ARIZONA PROMOTES FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, UNDERMINES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

PROFILE: THE MUSLIM WHO SEEKS TO RETURN TO BRCKO

ILLEGAL DISTRIBUTION OF 2,250 LOTS

LIVING IN THE ZONE OF SEPARATION

From Peter’s diary: AD HOC RULE
PROFILE: THE SERB WHO IS BLOCKED FROM LEAVING BRCKO

PROFILE: THE ORGANIZATION THAT WOULD HELP REFUGEES RETURN

From Peter’s diary: SLOUCHING OUT OF BRCKO

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ARIZONA PROMOTES FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, UNDERMINES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Iain Guest of The Advocacy Project visited the Arizona market near Brcko in 1997. He wrote:

Before the war, Bosnia’s economy crisscrossed today’s ethnic divisions, and this leads many to assume that economic interests can rekindle inter-ethnic cooperation. One example can be found in Northeast Bosnia where a large market (“Arizona”) has been established by NATO to attract traders from both entities.

Judged solely on the number of traders who flock to it, Arizona has been a dramatic success. But the market is completely unregulated and businessmen on both sides complain that it opens the door to cheap imported goods from Croatia and Serbia and so undermines their own local efforts to increase productivity and create jobs. This, they say, mirrors a dangerous shift in the Bosnian economy away from production to retailing. In one May 4, 1997 open letter, businessmen from both sides came out strongly against the market.

At the heart of this criticism is a concern that the Arizona market has come to substitute for a coordinated international policy to remove that obstacles that face businessmen as they struggle to rebuild their pre-war trading links. Although the two Bosnian entities are given the power under Dayton to impose tariffs, this is meant to apply to external trade, not to trade between them within Bosnia. But while the Bosnian Serb authorities allow free trade from Serbia, they make it impossible to trade across the IEBL. Two Serb companies control all the trade and demand permits that are prohibitively expensive. One of the companies is reportedly owned by Radovan Karadzic, the indicted war criminal.

Businessmen on both sides say frankly that they are not yet ready to “go it alone” and cross the IEBL to sell goods in the other entity, out of fear. Nor is it clear that Arizona is producing long-term reconciliation between the different ethnic groups. One trader who was interviewed by the New York Times at Arizona observed: “I am quite ready to sell brandy to Serbs in the morning and shoot them in the afternoon.”

On the other hand, inter-ethnic markets have helped to break the ice in the difficult early stages of rebuilding confidence and peace. In one example, the UN Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) was able to establish a Saturday morning market on the road between (Croat-held) Osijek and (Serb-controlled) Vukovar. This undoubtedly helped to facilitate freedom of movement between the two towns, and warranted calling the market a success. But judged on its economic contribution alone, Arizona would have to be termed a disaster. (June 1997)

[Note: This article, written two years ago, is an indication of how much some things have changed in Bosnia. Freedom of movement is much more a fact, especially along the Arizona highway. And the passions that were at a high pitch in the year or so after the end of the war have calmed to an extent. The greatest reason for the increase in freedom of movement is probably the establishment of universal license plates throughout Bosnia one year ago. And, with important exceptions, people in Bosnia are tired of shooting each other. However, the damaging effect of the Arizona market on the Bosnian economy remains as great today as it was two years ago. — Peter Lippman]

PROFILE: THE MUSLIM WHO SEEKS TO RETURN TO BRCKO

The Brcko Citizens’ Returnees Association, “Brcko to Brckans”

When Serb nationalists took over Brcko in April 1992, Muslims and Croats fled the city for Croatia and for the parts of Bosnia not yet under Serb control. Many of these people went no farther than the outskirts of the Brcko municipality, to small towns and villages that remained under the control of the newly-formed Bosnian army.

Thousands of them remain in the Federation-controlled parts of Brcko today. I spoke with Enes Pasalic, the director of the Brcko Citizens’ Returnees Association, “Brcko to Brckans.”

Pasalic is a biochemist who works with his wife Azra, a doctor specializing in transfusion, in a small clinic in Brka on the outskirts of Brcko. He recounted to me how the couple left Brcko on April 30, 1992, when Serbs blew up the two bridges across the Sava, the border between Bosnia and Croatia. One of these bridges was built by the Austrians in 1896, and was the oldest bridge on that border.

“This bombing took place at 5:00 a.m. People and buses were on the bridge. Heads, arms, and other body parts landed in the middle of Brcko town. I headed south, the only direction that was open. I left that afternoon for Maoca, a small town outside Brcko. Our two daughters were already in Zagreb. I had sent them there earlier because I had a foreboding about the situation. We saw what they had already done six months earlier in Vukovar, not far north of here. So when we saw uniformed men with stockings on their head walking the streets of Brcko, that’s when we left.

“Immediately after Dayton was signed, we formed this organization to support people who want to return to the city of Brcko. We have no party affiliation or assistance from the government. From the start we have been saying that Brcko belongs to “all” those who lived here before the beginning of the war regardless of their ethnicity or religion: Muslims, Serbs, Croats, Jews, Rom (Gypsies), and so on. Our goal is to return all Brcko citizens to Brcko. However, there are few Croats in our organization, and almost no Serbs.”

Pasalic lauds the recent decision of the international arbiter for Brcko to create a “Brcko District.” “This is the first prerequisite for return. The district, covering 495 square kilometers, is big enough for us all to live together. After a long wait, we have a concrete decision. But it needs to be respected and implemented. Only Farrand [international supervisor for Brcko] can do that.”

Pasalic cites the reluctance of Serbs to return to their homes in the Federation as a key obstacle to the return of Croats and Muslims to the city core.

“The displaced Serbs in Brcko say they cannot return to Sarajevo. This is not correct. They can, but they don’t want to. They are currently fighting against the decision to make a district. Why? They want to make our [Muslim and Croat-owned] property their future. The local government is restoring property in Brcko — stores, companies, and infrastructure that we created — on behalf of the Serbs who now live there. They are privatizing it and putting it in their pockets.

“Not only do the Serbs not want to return to Sarajevo, they don’t want to return to the towns and villages they came from that surround Brcko: Bukvik, Brka, Maoca, and so on. They are living more comfortably now in our property, while we are stuck in their houses, which we have fixed up. Now they want to sell their houses in Federation Brcko, and stay in our houses.

“In Brcko city center there are Serbs from 130 municipalities of the former Yugoslavia. Many of these people are from Sarajevo, and they left there after the war ended, when Sarajevo was reunified. They followed the orders of their leaders and went to Brcko, some of them burning their own apartments behind them.

“The Serbs in Brcko formed an organization called “Ostanak” [Remaining]. They are playing a political game with the sponsorship of the Serb extreme nationalist parties. The Serb politicians have promised to build displaced Serbs their own apartments and houses, but this is a false promise. They also originally promised these people that they could stay in our houses, from which we were displaced. But you can’t promise someone that it will be nice for them to live in my house.”

What of the present atmosphere for return in Brcko? Pasalic said, “It is ugly. The mosques have all been destroyed. They built a church in an old neighborhood that had previously been 99% Muslim. The city is filled with people I don’t know. The Serb citizens of Brcko are in Belgrade and Germany. They are waiting for the rest of us to come back. Those few who have stayed don’t get along with the displaced Serbs. However, incidents of violence are rare, thanks to the attention of the IPTF [U.N. Police Task Force].”

“Everything in Brcko is ‘multi-ethnic,’ ” Pasalic continued. “But that is just on paper, a formality. The mixed municipal government is incapable of making the necessary decisions. Meanwhile, Serbs are coming from Yugoslavia and moving into our houses, and that complicates the situation.

“The Republika Srpska government has asked for three more months to study the Brcko arbitration decision. This is stupidity. The world can’t be so naive as to tolerate this method of drawing out the process and thereby nullifying it. The decision ‘must’ be implemented, without further bluffing. All of those politicians who stand in the way of implementation should be cleared out of the way.

“The politics of Greater Serbia is an idea that is now being bombarded, literally. But it is still dangerous. People are still holding to the fixation of a Greater Serbia. They are still holding up three fingers [Serbian nationalist sign] and chanting “Slobo” [Milosevic]. They need to realize that they can’t succeed with this.”

I asked Pasalic about his expectations for the future and how he saw a way out of the present impasse. He said, “We are waiting for Farrand and the OHR to take over jurisdiction of Brcko and create criteria that determine who may live in the District. First it will be necessary for the illegal occupants of our homes to go back to their homes. If they cannot go home, the local authorities will have to make other arrangements for them to move out of our homes. There are thousands of apartments in Brcko that could be repaired for temporary residence, not only for Serbs who have to leave, but for returning Brckans who are waiting for their homes to be evacuated.

“As for myself, my documents for returning have been sitting in the Brcko municipality claims office for a year. We opened this clinic in Brka one month ago. It should have been in Brcko. My family and I, four of us, are living in a DP [displaced person] cabin built by the Norwegians. I have good hopes to return, but it must start. We can’t live in a camp anymore. We are educated people. I am a city person. I don’t want to prevent anyone from living in Brcko — just not in my house.”

ILLEGAL DISTRIBUTION OF 2,250 LOTS

Oslobodjenje, January 1999

“RS Government Approves Distribution of Lots to Displaced Persons, Changing the Ethnic Makeup of Brcko”

BRCKO, Northeast Bosnia — The President of the municipal assembly of Brcko, Mirsad Djapo, called upon the international supervisor for Brcko, Robert Farrand, to prevent Serb representatives in the multi-ethnic government of Brcko from distributing building lots to displaced Serbs who are presently living in Brcko.

Djapo states that the illegal distribution of 2,250 lots to displaced persons is intended to permanently change the ethnic makeup of the area. In activities related to the distribution of lots, Djapo writes, “Apparently the Serb representatives in the multi-ethnic government of Brcko are also involved, because how can one otherwise interpret the decision of the RS government to approve the distribution?”

Djapo emphasized that the Brcko municipal assembly never discussed this problem publicly, nor did he, as president of the municipal assembly, ever seek that approval.

“The height of cynicism is the decision of the RS government to approve resources to the amount of 532,000 DM for this project, which has prompted the anger of displaced Brckans who should have already been able to return to their homes,” Djapo said.

Djapo expects that Farrand will take urgent measures in order to halt the “illegal and ignorant behavior of the RS government,” and to implement sanctions against certain officials in the multi-ethnic government of Brcko who have participated in these illegal actions.

LIVING IN THE ZONE OF SEPARATION

Oslobodjenje, February 1999

The hands, heart, and soul of Hajrudin Karamovic are built into 380 reconstructed homes in the Brcko Zone of Separation — a man who today has only one wish: to return to his home while he can still see it.

The 60-year-old Karamovic is living in Brod, in a house loaned to him by a friend. The most difficult thing for him is when his wife says to him, “There, Hajro, you can see our house from here.” “And I can’t see it,” says Karamovic. Hajrudin, who learned the building trade in Germany, was a top director of construction in the Brod neighborhood.

After the war there was a race to renew homes in the entire area. Karamovic began work on the renewal of the “Dresden” of Brcko, as Robert Farrand (international supervisor for Brcko) called it, before the arrival of the supervisor…Karamovic was surprised at how the Americans are not able to discover the people who destroyed the houses one hundred meters from their own army base (McGovern). When we visited Karamovic at his workplace in Brod one year after the war, he showed us the direction in which his house lay.

He did not conceal the hope that each rebuilt house would be a step towards his own courtyard. Several months later, instead of returning home, Hajrudin began to go blind.

After eight operations, Karamovic was left with 10% of his vision. Although he submitted a request for a disability pension in the middle of 1998, he is still on sick leave with a monthly allowance of 130 DM (~$80) and a pension from Germany. “Now I only have about 10% of my vision,” says Karamovic. When I write, I look through a large magnifying glass.”

While he is living in Brod, he only thinks about returning, and he is afraid of the time passing. “What good will it be for a person who can’t see where he has returned to?” asks Karamovic.

Last year Karamovic attempted to go into his yard, but he barely escaped alive. At the gate, Vitomir Rosljus from Ilijas was waiting with a club, and threatened him, “I fought this for this four years, and now it’s mine.” Hajro and his wife Enisa went to all the institutions they believed would help them, from the Brcko supervisor’s office to the Serb Citizen’s Council in Tuzla. All they received were promises. Karamovic asks, “Couldn’t they find a home for the three displaced persons in my house, so that I can return while I can still see a little? Wouldn’t that be justice and fairness?”

From Peter’s diary:

AD HOC RULES

Thursday, June 10, 1999. Turning east from Loncare, a market smaller than Arizona, the bus neared Brcko. I saw the usual signs of an approaching RS town: some destroyed houses, all the newer signs in Cyrillic, graffiti saying “This is Serbia,” kokardas (Serb nationalist symbol) on the walls of houses, an overgrown Muslim cemetery. No mosques. A short convoy of armored SFOR vehicles rolled by, their mounted machine guns erect. After Omarska, the second worst concentration camp in Bosnia was here in Brcko. Over 3,000 people died at Luka.

I began to get nervous, as sometimes happens when I enter an RS town. This may be because of past experiences, or perhaps because my mother and all my motherly friends keep telling me to be careful. Then I calmed down, telling myself, “This is not Foca. This is not Srebrenica. This is not…Serbia.”

The bus pulled up in a neighborhood of Brcko — no bus station. There were several taxis around. At the small bus company office, the man told me the last bus out of Brcko was at 2:30, and it was already around 12:30.

I went to my appointment with a couple of Serb activists for return. They told me that Serbs wish to return to Sarajevo, but their claim applications for return of their property are sitting unanswered. Novak told me, “You should stay here a month if you really want the story of Brcko. But otherwise this ad hoc approach is limited…” In Bosnian ad hoc is translated as “adhok.”

Ad hoc became the watchword for my whole experience with Brcko. Jelica, with whom I had an interview, walked me out of the office to show me how to get to the OSCE office. The first person walking by volunteered to take me there.

With Smilja I got not only a tour of Brcko, but her life story. “This is the hotel that was bombed during the war. That’s Croatia there, right across the river. I am a Serb and my husband was a Muslim. He disappeared during the war and I have no idea what happened. I have to support my two daughters and I have no help. I worked for 28 years before the war and have no pension. Now I’m cleaning offices. What can you do? You have to do something. They are bombing over in Serbia. Three times a day we hear the sonic booms. It’s terribly frightening for the children. I am sorry for all the people, regardless of their ethnicity.”

We passed the pleasant central district of town with its Austro-Hungarian buildings. Pictures of Poplasen and Seselj. Graffiti: “Turks get out.” Another: “Public Enemy.” Most of the graffiti that I used to assume had to do with the war or politics, I now realize is names of heavy metal bands.

A kiosk sold books: Herbal remedies, kids’ books in Cyrillic, and one titled, “The Serb Exodus from Serb Sarajevo.” I suppose this is Exodus part three, the second one being the greatly mythologized Serb exodus from Kosovo in 1689 or thereabouts.

PROFILE: THE SERB WHO IS BLOCKED FROM LEAVING BRCKO

Milorad Zivlak: Association of Sarajevo Serbs

Milorad Zivlak is the director of an organization of displaced Serbs who live in the city core of Brcko. These Serbs are from various places around the Federation, some under Muslim control, such as Sarajevo, Jajce, Travnik, Bihac, and Tuzla, and others under Croatian control, such as Drvar, Bosansko Grahovo, and Jajce. Return to most of these areas has been difficult, although there has recently been significant return to localities that before the war were predominantly Serb-populated.

Zivlak, originally from Bosansko Grahovo in western Bosnia, lived most of his adult life in Visoko, central Bosnia, where he worked as an attorney. At the beginning of the war he left Muslim-controlled Visoko for Serb-controlled Ilijas, on the outskirts of Sarajevo. With the Dayton reunification of Sarajevo in early 1996, he left for Brcko.

In September 1998 Zivlak submitted a request for the return of the tenancy rights to his Visoko apartment, but he received a negative decision in March of this year. He showed me the decision: “The proceedings have determined that Milorad Zivlak was the holder of tenancy rights of said apartment and that he abandoned it of his own free will, without pressure whatsoever, for reasons that were not connected to the conflict, so that he cannot be considered a displaced person.”

The appeal that Zivlak subsequently submitted is still pending, three months later. Meanwhile, a displaced Muslim lives in Zivlak’s Visoko apartment, and Zivlak lives in a Muslim-owned apartment in the center of Brcko. He told me that the former tenant of this apartment “lives nearby,” and has come to visit on occasion.

The displaced Serb population of Brcko has been the object of considerable manipulation by local authorities who were anxious to retain the city’s status as a “Serb city.” Zivlak explained to me his opinion of the true intentions of displaced Serbs. “There are around 26,000 displaced Serbs in Brcko, 6,000 or 7,000 of them from Sarajevo. It is said that people do not want to return, but this is not true. Serb politicians say this, because they want us to stay here. Politicians in the Federation say it too. Both want to maintain an ethnically homogenous voter group, because otherwise, they’ll be voted out, and there will be another kind of government. But I as an individual have never said I will not return.

“There are as many people like me here as you could wish to find. We have all submitted our requests for the return of our property. But the authorities in Sarajevo won’t give it to us. They just sign things — the Sarajevo Declaration, laws on property return, and so on. There has been no real resolution so far. I talked to an official in SFOR who told me, ‘You don’t want to return, but the Muslims want to.’ I said, “Where have I said I would not return? I never signed a statement to that effect.”

Zivlak explained to me several problems that have prevented Serbs in Brcko from returning to their homes. “More Serbs are returning to Drvar, in the Croat-controlled area, than many other places. However, there are Serbs there with no electricity. There are Serb-owned houses right next door to Croat-owned houses, and the Croats have electricity, but the Serbs do not. And in Livno Canton the Croat authorities want the electricity to be brought up from all the way from Mostar, which is terribly expensive. So there are villages in that area without electricity. Because of this, there are many Serbs wandering around the Republika Srpska, waiting to go home.

“All three ethnicities should be able to live in both entities. The point is constitutional recognition of the equal rights of all ethnicities. This does not exist in either entity, and the government is doing nothing about it. There is also the problem of state symbols. The Yugoslav symbols have been abolished, and now in the Republika Srpska there are only the RS symbols and the Bosnian state symbols. But in the Croat-controlled part of the Federation there is the open presence of Croatian symbols. Our people need to return to that part of Bosnia. It is not part of Croatia, and if Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sovereign state, the symbols of another state should not be shown there.

“In Grahovo and Drvar you don’t see the Bosnian flag, only the Croatian one. Not only that, there are no ethnically-mixed police in those two cities. And what about those Croats from Kakanj or Novi Travnik who live in Drvar? They have a house in another city, but they live and work in Drvar, which used to be 97% Serb? Why? The reason is that there are not enough Croats to populate these places, and the Croat regime sends them to live there.”

My impression was that Zivlak was more interested in displaced Serbs’ right to get their property back than their ability to move back to their homes. He said, “It is a mistake to talk about ‘return’ and ‘staying.’ What is essential is the right to our property. Then, you have the right to say what you are going to do with it, whether you are going to trade it, or sell it, and so on.”

I asked, “Are people more interested in moving home, or selling their property?” He answered, “We do not have the right to get involved in what people do with their property in the future. I can decide any of a thousand things at that point, and no one can violate my rights.”

“Regarding purchase of an apartment for which one has tenancy rights, the present law says you must live there for six months before you can buy it, and then you must live there another five years before you can sell it. But if you already live in your apartment [referring to tenants who have never been displaced], you can buy it right away. Displaced persons can’t do this. This is discrimination. We have complained to the human rights ombudsmen about this.”

In fact, the law Zivlak mentioned was designed to prevent people from buying state-owned apartments merely for profit, if they have no intention of occupying them. But many people consider the apartments to which they had tenancy rights before the war, to be rightfully theirs now, regardless of their plans to occupy or sell.

Regardless of the intentions of Zivlak and thousands of other displaced persons, the process of their return is indeed still largely blocked. Zivlak said, “We need more pressure from the international community. There are many people who have property now who had nothing before the war. For instance, many families divided during the war and part of them moved into empty apartments. These people need to be cleared out so that we can return.”

I asked, “What will happen if you cannot return to your apartment?” Zivlak answered, “Why shouldn’t I be able to? It’s my right. The international community can take care of this. They’re paid to do so.”
From Peter’s diary:

POPLASEN’S PLACE

June 1999. At the OSCE office they called across to Brka, a small town in the Federation part of Brcko (it is not quite yet a unified district) to set up an appointment with a displaced Muslim, a doctor who is an activist for return to Brcko.

I wandered back to catch a taxi to Brka. The general atmosphere on that hot day was one of depression, similar to every RS town I’ve visited. Little activity, weeds growing through the sidewalk cracks, four-foot high weeds in the parks, mortar crumbling off the walls of the houses. The Federation is also in disrepair, but there seems to be more of an attempt at reclamation.

I passed by the bridge that crosses the Sava to Croatia. The red, white, and blue Republika Srpska flag flies there, as well as the computer-generated flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A kiosk sold newspapers, but only from Serbia and the RS. If you want, you can buy “Politika” and “Ekspres” from Belgrade. Nothing from the Federation.

I bought Ekspres. “Five Hundred Bandits Liquidated in Kosovo-Metohija (Serb term for Kosovo).” An article about the negotiations with NATO (impending capitulation of Serb troops in Kosovo) states that the Serbian negotiators are making sure that Serbian sovereignty over the province will be maintained.

There was no bus. When I arrived at the “bus station,” all the taxis were gone. There’s no phone in the bus office. The only one on the block is in a nearby kafana. I walked in and saw a picture of Poplasen on the wall, in his old “Chetnik” (greater Serbia extremist) regalia, complete with long dagger hanging from his belt. Poplasen is a certified Chetnik Vojvoda (duke), as is Seselj. To achieve this distinction you have to kneel and be knighted by a ranking chetnik, leftover from World War II.

Poplasen, who was removed from his office of president of the RS last March, is still in the office of president. He said last week, “We have not given up on our ambitions to create the Greater Serbia running from Karlobag to Vitorovica (two towns in widely separate parts of Croatia).

There was no telling who was the owner of the kafana and none of the three men lounging there wanted to get up and find the number of the taxi company for me. I called information and got it myself. Then I called the company and the driver asked, “Is this for real? Lots of people are calling and then not showing up when I come to pick them up.” I assured him that it was for real. Then he told me he wanted 20 DM to go the 8 kilometers to Brka. He said it was a bad road. I didn’t believe him, and told him I recently went that way, and I talked him down to 10 DM.

When the driver comes he was a young guy and not too talkative. Everyone wants to know where I’m from and I tell them America. No one makes any comments about this. The driver became even less talkative when I forgot my story and told him that this was the first time I’ve been in Brcko. The subject of the NATO bombing came up briefly and he said, “That should not have happened.” I didn’t ask why.

As we passed into the Federation we fastened our seat belts, as this law is more enforced there. The road turned out to be truly, truly bad, and I gave the driver 15 DM.

In Brka I found the doctor, Enes Pasalic, and his wife Azra, who is also a doctor. This couple lives with their two daughters in a cabin built by a relief organization and they are waiting to get back into their flat in Brcko. To date, approximately one Muslim has returned to the city core. Enes tells me that no Serbs want to leave. Enes complained that only the RS flag is flying at the entrance to Bosnia in Brcko.

PROFILE: THE ORGANIZATION THAT WOULD HELP REFUGEES RETURN

The Center for Information and Legal Assistance

The Center for Information and Legal Assistance is located near the middle of Brcko town. Like many similar organizations, this Center provides legal advice for displaced Serbs living in Brcko who wish to return to their homes in the Federation, as well as displaced Muslims and Croats who wish to return to the city core of Brcko.

Jelica Maric and Novak Stanisic are information officers, and Milenko Marjanovic is a lawyer working for the organization.

Maric explained to me that the Center was formed two years ago, and that there are four other related organizations in the RS: in Teslic, Zvornik, Bosanski Samac, and Srebrenica. All are independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Most of the work they do is related to property questions and return of displaced persons. The Center sees an average of 30 to 40 visitors a day. It also goes into the field to give workshops on property law, as well as to troubleshoot such problems as the connection of electrical power or telephones for recent returnees.

Upon the signing of Dayton, Brcko was divided into two zones: the city core controlled by the RS, and other parts of the pre-war municipality, controlled by the Federation. The ultimate decision as to who would control the entire municipality was left for a later arbitration process. In March of this year Brcko was declared a “district” and will gradually be placed under the simultaneous jurisdiction of both entities. Meanwhile, primarily Serbs inhabit the city core, and Croats and Muslims the surrounding “zone of separation.”

According to Maric, displaced Serbs living in Brcko have increased their claims submissions for return to Sarajevo this year, but have routinely failed to receive replies to these claims. These people are hoping for improved chances for return, but to date there has been next to no resolution.

There is also increased interest on the part of Muslims displaced from Brcko for return to the city center. Maric attributes the Brcko Serbs’ increased desire to return to the realization that, with the recent decision creating a Brcko District, Muslim return to the Brcko city center is inevitable. Given this, the Serbs are realizing that they will not be able to continue to occupy Muslim-owned property, so that they had better work to get back what they owned in the Federation before the war.

Maric approximates that displaced Serbs in the Brcko city core amount to as much as 60% of the population. These people are from Sarajevo, Jajce, Tuzla, and parts of western Bosnia such as Drvar, Kljuc, and Bosansko Grahovo. Maric said that not all of them want to return, and that “we don’t try to persuade people.”

On the subject of obstruction to return, Maric said, “There is obstruction on both sides, in the Federation and here in the RS. In the Federation, people’s property claims simply sit unanswered. I don’t think that there has been less obstruction here in the Serb-controlled part of Brcko. But the property laws were drafted later here (December 1998). Varja Djuric of the Coalition for Return recently came up and spoke with us. She said that evictions of illegal occupants in Sarajevo have been increasing. We will see what happens. The human rights Ombudsmen have received our complaints, but it seems they have no power to change the situation.”

Maric explained to me that Brcko is a special case for return, because all of the decisions regarding return ultimately go through the international community’s specially-appointed supervisor for Brcko, Robert Farrand. Brcko’s special status under Dayton has also ensured that it would have an ethnically-mixed city government, police department, and court system. Mirsad Djapo, a Muslim member of the Social Democrat Party, is president of the Brcko city council. However, to this date Muslim return to Brcko town has been almost nil.

I asked Maric for her evaluation of the return process to Brcko. She told me that there has been the most return to the “Zones of Separation,” amounting to some 4,500 Croat and Muslim returns. It has been easier to repair damaged houses and re-inhabit them than to evict displaced persons from houses that they are illegally occupying. This has been one of the main obstacles to return to the city core, especially in a political sense. Maric noted that 99% of all displaced Muslims, amounting to some 20,000 people, have filed property return claims.

When the decision to create an inter-entity district out of Brcko came down in March, Mayor Borko Reljic resigned. Maric told me that the new mayor, Sinisa Kisic, is a member of the Socialist Party (the party of Bosnian President Zivko Radisic) and that his appointment has been a change for the positive, in that he is in favor of the return of all displaced persons.

Stanisic added that return to Brcko has been more productive than to any other place in the country. However, the fact that all of this return has been to the zone of separation shows this claim to be a misleading one. I commented, “I understand that there is a huge difference between return to the zone of separation and the city core.” Stanisic replied, “Everything depends on Ambassador Farrand. We are all waiting for him to decide. But it is easier for Muslims to return to Brcko than for Serbs to Sarajevo.” Again, while it is true that Serbs face a formidable level of obstruction in return to Sarajevo, the several thousand that have succeeded in returning are far more than the “several” Muslims that have returned to the Brcko city core.

Regarding security, Maric told me that there have been no incidents of harassment or violence against Muslims visiting Brcko. “We have 20 Muslim visitors a day to this Center. You can also see how many Croatian license plates there are on cars driving through Brcko. The only incident was the stoning of a NATO vehicle back in March. It’s peaceful here now, more progressive than in some other parts of the entity. Representatives of international organizations that had withdrawn in March returned over ten days ago. Ambassador Farrand himself never left Brcko.”

Return of Serbs to the Federation-controlled parts of Brcko has apparently been almost as much of a problem as that of Muslims coming back to the city core. Muslims are occupying Serb-owned houses in the surrounding villages. Serbs have submitted claims to return, but that return has not yet started moving. Many Serb-owned houses have been damaged, so donors must also be sought to finance repair of those homes.

Maric herself is a displaced person from Ilijas, a Sarajevo neighborhood. Her parents still live there. I asked her what she expected regarding her own possibility for return. She said, “What can I expect if I’ve already waited six months? The deadline for responding to my claim is 30 days, but that is never observed. Some local people took over my apartment. It’s a case of double occupancy.”

I asked about the effects of the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia on the general climate of Brcko. Maric said, “Many companies have shut down. They were dependent on import and export with Yugoslavia. Economically, everything has stopped.

“There are many people who have come from Serbia to escape the bombing. But their presence is not recorded by the Republika Srpska government, because otherwise the government would have the responsibility to take care of them. Most of them are staying with friends and relatives.”

From Peter’s diary:

SLOUCHING OUT OF BRCKO

Thursday, June 10, 1999. I waited an hour in the sun at Brka for a bus that I was told would take me back to Tuzla. Then I got information that no bus was coming. I took a taxi to the Arizona highway. The driver is a displaced Muslim from Brcko who told me his house there was burned down.

I waited a half-hour for another bus. A man came up and waited beside me. He was a displaced Muslim from Brcko whose apartment is occupied by some displaced Serbs. He has filed a claim to return. I asked him if he will return, and he said, “The problem is, no one’s returning, and someone has to start.” He then saw a friend and ran off to get a ride, leaving me alone.

I gave up and took a taxi all the way to Tuzla. Cost of the bus from Tuzla to Brcko: 7.5 DM. Cost of three taxis back: 60 DM (~$40.00). You can’t get there from here, except by ad hoc methods.

I had no more appointments scheduled for Brcko, but I decided to go back the next day and try again. I managed to catch a more direct bus and get there at 11:00. I found Milorad Zivlak, a displaced Serb return activist from Visoko, (central Bosnia), and we set up an interview for later in the day.

I went to the UNHCR office, where they told me that everyone was out and that all the phones in town are cut off because someone was digging ditches to fix the water supply and accidentally cut the phone cable.

I walked across the street to the OHR office. They are the ones who are administrating Brcko. I barely got in the door. The woman who told me she was chief security officer told me I had to say who I wanted to talk to. I did not know a name, and I told her I wanted to interview someone about return. She said I had to submit a written request, five days in advance. I began to lose my patience. She began to speak to me in English.

I did not get a chance to talk with William Quayle, the OHR officer responsible for return policy, as he was on his way out to the gym. He told me to give him a call on the telephone.

I met with Zivlak, who is currently working as a magistrate in the “Basic Court” of Brcko. He told me that what they say about the Serbs not wanting to move back where they came from is not true. I asked him who says that. He said that the Serb politicians say that. Zivlak wants to get his property in Visoko back. If he ever gets it back, I am sure he will sell it. He didn’t tell me this, and figured out many ways not to tell me this.

I got back to the Brcko station in time to catch the 2:30 bus. No more ad hoc for me.