Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
19
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
were sentenced to up to three years’ imprisonment.
These were the first criminal proceedings conducted
to date into the many incidents of ethnic violence in
the Stola
area, where the local Bosnian Croat
authorities have notably failed to respect the right to
return of the pre-war Bosniac population.
In February, the Municipal Court in Drvar in the
Federation found five Bosnian Croats guilty of
inciting violence against Serb returnees and
international organizations in that town in April 1998,
in the wake of the killing of an elderly Serb returnee
couple, a crime which remains unresolved (see also AI
Index: EUR 01/02/98). The men, who were charged in
1999, received sentences of up to nine months’
imprisonment, but are currently at liberty pending
appeal.
In two separate incidents in May, the laying of
foundation stones for the rebuilding of mosques in
Trebinje and Banja Luka (RS) were disrupted by the
outbreak of organized violence. On 5 May, several
hundred Bosnian Serb protestors threw rocks and
bottles at Bosniac worshippers and members of the
international community attending the ceremony in
Trebinje; local police reportedly failed to take
adequate measures to protect people from violence.
An international staff member of the High
Representative’s office and a Bosniac television
reporter were severely beaten and had to undergo
hospital treatment.
Two days later, in Banja Luka, a crowd of over
2,000 Serb protestors broke up a similar ceremony
marking the start of the rebuilding of the famous 16
th
century Ferhad Paša mosque in the centre of Banja
Luka. Some 200 people, including Bosniac pre-war
inhabitants of Banja Luka, Bosnian Government
officials and members of the international community,
were forced to abandon the ceremony and seek
refugee in the nearby Islamic Community building,
where they were trapped for several hours. Scores of
persons were injured by the demonstrators, including
some Bosnian Serb police officers, who were present
in insufficient numbers and failed to halt the violence.
In addition, SFOR troops who were monitoring events
in Banja Luka refused to engage in protecting people
and property from being attacked, contrary to their
mandate under the Dayton Peace Agreement.
The violence triggered revenge attacks against
Bosnian Serbs in the Federation. In Sanski Most two
Bosniac men reportedly threw a hand grenade at an
Orthodox church. In Klju
a car driven by a Serb man
was stopped and destroyed, and some Serb returnees
were attacked and injured by Bosniac men protesting
against the violence in Banja Luka. Local police had
reportedly issued criminal complaints against some 20
persons in connection with these incidents by the end
of May.
The worst casualty of the Banja Luka riot, a 60-
year-old Bosniac man who had lapsed into a coma as
a result of his injuries, died in late May. In reaction to
the violence in Banja Luka and Trebinja, the RS
Minister for the Interior and three senior police
officers resigned.
There was widespread concern that RS police
investigations into the violence were not carried out in
a thorough and professional manner, in spite of the
availability of large amounts of evidence, including
video-taped footage. In June, the IPTF Commissioner
dismissed the head of the crime department of
Trebinje
for
failing
to
conduct
thorough
investigations. Only a small number of people were
reportedly brought before a court for petty offences in
connection with the violence. Similarly, by the end of
June, Banja Luka police had reportedly brought
criminal complaints against only 11 persons for their
role in the violence.
A second attempt at laying the foundation stone
of the Ferhad Paša mosque in Banja Luka succeeded
on 18 June, policed by some 2,200 RS police officers
who used tear gas and water cannons to keep a 1,000-
strong crowd of hostile demonstrators at bay.
Minority returns
Statistics compiled by international organizations
again indicated a substantial rise in the return of
private property and socially-owned apartments to
their pre-war owners and occupants. Over 30,000
houses and flats were returned in the period under
review, nearly two thirds of them in the Federation and
the remainder in the RS and the autonomous Br
ko
district. In spite of this progress, many cases of
violations of the right to return and disregard of
property laws persisted. This was particularly true in
respect of the so-called “floaters”, people who were
evicted from their property but stayed in their
municipality throughout the war, of which reportedly
some 400 remain in the larger RS towns of Banja Luka
and Bijeljina.
There was concern that donor funding for
reconstruction did not keep pace with the increased
interest in and speed of returns. The United Nations
High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated
in January that there was an urgent need for funding
to reconstruct some 15,000 housing units belonging to
returnees; by the end of June this number had risen to
22,000. A large part of reconstruction aid was also
needed for people who had already returned to their
pre-war communities on the principle of “funding
follows return”, and who were living in tent
settlements or temporary accommodation awaiting the
rebuilding of their destroyed homes.
It remains difficult to assess how many of the
reported returns proved to be sustainable, and how
many returnees have succeeded in reintegrating in
their pre-war communities. Discrimination on
grounds of ethnicity in regaining employment and the
enjoyment of other social and economical rights was
a common occurrence throughout the country,
impacting heavily on the feasibility of sustainable
return and on the decisions of those still displaced
whether to leave areas where members of their
nationality held political and economic control.
On 24 April, a final and binding decision was
taken on the location of the Inter Entity Boundary Line
(IEBL) in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja. Dobrinja