Kasumović: As mayor, I fought for and secured our property in Croatia, the state remains silent on everything

ZENICA, (Patria) - The Croatian Parliament recently adopted the Law on Management of State Property, which also states that Croatia can lease state property to a third party for a maximum of 30 years, including properties owned by Bosnia and Herzegovina located in Croatia. These are properties owned by BiH companies, mostly defunct after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Unofficially, their value is estimated at several billion convertible marks.

The opposition accuses the government of doing nothing to reclaim this property. The item concerning the state property of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatia was removed from the agenda of the last session of the Council of Ministers. The Chairperson of the BiH Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdić, announced an appeal against the Croatian law, but such a reaction came only after pressure from the media and the public.

The Mayor of Zenica, Fuad Kasumović, told the Patria agency that it is unbelievable that he, as mayor, is fighting for the property of the City of Zenica in Croatia (a resort in Duće near Omiš), while the Council of Ministers, with its vast infrastructure, is unable to do the same for other BiH properties in the neighboring country.

“Since I took office as Mayor of Zenica on November 11, 2016, the City Administration has made maximum efforts to implement the court ruling from 2013, which confirmed that the City of Zenica is the owner of the resort in Duće near Omiš,” said Kasumović.

This concerns an area of 11,788 square meters, on which the Republic of Croatia imposed a decree prohibiting the right to dispose of real estate in 1991. This plot was purchased in 1961 by the then Municipality of Zenica, so there was no doubt for lawyers that the legal successor to the valuable property was the City of Zenica. Kasumović says that the Republic of Croatia has been committing legal violence all along. The goal, says Kasumović, “was to seize this property, as well as many other properties owned by citizens and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

“The verification process has been ongoing for years and is extremely costly. The City Administration and the City Council are determined to bring this process to an end and to sell this exceptionally attractive location on the coast through an international public tender, and to direct the funds towards the construction of a capital facility in our city,” emphasizes Kasumović. He stated that they did not receive assistance from BiH state bodies in this entire process. On the contrary, claims the Mayor of Zenica, some institutions, such as the Privatization Agency of the Central Bosnia Canton, have openly worked against the interests of Zenica and the citizens of BiH.

“It is indicative that through the property restitution process near Omiš, we have obtained data that the City of Zenica owns at least two more attractive plots and facilities on the Adriatic coast,” he says. These are properties in Kaštela and in the town of Brela on the Makarska Riviera.

“The City Legal Department and the City Legal Council are working on these cases, and our goal is to try to reclaim these properties for the city as well. I repeat, we are alone in this fight. If I, as mayor, can fight for and secure what belongs to the citizens of Zenica and BiH, I wonder why the BiH Council of Ministers cannot,” concludes Kasumović.