Cero: State Property Commission aimed at territorial division of BiH

(Patria) - The BiH State Property Commission, which was reactivated on October 10 last year, had a deadline until today to draft a set of laws that would resolve this issue. This has not been done. BiH state property expert Muharem Cero stated that it is clear that "something else is hidden behind this work assignment" and warned that the intention could be "final territorial division and the realization of the threatening ethno-territorial concept", meaning that state property would become the ownership of the entities.

"In recent days, we learned that the intention of the proposer, Minister Josip Grubeša, in agreement with the members of the Council of Ministers and the Chairman himself and his deputies, was for the Commission to use its exclusive right and exclude accumulated cases, of which there are hundreds, which are under a ban on ownership transfer. The intention was not to pass laws at all.

It is currently unknown, but it can be assumed that the excluded cases include current issues such as the construction of the Trebinje airport, hydroelectric power plants on the Drina River, and probably what is most current at the moment, the construction of a gas pipeline between two public companies – "Plin Republike Srbije" and "Gas Republike Srpske". The contract was signed between a state and an entity company without the consent of the state as the owner of the property," said Cero.

He pointed out that this would not have happened if a protective measure had been adopted based on the appeal filed against the Law on Forests in Republika Srpska, and there would have been no possibility to proceed with the implementation of this agreement, and that "the right of use would be converted into the right of disposal or ownership".

"The ownership of the gas pipeline connected to the TurkStream would be with "Gas RS". The intention was, and unfortunately still is, to implement the right of use of agricultural and forest land according to unconstitutional laws and the Law on Forests of Republika Srpska. This means that property already adjudicated for agricultural land, which has not been registered in Republika Srpska but has likely been transferred to state property owned by Republika Srpska long ago in the Republican Administration for Geodetic Affairs, would be fully implemented. Whether there were hundreds of other cases, as reported by some media, prepared for exclusion - all of this indicates that there is no intention to finally resolve the fifth goal, but rather to use the issue of state property in a unilateral manner, resulting in final territorial division and the realization of the threatening ethno-territorial concept," said Cero.

He emphasized that it would be good if "the Constitutional Court recognized the need and adopted a measure, thwarted this intention in the case of the Law on Forests of Republika Srpska, and for the international community to recognize that the conclusions of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska are being implemented, including the one not to implement the decisions of the Constitutional Court".

"It is clear that much more efficient and effective engagement is needed, both from the international community and the judiciary. The Council of Ministers has an obligation, after everything that is happening around state property, and especially the line minister Josip Grubeša, as well as the Secretary-General and the President of the State Property Commission, Robert Vidović, to inform public opinion about the cases that are being attempted to be excluded from the disposal ban in the corona-induced environment of reduced attention and assigned to new, currently unknown owners," Cero stated, writes N1.