Nezavisne novine: The OHR team will be doing the technical civil property census, has been decided yesterday by the High Representative, Valentin Inzko. According to Frane Maroević, spokesperson of the OHR, that team will consist of the tightest circle of coworkers of Valentin Inzko and some people outside of the OHR.
In the announcement of the OHR it has been précised that the census will encompass those real estates, over which the former socialistic BiH has on December 31st, 1991 had a right to dispose, and the property, which BiH has received by succession. Inzko bases his decision on decision of the Council of Ministers from April this year, and on the fact that the Working group for civil property census will not be able to do it by the end of September, as the OHR has expected. The OHR plans to complete the census before the November session of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC).
Kutleša: It is not good that the OHR does the census
Zvonimir Kutleša, chairman of the Commission for civil property, thinks that the OHR should not do this, but to indirectly help domestic governments.
"I think that they should give a technical assistance to the Working group and assist in seeking the compromise, but the census itself done by the OHR, would not be a good solution", he has said. He points out that the census is not so hard to – do that domestic politicians cannot do it, but the OHR can assist on moving this issue from dead point.
"By collecting this information the OHR will not prejudge the outcome of political agreement, which must be reached on division of this property", has been claimed in the OHR. In the frame of this process the OHR will collect the data from each 48 land-registry offices in BiH.
"Once all the required information has been collected, the OHR will deliver the report to the Council of Ministers and entity prime ministers, who then must decide on how to divide the property by the agreement between the state and entity governments.
Majority of political parties in BiH has concluded that it is better for the civil property census to be a result of domestic agreement, than of something being done by the OHR, but they do not agree around the consequences of technical census being done by the OHR. Parties of the RS think that the decision of the OHR on doing the civil property census, which has been disposed by the Socialistic Republic BiH by the end of 1991, is in contrary with the earlier decision of the former High Representative, Paddy Ashdown on prohibition of disposing by the civil property.
Milorad Dodik, chairman of the SNSD, says that by that decision the OHR is inconsistent in the application of the Ashdown’s law, in which, according to him, it is clearly visible that the subject of census can only be "the property of prohibition", but not all the property, which has been disposed by BiH until 1991.
"By this, the OHR causes confusion, as it has been causing it around everything here for a long time", Dodik has said.
Mladen Bosić, chairman of the SDS, says that the intention of the census title itself is to take a part of the property from entities and put it under the central governance, in order to weaken entities.
"There is a possibility for the RS to refuse that and it is up to the Government and the Parliament of the RS to give a clear standpoint that the RS accepts only the Dayton’s resolution, which stipulates that the property on the entity territory is the entity’s property", Bosić has said.
Momčilo Novaković, member of the DP, also thinks that this decision is in contrary to the Ashdown’s decision on prohibition of disposing by property. He thinks that if the census gets done this way, the private ownership can be brought into a question and the rights of individuals, who have built the objects on the territory of former military property, would be questioned as well. In such situation, according to Novaković, besides the OHR, responsibility would also be on leading parties, which have not succeeded to agree the principles around the property census.
"It would be better if the OHR did not adopt such decision and that domestic forces have done this a long time ago", he has said.
Similar to this is the opinion of Igor Crnadak from the PDP, who adds that the OHR’s decision is a consequence of inability of governments to agree on principles by themselves. Would the OHR’s census enter the rights of entities, Crnadak had said that it is a question, which will be a subject of detailed analysis in the je PDP and that for now he is not able to express his standpoint about it.
Oppositely to the RS parties, in the FBiH they think that it is good that the OHR has overtaken the property census, since domestic governments are not able to agree on it.
Šemsudin Mehmedović, High Official of the SDA, says that the SDA has earlier insisted on census, which would be a basis for conversations on manner of property division. He says that the SDA still does not have a standpoint on principles of division.
"We have not talked about principles yet. We will decide on it once we have a session. But, it is important to move that question from dead point", he has said.
Azra Hadžiahmetović, representative of the SBiH in the BiH Parliament, says that this party greets the move of the OHR because "any kind of conversation about civil property cannot be done unless the census has been done".
Mišo Vegar, spokesperson of the HDZ, says that the it is good that the OHR wants to do the census "since domestic governments are not able to do it", while Ivo Miro Jović, High Official of the HDZ, points out that any kind of solution, which is being initiated by the International Community, is not good, because "it might be permanent".