Arnel Sehic from the Bafo settlement in Mostar is one of the victims of a sluggish system and bad administration, which, together with his five-year-old son and sick sister, after losing both parents in the war, now leaves him without a roof over his head.
He claims that five years ago, when the City Administration decided to demolish these buildings and build buildings in which to provide them with new homes, like everyone else, he applied for a new apartment and was then told that, as a child without both parents, he was among the first on the list for a new apartment. But, now that the buildings have been made and when the prefabricated building in which he lives needs to be moved and demolished, he received information out of the blue that he was not on the list for allocating apartments.
”I went to the City Administration to check what it was about, and there I was shocked, to say the least. I was told first that I did not pass the commission for the allocation of apartments, and then that my request for an apartment did not exist, that I did not submit it, which is not true and everyone in the neighborhood knows that,” Arnel says.
Even though his father was a member of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and his sister became seriously ill after the trauma when a grenade killed her mother in front of her eyes, he says he never received anything from the state except false promises, and what is happening to him now he could not dream of.
He admits that after all the hardships of his life, he would like to leave this country, for which, as he points out, half of his family gave their lives. But he can’t do that either because he has a sick sister, and he can’t take his five-year-old son, who is his life inspiration, because he shares custody with his mother.
Due to the bad attitude and misunderstanding of ordinary people, the strength for the life struggle in the Bafo settlement was lost by several other families who will end up on the street when the prefabricated settlement collapses. As it was found out in a conversation with the locals, there are several of them who did not receive apartments, although they submitted applications regularly, like everyone else.
They claim that their fate has been sealed by corruption and bribery and that instead them, the apartments in new buildings will be given to people who were not even in those settlements, and according to them they acquired rights by methods that the legal system should investigate.
”It’s awful what they are doing to people,” said a local woman worried about those who will end up on the street.
She tells that she fears that there will be ‘death’s-head’ and that one disenfranchised tenant has announced that he wants to be buried after the demolition of the building because he has nowhere to live.
We can only hope that this story, full of cries of despair from discouraged people in Mostar, will reach as many relevant people as possible who can act in the best way, in order to avoid a black scenario with fatal consequences. Otherwise, any reaction would be an absolute defeat for all of humanity, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
