PRESS

Sarajevo, July 17, 2003

BOSNIAN REFUGEE ASSOCIATION WELCOMES NEW STATE-LEVEL RETURN STRATEGY

Journalist] Mrs Zukic, the delegates in the House of Representatives of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Parliamentary Assembly have discussed the Bosnia-Hercegovina strategy for the implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement. What is this about?

[Zukic] We have endorsed the Bosnia-Hercegovina strategy for the implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement, whereby a common fund will be created out of which all refugees and returnees in Bosnia-Hercegovina will be financed. We are happy about this - we have [word indistinct], all these years that a common strategy must exist. We have studied the strategy and have had an opportunity to present it to our local branches. Of course, representatives of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, as the lead in this project, have tried to present its main features and what it actually means for refugees, returnees, and displaced persons.

We, as the Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation of Refugee and DP [Displaced Persons] Associations, are glad that a common fund will finally be established and this is already in its implementation phase. As an NGO, we will have an important role to play within the framework of the strategy. We are glad that this is so because we know that all world governments implement humanitarian projects and aid projects in general through NGOs. Unfortunately, in Bosnia-Hercegovina we have had foreign implementing agencies. We are now mature enough to be able to resolve some problems and participate in such projects.

Thus, the strategy itself is a step forward for us in terms of the modality of our future work. On the other hand, we are very happy that the Commission for Refugees has already chosen six projects. The commission managed joint funds that had come from both entities and, of course, at the level of the state of Bosnia-Hercegovina [as heard]. The only thing that we are not happy to see and that worries us in a way is that the state does not have sufficient funds for return. Instead, it has to wait for when the entities get the money and channel it to the commission. It takes a lot of time to fill the state budget in this way.

[Journalist] In your opinion, how successful will this strategy be? Do you have any specific expectations?

[Zukic] In any case, we expect that one will be able to find in one place the data on, first, the number of reconstructed houses in the whole of Bosnia-Hercegovina. So, whoever has done this work in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the ministry will now have these data in one place thanks to the strategy. On the other hand, we in Bosnia-Hercegovina still do not know how many returnees we have had, as if we had 20 million people. We have the number of returns but not the number of people who have returned. Therefore, we as an NGO are these days trying to make analyses on the ground and establish accurate data. We believe that at the level of Bosnia-Hercegovina this strategy has to include these data.

What we still expect from this strategy is for it to be coordinated vertically: to have the state ministry and to then exercise responsibilities through entity, cantonal, and municipal authorities. However, this form has been avoided in the strategy: the approach was to have the state and local communities. This was also our proposal [as heard] because returnees do not return to cantons but to local communities, and the canton is the broader community. If a refugee is returning to Banja Luka, for instance, then Banja Luka and the Banja Luka local authorities are obliged to help those people. For so far we have had many examples where refugees' problems were practically no-one's problem: they went from one authority to another and no authority said it was their responsibility to resolve those problems. Therefore, we have a concrete address now and that is the local community, the local authorities.

Source:
BBC Monitoring / Radio Naba web site, Visoko