INFORMATION ON THE VISIT OF THE HELSINKI COMMITTEE
TO BUGOJNO ON 26 MAY 1997



 

The Mission of the representatives of the Helsinki Committees visited Bugojno in order to find out the facts concerning the situation on human rights. The members of the Mission were: Srdjan Dizdarevic, member of the Executive Committee of the International Helsinki Federation and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Anne-Marie Bostrom, member of the Helsinki Committee of Sweden, Nils Andersen, member of the Helsinki Committee of France, Mustafa Cero, helsinki Committee in BH. Roland Salvisberg from the Office of the High Representative accompanied the members of the Mission in their visit to Bugojno.
During their stay in Bugojno, the members of the Mission had talks with the Mayor of Bugojno Dzevad Mlaco, in his quality of the representative of local authorities and the ruling Party of Democratic Action, and also with the representatives of HDZ and the representatives of the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party.
The Mission met with about seventy people of Croat ethnic origin who gave their testimonies on various forms of violation of human rights to which they were the victims. 47 individual claims in writing were submitted to the Mission, describing the forms of violation of human rights and freedoms. The talks were also held with the President of local "Dobrotvor" ("Benefactor" - the Serb humanitarian organization), as representative of Bugojno Serbs.
The Mission visited the Catholic cemetery Causlije, which was destroyed after the conflict of the Croatian Council of Defense and the Army of BH was brought to end, and the suburban residential area Lug, to which 16 Croats had returned within the framework of the Pilot Project and in which one house from the same project had been mined and completely destroyed on 16 May this year.
Since the beginning of the war Bugojno has undergone thorough demographic changes. Before the war, 47,000 inhabitants were living there while now there are 31,000. There were about 16,000 Croats before the war while now there are about 2,000 Croats. The figure of 9,000 Serbs living there has fallen down to about 300. There are about 8,500 refugees, mainly from Jajce and Prozor, now living in Bugojno,.
The economic situation is very bad. Before the war, there were 20,000 persons employed in Bugojno, while now only about 2,000 persons have a job. Among those employed there are 10 Serbs and 26 Croats. The sanctions which are imposed to Bugojno, due to its obstructing the establishment of the Transitional Municipal Council, prevent it from starting up the industrial capacities and, in consequence, from employing the people.
The Mission focused its attention on the three key issues: the position of minorities, the conditions for return of refugees and the preparation of the municipal elections.
On the basis of the facts established, the Mission has found that freedom of movement has been respected for one year already. However, this did not create conditions either for safer position of the minorities or for return of refugees and displaced persons. The main obstacles lay in the lack of political will on the part of local authorities to provide preconditions for ensuring security to persons and personal property belonging to peoples which do not constitute the majority.
There were 932 cases of the violation of human rights registered concerning the citizens of Croat nationality, here included the physical attacks and various forms of ill-treatment. The Croat owners, even those who returned to Bugojno within the Pilot Project, were not given back their property.


Namely, the returnees did realize their housing right, as their houses or apartments had been given back to them, while on the other hand, the facilities in their personal property, such as restaurants, handicraft workshops, agricultural machinery and other, which would have made them economically independent had not been returned to them. As our collocutors claimed, HDZ and SDA (Croatian Democratic Community and Party of Democratic Action) reached the agreement to give back the entire private property to those citizens who had returned within the Pilot-Project . This measure does not imply other citizens - Croats and Serbs who used to live there during the war nor other potential returnees belonging to Croat or Serb ethnic groups. On this occasion too, the local authorities repeated their thesis according to which first the refugees who found the shelter in Bugojno should be enabled to return to Jajce and Prozor and only after that it would be possible to proceed with the return of Croats and Serbs to their houses and apartments.
As concerning the return of refugees and displaced persons it could be concluded that both the refugees and displaced persons and the local population expressed distinctly their will that the process of the return be opened. The safety of personal and material property, and the administrative blockade are quoted as basic obstacles to the process. There is also a problem of communications due to which the refugees and displaced persons can not get true information regarding the status of their property, feelings of the local population toward their fellow citizens presently out of Bugojno, etc. The re-establishment of the telephone and transportation communication lines is one of the pre-conditions for the opening of the process of return.
During the talks with the citizens of Croat nationality, the Mission learned of concrete instances of the violation of human rights. Vilim Tomic, the only Croat proprietor of a restaurant informed the Mission that explosive devices were 13 times placed in his restaurant. Danica Srsen, who upon the approval of the municipal authorities had gone for medical treatment out of Bugojno and who could not return to Bugojno on time, found tenants in her apartment upon her return. Until now, she has not realized her right to return to her apartment. Anka Radijelovic and her daughter were beaten up by their co-tenants, refugees from Prozor. When she reported the case to the local police, one of the policemen beat her with the same club with which she had previously been beaten.
All the political parties except SDA are excluded from the political life of Bugojno. As the Transitional Municipal Council has not been formed it is only the SDA that is represented in the local government.
All the political parties until the elections in 1990 had their offices in the building of the municipality. After the elections, all the parties were thrown out from those offices.
Apart from the problems with the offices, the local political parties also have the financial difficulties. There were no complaints regarding the parties being obstructed in their activities.
The Mission came to conclusion that there is but little interest in the upcoming municipal elections. The number of voters registered is insignificant, this seriously putting in question the legitimacy of the local elections scheduled for September this year. The lack of interest for the elections seriously undermines the yet newly started process of democratization and strengthens the non-democratic tendencies.
In conclusion, the Mission states that the processes of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord, especially in the field of rights of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes and in the field of respect of human rights, are completely blocked in the case of Bugojno. The present situation obliges both the international community and the democratic forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be more active toward the situation in this city and to undertake concrete measures in implementing the civil aspects of the Dayton Accord.


Sarajevo, 27 May 1997