UNMIK/FR/014/01
FEATURE RELEASE - 16 February, 2001

Property rights
HPCC Hands Down First Decisions-First Step in Restoring Rule of Law to Property Rights

In a democratic society, property is a fundamental right upheld by the rule of law.  In Kosovo, the havocs of war and the fields of uncertainty sown in its wake have wrought legal anarchy and an institutional vacuum. Destruction of property and records, discriminatory legislation, illegal occupations, forced evictions and sales, the mass exodus of people since 1989 have led to the collapse of the foundations that protected property rights.  The result: today tens of thousands of Kosovars find themselves in unresolved housing property disputes.
  
The Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) was established on 15 November 1999 (UNMIK Regulation 1999/23) as the body which would help in property restitution. The HPD and its affiliate, the Housing and Property Claims Commission (HPCC), help claimants with properties falling in one of the following three categories:

1. Those seeking restitution of property lost through discrimination, mostly Albanians.
 
2. Those regarding informal property transactions made between 23 March 1989 and 13 October 1999, which could not be registered under the FRY law. 

3. Claims by refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have lost their homes, mostly Serbs, and who wish to return or transfer their property.

Despite being established at the end of 1999, Regulation 23 states that the Commission must promulgate rules of procedure and evidence prior to adjudicating claims, a process that took over eight months and was only finalized in November 2000.  Since then the HPD has received over 2,000 claims, of which over 70 per cent from refugees and IDPs who have lost their homes and who wish to return or transfer their property.
  
Dan Lewis, HPD Director, emphasizes that the primary means of resolving claims (deadline for filing is 1 December 2001) is through mediation rather than adjudication.  Thus only a handful of unresolvable cases have been passed on to the Commission, although considerably larger claims volumes will be decided at future Commission sessions. The HPD estimates the number of claims could reach 80,000 to 100,000 by the end of the year.

According to Alan Dodson, HPCC Chairman: "This involves a huge amount of work so swiftness in resolving cases is of the essence." That was the lesson learned from his experience as a South African Land Claims Court judge.  Lewis notes: "The HPD's intent is to create equal access for anybody who has a claim to property they lost for one reason or another, or that they want to regulate."
 
Although the HPD was criticized for taking a long time to process claims, Lewis believes such censure is unjustified: the Commission made its first decisions within 90 days of the legal barriers being removed by the promulgation of 2000/60. Currently HPD's limited funding is the biggest constraint on its work. As much as $7.5 million would be needed for the logistics capacity to process 100,000 claims.
 
The Directorate opened its first office in Pristina in June 2000, followed by Gjilan/Gnjilane in mid-November 2000. A further office is due to open shortly in Mitrovicė/Mitrovica.  In addition, mobile teams operate in Gracanica, Shtėrpcė/Strpce, and Obiliq/Obilic. They distribute and help in submission of claims forms, primarily to minorities who cannot leave the enclaves, but also to villagers with difficult access to the regional offices.  People from Serbia and Montenegro also file their claims by coming into sub-offices set up in the enclaves.
 
Gjilan/Gnjilane HPD Office began receiving claims at the end of January 2001. In the next two weeks it received seven along with a further 10 humanitarian requests for housing.  Its Ranilug sub-office received 11 claims; Shtėrpcė/Strpce - 27.  Other sub-offices in the Gjilan/Gnjilane region opened in Vrbovac on 12 February, in Gornje Kusce on February 15 and thereafter in Kamenicė/Kamenica and Gornje Noredimje.
 
A legacy of problems dates from 1989, when the property system began to collapse as the Belgrade regime imposed increasingly discriminatory property laws on the majority Albanian population.  Subsequently significant numbers of Albanians lost their occupancy rights to socially owned properties.  The consequence is a mass of documentation for the HPD to examine. Typical is one complainant's case telling how he was confronted in 1988 by two Yugoslav army officers who ordered him to leave the apartment he had bought in Gjilan/Gnjilane before 1984. From 1994 to the end of the 1999 conflict, a Serb lived in the apartment. It was then bought by an Albanian. The plaintiff went to court in 2000 to retrieve his apartment, but lost. Undaunted, he is now turning to the HPD.

The HPD frequently assists minorities adversely affected by unlawful occupations. One man, a Serb from a village wants to claim his former apartment in Gjilan/Gnjilane.  "I felt unsafe," he explains, "and the day after I left in early 1999, my apartment was occupied." The complainant shows proof of ownership dating to 1991. Today, for security reasons, he wants to sell it, even to the man living in his apartment, although the latter does not want to discuss the issue. The occupant told him: "The Yugoslav Army burned my house down in Donje Zegovce village." According to the Serb, five or six families in his village have claims against alleged illegal occupants but are afraid to come to Gjilan/Gnjilane-a situation that should change when a mobile unit is established in Gornje Kusce.
 
On 13 February, over 50 Serbs, largely displaced from the Prizren and Ferizaj/Urosevac regions in mid-1999,  waited to fill out property claims at the Shtėrpcė/Strpce HPD centre. One man wants to claim his occupied apartment in Prizren. "Members of the KLA took all my documents," he says. A single electricity bill is presently his only proof of ownership.  He is sure, however, he will be able to obtain copies proving ownership because the former Serb authorities in Prizren carried away the municipal and cadastral archives to Krushevac, Serbia.
 
One couple is displaced from Rahovec/Orahovac, Prizren, where they claim an apartment and a small vineyard.  They would be ready to sell their property through the HPD auspices.  Another woman, also from Prizren, with her 2 children, husband and sick mother, submits a claim to a house in which 3 families are now living: "I never had problems with my neighbours," she says.
 
Much of the HPD's work is thus associated with the vast majority of residential properties that were abandoned by the legal owners during the 1999 conflict. Gjilan/Gnjilane HPD Chief, Armand Forster, notes: "Some people are occupying 3 to 4 properties illegally.  They grabbed them after the war.  The HPD's application forms will flush all these things out."
 
The HPD is also responsible for administering vacant properties which it temporarily allocates to persons in urgent need of accommodation.  The HPD office in Gjilan/Gnjilane, for example, last week granted a complainant, a disabled mother from Makresh Village, a temporary permit to live in a Roma house where she, her husband and six children have been living. "By giving her a temporary permit we help her feel secure," explains Forster.
 
Forster knows of 130 to 180 properties of Croats who fled Letrnica village, Viti/Vitina municipality, which he wants to place under the HPD administration. Families from a nearby village seeking to improve their housing condition currently occupy the group of houses. Says Forster: "We think we should visit Letrnica quickly and do an inventory and put them under our administration. According to UNHCR, many minorities are returning and these cluster of houses could be targeted for their housing needs."  The HPD also has a list of 400 illegally occupied properties in the Ferizaj/Urosevac Municipality.
 
The HPD is now training municipal housing staff to build an inventory of vacant and abandoned properties. Lewis, notes: "Gradually we'll delegate increasing authority to the municipalities once we're convinced the allocation process is fair and transparent." 
 
Looking ahead, Lewis plans to establish offices in all the regions of Kosovo, as well as in Podgorica and Belgrade, by the end of 2001. For he estimates that with 258,000 IDPs in Serbia and Montenegro, the HPD could receive up to 30,000 claims there. Says Lewis: " If people don't have a place to come back to, they won't come back. The process we're putting in place here is an assurance that persons have a right to return back and enjoy property."
 
The HPD's mandate is to restore the rule of law to property relations in Kosovo. "We're creating a level playing field for anybody with a property dispute to come in and resolve that dispute.  That's the objective," asserts Lewis.
 

Note for Editors
For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr. Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467

Contact: A. George
(038) 504 604 Ext. 5864
E-mail: george@un.org