Belgrade - After World War II, the communist regime in Serbia confiscated a house and some 30 acres of land belonging to Dragan Djokic's grandfather to build a school and a school yard.
The family was later compensated for the house, but not the land. The school was built without a yard.
Djokic is one of thousands of people in Serbia waiting for the government to adopt a restitution law and begin the return of the properties confiscated or 'nationalized' after the war.
Serbian officials however argued that restitution would be an expensive undertaking, costing taxpayers millions of dollars at a time when the economy, weak since the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, is being battered by the global economic crisis.
But since the country aspired to join the European Union, Belgrade began working on a restitution law, which it planned to adopt by the end of last year.
State secretary in the Finance Ministry Slobodan Ilic said he would resign if the law is not passed by the end of 2009.
The law has yet to reach Parliament and Ilic has not kept his promise amid speculation fuelled by the secrecy surrounding the proposed law.
According to the unofficial reports, the government is to propose the return of the actual property or its value in bonds.
The owners of confiscated properties suspect the government is deliberately dragging its feet with the restitution law because most of the property in question is now state-owned. Political parties obtain money through the lease and sale of such properties, often at low prices, to business tycoons.
The original owners reject compensation in the form of bonds because the country has no cash to pay them. They are demanding that the properties be returned or, in the case where the land now houses public buildings, alternative land must be provided.
Serbia is 'a black hole' on a map of former communist countries with restitution laws, says Milivoje Antic coordinator of The Network for Restitution in Serbia.
'A data base with records of confiscated properties, made in 2005, shows the majority of the confiscated property is in the hands of the state and only one fifth of all that was nationalized is now being asked for,' Antic told the German Press Agency dpa.
Since Serbia is more than 20 years behind with restitution compared to other ex-communist countries, many of the original property owners have died or lost interest in restitution, he says.
Antic dismisses the government's assessment that restitution would cost the country millions.
'The problem with restitution in Serbia is corruption and the law on planning and building,' he says. Often the ownership of land is transferred to those leasing land and building on it, with the previous owners bypassed, he says.
The law on planning enables parties in power to hand the nationalized land over to tycoons in exchange for financial support, he added. 'That is how political parties are being financed.'
That law, which allows 'all investors whether local or foreign, to buy the land directly from the state or municipalities', is a thorn in the side of people waiting for restitution.
Those campaigning for restitution point to the 2007 sale of bankrupt retail chain Robne kuce Beograd as an example. The government sold two buildings that were nationalized in the 1930s along with it, without compensating the original owners or their descendants.
The planning law also 'enables the state to handle the properties which are waiting for restitution but are not protected,' according to Dragana Milovanovic from the League for the Protection of Private Property.
'This way, instead of protecting those properties and returning them to old owners, the state would be able to sell them while old owners will get bonds which they would not be able to cash in because the state is broke,' she told the daily Danas newspaper.
'The problem is that tycoons who already bought some firms and got the rights to use the land would now, under the protection of government, be able do buy the land under their own terms,' Milovanovic added.
'The story of restitution is the story of whether we will see better days, whether we will grow stronger economically, whether we are truly for European integration, whether our state is a regulated one,' says Antic.
Djokic is determined to see justice. 'I'm still waiting for the restitution of my grandfather's land and I will not give up.'
Source:monstersandcritics.com/
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