Sarajevo’s architecture and its charming historical buildings often impress visitors to the capital, but for those whose families once owned some of them – or at least, the land on which they are built – they are a painful reminder of what they believe Bosnia and Herzegovina owes them.

The unresolved question of property seized during World War II and by Yugoslavia’s post-WWII communist government has long been a problem in the country, where some people and organisations – Jewish, Muslim and Orthodox Christian – have been waiting decades to get back what they insist is rightfully theirs.

The issue was highlighted again by a European Parliament resolution adopted on February 13, which called on the Sarajevo authorities to “ensure the right to property” and pointed out “the lack of a comprehensive legislative framework on handling restitution claims”.

The World Jewish Restitution Organisation welcomed the European Parliament’s pressure on Bosnia, which is seeking EU membership, to bring in a law to deal with restitution.

“We urge Bosnia and Herzegovina to pass legislation for the return of private and communal property,” the WJRO’s chair of operations, Gideon Taylor, said in a statement.

Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish Community in Bosnia, noted however that there is no precise data on the total value of property that once belonged to the country’s Jewish community, and pointed out that some of these properties are actually being used by Bosnian institutions.

“For example there is the building where the Cantonal Interior Ministry in Sarajevo is, which is the building of La Benevolencija, and yet it has still not returned,” Finci told BIRN.

The building is located in a Sarajevo street that is named after La Benevolencija, a Jewish organisation which was founded in 1892 in the Bosnian capital to help give Bosnian Jewish students the opportunity to attend universities in other parts of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Bosnian capital was home to some 12,000 Jews before WWII; now there are only around 1,000 in the entire country.

In 1945, after the end of the war, La Benevolencija was outlawed by the new Communist authorities, but was able to re-emerge under the name Sloboda. In 1991, it got its old name back, and Finci was appointed as its first official vice-president.

During the 1992-95 Bosnian war and the siege of the capital, La Benevolencija was one of the well-known organisations providing aid for Sarajevans.

As to why this and many other buildings have been not returned to their previous owners, Finci cited a “lack of [political] will”.

Land in prime locations claimed

The Sarajevo Clock Tower EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

Erna Kohen Izrael, Rahela Montiljo and Malina Rasel also used to own a piece of land in Sarajevo’s Stari Grad (Old Town) municipality.

Izrael and Montiljo have now died, but Rasel still hopes that the land, which has since been given to the Stari Grad municipal authorities, will be returned.

“Struggling for something that belongs to you is exhausting, as you are seeking justice in a system in which we can see that there is no will to resolve this question,” Rasel told BIRN.

Rasel’s lawyer Nenad Maglajic explained that due to the lack of legislation dealing with restitution, no one is willing to take responsibility for such claims.

“Bosnia needs a law on restitution, on the denationalisation of the property, which clearly establishes what can be subject to restitution, what is the order of inheritance [among the heirs] and in what time period the former owners and their successors can file a request for restitution of the property,” Maglajic said.

Data from the Restitution Commission of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers suggests that around one million hectares of land and about three million square metres of business and residential space that belonged to various religious communities in the country was nationalised.

The Orthodox Church also says that it is the rightful owner of buildings and land in prime locations.

“These are properties that are mostly located in the centre of Sarajevo such as the Faculty of Economics building, then land where the Bosnian state-level parliament is and the Council of Ministers, then land where the Holiday Inn [hotel] is,” Vanja Jovanovic, an Orthodox priest from Sarajevo, told BIRN.

Other desirable locations in the heart of the Bosnian capital are being claimed by Bosnia’s Islamic Community, which says it is entitled to the restitution of some 30 million hectares of land all over the country – far more than the Restitution Commission’s estimates.

“In Sarajevo alone, we are looking at the JAT skyscraper [building], the Central and Old Town hotels, the Bagatov building in Markale [market area], a building in the Glass Town [shopping and office area], 900 business premises in Bascarsija and Bezistan [districts], a building at Marshal Tito Street number 32, and land where Skenderija [sports, cultural and trade centre] and the Bosnian presidency are,” the Islamic Community organisation told BIRN.

Mustafa Begic, the president of Council of Ministers’ Restitution Commission, said that at present, it is not known exactly how much land and how many properties could be returned to their former owners or their heirs.

“For as long as Bosnia fails to adopt a state-level law, this data will remain incomplete, as we at the commission are collecting reports on all the properties, but there is a process of verification… in the end, the law should clarify all those technical details,” Begic said.

Political disputes create deadlock

Pensioners play chess at a park in the centre of Sarajevo. EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

In February 2016, the Association of Owners of Nationalised and Confiscated Real Estate drafted a law on restitution and submitted it to the Council of Ministers with the suggestion that it be included in the list of obligations that Bosnia and Herzegovina has to fulfil while seeking EU membership.

However, the draft law has fallen victim to the political disputes that have often paralysed the country’s complex system of governance.

The Council of Ministers cannot refer the draft law to parliament because there has been no consent so far from the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one of the country’s two political entities.

Republika Srpska’s political leaders argue that such issues should be decided at the entity level, not the state level.

A draft law on denationalisation prepared ten years ago was also rejected by Republika Srpska on the same grounds.

Back in 2000, Republika Srpska passed its own law on restitution, but the Office of the High Representative, the international overseer of Bosnia’s peace process, annulled it, insisting that the issue must be regulated at the state level.

Bosnia is one of the countries that in 2009 signed the Terezin Declaration – a series of commitments to work towards returning assets that were taken during the Holocaust.

The Terezin Declaration’s signatories pledge to make “every effort” to rectify “the consequences of wrongful property seizures”.

People seeking restitution, like Malina Rasel, are still hoping that Bosnia will manage to keep its promise.