in 2001. This is an encouraging development, yet there is still need for improvement, and the local authorities should be working to ensure this.
In Brcko District 74 percent of claims were resolved; the Federation of BiH also recorded 74 percent of property claims resolved, while the RS noted 62 percent of claims resolved as of the end of December 2002. In total, 168,976 out of 245,973 property claims filed with the municipal housing offices and OMIs have been resolved. The PLIP agencies would like to note sharp decreases and increases registered in some municipalities. This was a result of revision of files, exclusion of destroyed properties and harmonization of statistics collecting methods, which are taking place country-wide.
Repossession of property is an essential precondition to return, and the progress achieved so far by the Bosnian authorities in this field is encouraging but not yet complete. While some municipalities have resolved all their property cases or are close to completion, others, including larger towns and cities, are lagging behind. Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Visegrad, Zvornik and Donji Vakuf, to name a few, must make greater efforts, as outlined in the New Strategic Direction, which was endorsed by the Peace Implementation Council on 30 January, to resolve all property claims by the end of 2003.
Please be advised that you can find PLIP statistics on the following link: https://www.ohr.int/plip/pdf/plip_12.02.PDF