UNMIK/FR/0056/01
FEATURE RELEASE - 20
July 2001
UNMIK Is Making Sure Property Sales Are Legal
By Sheida Sheikhi
UNMIK is worried about the continuing trend in some multi-ethnic areas of the forced sales of minority properties. In an attempt to limit this and the flow of minorities from mixed neighbourhoods, the Administration is considering introducing a regulation which would provide a review mechanism to monitor interethnic property sales in specific areas. It is not, UNMIK stresses, a return of an old FRY law.
Strategic Sales
Pick up an OSCE Minority Report and there are pages of analysis on the
disquieting situation of property rights in Kosovo. One specific area
of concern relates to minority communities that are being systematically
turned into mono-ethnic areas as more and more Serbs, faced with high
offers for their property and with ongoing departures of their Serb neighbours,
see no choice but to sell and leave Kosovo.
DSRSG Tom Koenigs urged IAC members this week to approve a draft regulation,
the substance of which has been an UNMIK priority since the time of the
former SRSG Dr. Kouchner.
A 'strategic sale' refers to strategically-located properties in mixed
neighbourhoods, for example, the entrance to a street or village, at a
crossroads, property near a church, or at the centre of a neighbourhood
either whereby the buyer pays a high price or the seller gives in to intimidation,
or both. The phenomenon is a growing concern for the remaining Serbs in
Kosovo who see the tactic to drive them out of their neighbourhoods as
a form of ethnic cleansing. The proposed regulation is not applicable
throughout Kosovo, it will be specific to areas where minorities are most
vulnerable and where property sales would adversely affect the ethnic
balance of the community.
UNMIK had to consider both social and political concerns in compiling
the draft. Politically, UNMIK is reassuring the Kosovo-Albanian leaders
that the regulation would not be a return to "Communist law".
As the DSRSG has stated, the aim of the regulation is not to prevent property
exchange. It is to ensure that irregular sales, detrimental to minority
rights, are not given the courts' seal of approval.
The social concern is to prevent systematic buy-out of strategic properties
in ethnic communities in order to retain a safe and secure environment
for the minority communities. It has yet to be seen if the regulation
will interfere with market forces, although the establishment of Regional
Review Boards, stipulated in the draft regulation, ought to avoid this
from occurring.
A pre-trial, of sorts, of the regulation has been working in Lipjan/Lipljan
where a municipal instruction issued in September 2000 required that all
sales be certified with the Municipal Administrator. Ms. Cecilia Piazza,
the Administrator, describes the number of sales conducted under duress
in the municipality as "substantial." The municipal instruction
aimed to limit the distressing circumstances faced by the Kosovo Serbs
when offered high prices for their property. The practice has been ongoing
for a year and buyers offer such high prices that Piazza affirms, "there
was no need to intimidate them". The District Court of Pristina ruled,
however, there was no legal basis to the municipal instruction and the
registration of sales was stopped. The proposed regulation will grant
UNMIK Municipal Administrators the necessary legal basis.
Municipal responsibility
Sellers will be required to register sales contracts for monitoring purposes
with the Municipal Administrator of the area. The Administrator will thus
have a chance to conduct an unbiased review into the background of the
sale, as well as of the buyer and seller, to ensure the transaction is
bona fide. Checks also aim to determine whether the buyer is involved
with a group or organization known to have been purposefully and strategically
buying properties to ethnically cleanse an area.
Should the Municipal Administrator refuse to register the contract, both
parties may appeal to the Regional Administrator or the Regional Review
Committee. Conversely, if sufficient grounds exist to prove the sale was
agreed under duress, or carried out by an organization with anti-minority
motives, registration could be refused altogether. The administration
would be authorized to prevent access by the purchaser to the property.
The matter would then be subject to judicial review.
UNMIK sees these powers as necessary because the phenomenon of 'strategic
sales' is not diminishing. It is an effort to stop the Kosovo Serbs leaving,
especially at a time when the Administration is making plans to bring
back the first 'returnees' from Serbia proper -a move that from the international
community's perspective is crucial to its continued support of all Kosovo's
communities.
Note for editors
The full document may be
consulted online in English at http://www.unmik.org/. Albanian and
Serbian versions can be provided.
For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467
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New regulations would hinder strategic property transactions |