The Director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Arnaud Gouillon, said that minority Serbs in the cantons of the Federation of BiH lived in great poverty and had problems finding employment, but that there were also young people with ideas and ready for anything to remain at their hearths.

– I recognized the same strength and joie de vivre in them as in the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. I visited the returnee places that were completely abandoned in 1995. In Bosansko Grahovo, all the houses were burned. The return began in 1997, followed by numerous incidents – Gouillon said.

The French humanitarian, who is taking active part in the recently launched media campaign of the Republic of Srpska and Serbia to inform Serbs originating from FBiH about the need to protect their property rights, noted the extraordinary courage of the people who had gathered strength to renew everything and live there today.

Gouillon stated that first results of the campaign were already there, showing that in three weeks, contact had been received from more than 1,600 Serbs from all over the world wanting to protect their property.

The goal, he says, is to reach every Serb holding property in FBiH and to preserve it together.

– It is our obligation to fight against injustice. It is injustice when someone who had to leave their hearth in the war, is erased from all registers in peace. With this campaign, we are defending the human rights of all Serbs from FBiH, because the right to private property is a basic human right – Gouillon said for Glas Srpske.

He pointed out that he had excellent cooperation with Republic of Srpska representatives, both in Belgrade with the Representative Office headed by Mlađen Cicović, and with those with whom he cooperated on the project of protection of Serb property.

– I mean, first of all, the president of the Committee for the Protection of Serbs from FBiH, Đorđe Radanović. We are cooperating successfully with all other institutions in Srpska, because we have the same goal – respect for Serbs and protection of their rights – Gouillon emphasized.

According to him, the position of Serbs in Srpska is, naturally, better than in FBiH because there is care of the institutions, but not only for Serbs but also for all other peoples living there.

He pointed out that he expected FBiH authorities to treat Serbs with the same care as the Republic of Srpska treated other peoples.

– During the harmonization of property rights in the cadaster in the Republic of Srpska, not a single person, be it a Serb, Bosniak or Croat, complained of not being informed about the process. Why? Because the invitations were sent individually, and in FBiH the invitation was published only in the Official Gazette or in local daily newspapers that are not available to Serbs in the diaspora – Gouillon explained.

Source: RTRS

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