The Secretary General reported to the U.N. Security Council that some 90,000 refugees and IDPs returned to their homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Half of them were from asylum countries. The UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as UNHCR provided repatriation-related assistance. Also, the local authorities in both entities were supported in their efforts to provide assistance to displaced persons in collective centers.¹

The U.N. Secretary General informed the Security Council that the UNHCR had developed an operational plan to support the return of more than 2 million refugees and IDPs. The UNHCR plan was presented to the Humanitarian Issues Working Group of the Peace Implementation Council on 16 January and was strongly endorsed at a subsequent high-level working meeting in Oslo on 8 March 1996. It was estimated that 500,000 IDPs and 370,000 refugees would return in 1996. The report further suggested that more than 50,000 refugees and IDPs returned home in spontaneous and organized movements assisted by the UNHCR. However, those who returned were mostly refused “on grounds of lack of security guarantees or clear instructions from the leadership concerned” (United Nations, 1996). According to the report, “an independent Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees was established on 20 March 1996 with its main base in Sarajevo. Its function is to receive and decide any claims for real property in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the property has not voluntarily been sold or otherwise transferred since 1 April 1992, and where the claimant does not enjoy possession of the property. The Commission consists of four members appointed by the Federation, two members appointed by the Republika Srpska and three members appointed by the European Court of Justice. Given the close link between repatriation and property, UNHCR will be associated with the work of the Commission.”² It was said that the successful return of refugees and IDPs would depend on sustained security provided by the partiesÕ massive physical and economic reconstruction, and mine clearing efforts in those areas where IDPs and refugees would return.

By the end of 1996, according to the U.N. Secretary General’s report, “some 250,000 refugees and displaced persons have returned to their homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Most of the returnees returned to their homes where their community was in majority. The report further suggests that “Of an estimated 84,000 houses requiring repair, work has been completed on 24,000 so far. Other key community infrastructure activities, such as the repair of 100 schools, 50 clinics and hospitals, 60 water systems and 50 power systems, have been undertaken. It is estimated that up to 100,000 people, mainly displaced persons, will benefit from these activities.”³

An amnesty law was passed in both entities in 1996, but it had a fundamental flaw: it excluded persons who deserted or avoided military conscription. According to the U.N. Secretary General’s report, correction of this flaw was necessary.⁴

In his 13 December 1995 report to the Security Council, the U.N. Secretary General stated that there were 1.2 million displaced persons inside Bosnia and Herzegovina and 900,000 refugees outside the country. He acknowledged that the accurate planning of the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees was difficult because of the future security situation as well as uncertainties related to their wishes. IDPs and refugees had the option to return to their homes or settle elsewhere.⁵ The institutional mechanisms to implement the provisions of the accord were not in place. International organizations like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies were working on the issue.

Refugees started to return voluntarily. According to a UNHCR report, 815 refugees had returned.⁶ It was not clear whether the peace accord mandated that the Commission for Displaced Persons and Refugees be set up in 1995.

The Annex VII of the framework agreement was implemented in 2004. According to the UNHCR, however, 1,273 refugees and 5,164 IDPs returned in 2005.⁷

In November 2004, the OHR reported that “the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities successfully assumed responsibility for annex VII implementation” (OHR, 2004). The report suggested that “the property repossession rate rose to 93 percent, the State Law on Refugees and Displaced Persons (amended in September 2003) is gradually being implemented.”⁸According to a UNHCR report, some 2,447 refugees and 17,948 IDPs returned in 2004.⁹

According to an OHR report from 2003, “by the end of last year the total number of registered returns to and within BiH had risen to nearly 1 million people, including some 430,000 so-called minority returns. Approximately 350,000 refugees and DPs, as estimated by the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees (MHRR), still had not returned to their pre-war homes, although many among them still expressed the desire to do so”.¹⁰

According to the OHR report of 13 October 2003, “the number of refugees returning continues to be strong, exceeding 102,000 in 2002. According to UNHCR statistics, the total of registered returns to and within BiH has risen to nearly 1 million people, including some 390,000 so-called minority returns.”¹¹ With respect to property implementation law, approximately 40,000 claims remain unresolved in both entities according to the OHR report. The UNHCR report stated that some 41,705 refugees and 70,775 IDPs returned in 2002.¹²

The Secretary General reported to the UN Security Council the results of the re-registration of IDPs. This exercise was carried out in support of the UNHCR through both entities. According to the report, 518,252 persons applied for the IDP status (231,732 applied in Republika Srpska, 263,375 in the Federation, and 23,145 in the Brcko District) at the end of 2000. Approximately 845,000 were registered as IDPs in 1996.¹³ The report also suggested that 25 percent of the 254,333 individual property claims had been resolved and 50 percent had been decided upon, which represented an important benchmark in the implementation of the property legislation.

According to the UNHCR report, some 18,665 refugees and 80,172 IDPs returned in 2001,¹⁴ 92,061 of whom returned to their pre-war homes.

The repatriation of refugees and return of IDPs remained unsatisfactory. According to the UNHCR, some 18,715 refugees and 59,347 IDPs resettled in 2000.¹

According to the U.N. Secretary General’s report, “in the first ten months of 1999, the UNHCR registered the return of 43,830 refugees and 32,695 internally displaced persons. Of these, 18,604 individuals were members of ethnic minorities returning to the Federation, while 9,522 individuals (sic) members of ethnic minorities were recorded returning to the Republika Srpska.”¹⁵ Part of the reason was related to the political and administrative obstruction at the local level to implementing the property law. As a step forward, however, the RS assembly “passed amended legislation in December that will allow former residents to reclaim socially-owned ‘abandoned’ property.”¹⁶