In Addition to Their Property Being Seized, Serbs in the Muslim Croat Federation in Bosnia Also Suffer Pressures
In addition to facing blatant seizure of land, exiled Serbs from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) are often under pressure to sell their land for nothing even though they do not want to, Violeta Marić from the Novi Sad Office for Assistance to Serb Refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Protecting their Property in the FBiH told Srna.
She said that within a month after opening, a large number of people contacted the Office who are interested in how to regulate their property rights and prevent the local authorities in FBiH from alienating their property.
“We received the most calls from people from around Sarajevo and Tomislavgrad. We have a case of a Serbian family from Tomislavgrad who are being pressured to sell their land. They own a lot of land and are not interested in selling it, and the price they are offering them is miserable,” Marić said.
Oliver Frater Pavlou from the Belgrade Office for Assistance to Serb Refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Protecting Their Property in the FBiH said that since the end of January, when it started working, about 300 people have contacted this office, and that Serbs called from Canada, the USA, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden.
He emphasized that the Belgrade office received the most calls from Bosansko Grahovo and Canton 10.
The offices in Belgrade and Novi Sad were opened with the help of the Administration for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, which a year ago launched an information campaign for Serbs scattered around the world and pointed out to them the danger of being left without their ancestral homes in the territory of the current FBiH due to the harmonization of land registers and cadasters.
The result of the work of the offices in Republika Srpska and Serbia is 9,473 cases, because so many families responded and completed the necessary legal procedure, thanks to which more than 57,000 hectares of land will remain in their ownership.
Before the war in 1991, 541,000 Serbs lived in the territory of the FBiH, and according to the 2013 census, only 56,000.
It is estimated that around 400,000 refugees and displaced Serbs from the FBiH and their inheritors claim real estate owned or possessed in this entity.
