RADANOVIĆ: ILLEGAL LOGGING OF SERB FORESTS — A DECADES-LONG PROBLEM

SARAJEVO, JUNE 29 /SRNA/ - Disenfranchised Serbs in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/ have no legal means to protect their property, and in addition to losing their houses and buildings, they have also lost forests that Bosniaks have been illegally exploiting for decades, Đorđe Radanović, president of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the FBiH, told SRNA.

Radanović says that illegal logging is widespread in areas such as Bihać, Ozren, Petrovac, Livno, and the surroundings of Sarajevo and Zenica.

"In Zenica, there’s a man whose forest — covering 17.3 acres — was cut down. The man is in tears. He returned to Zenica and now lives in a shack, and he could have built a house /with the money/ from that forest if it hadn’t been cut down," Radanović said.

He noted that reports and complaints from Serbs who have left their properties continue to arrive regularly.

"They cut down everything they could in the area of Ilijaš, the Nišići plateau, in the Hadžići region, toward Bradina. We have cases where Serbs were forced to sell their forests and entire properties for a pittance, because they would have lost them anyway," said Radanović.

Radanović stated that it often happens that Serbs, when they come to visit cemeteries, witness their forests being hauled away, but out of fear, they do not dare to react.

"The logging is happening on a massive scale. We've received numerous property-related legal requests to protect forests and land," Radanović said.

He emphasized that there is no Serb property in the Federation of BiH that hasn’t been usurped.

"If they couldn’t take it through documents, then they simply cut it down and destroyed it," Radanović explained.

He added that when Serbs report illegal logging to the police, they often end up being harassed even more.

"Every week, they are summoned to give statements about when they noticed the logging, who they suspect, and so on, and it never ends, while no one is ever held accountable. They do it in coordination with forestry workers, because the foresters know where Serbs rarely go, and they send them to those areas to cut," Radanović said.