The European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case Mandić and others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, and rejected as unfounded four applications related to the return of military-owned apartments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said the Office of the representative / agent of the Council of Ministers of BiH before the European Court of Human Rights.
Four applicants who were officers of the JNA and who live in Serbia appealed to the Court that their right to property was violated because they were prevented to obtain the possession of their pre-war military-owned apartments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which they purchased in early 1992.
In this decision, the Court accepted the stance of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the aforementioned cases differ from the case Đokić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina because it was found that the applicants, unlike the applicant Đokić, were assigned military apartments in Serbia in the lease for an indefinite period of time, and some of the applicants have even bought their apartments.
Also, when making this decision, the ECHR took into account the exceptional circumstances of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars in the region.
From the Court’s decision it follows that all members of the former JNA who have purchased their military-owned apartments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and who Serbia were awarded new military-owned apartments for a lease for an indefinite period of time, have no right to claim the apartments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As almost all the members of the former JNA, or Army of the Republic of Serbia, as part of the housing policy, were awarded military housing in Serbia or Montenegro, this means that only a small number of them who for some extraordinary reason did not get an apartment in Serbia and Montenegro have the right to compensation for the market value of their pre-war apartment in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
(Source: Fena)
