According to the BIRN research by the end of May last year there were 12.823 property-related cases in the Kosovo Comparison and Verification Agency. These cases mostly relate to the agricultural land, business and residential premises. The usurped property issue was a topic of a debate held yesterday in Caglavica, Radio KIM reports.

Participants in a debate “Usurped property in Kosovo, an issue even after 20 years” illustrated the gravity of the situation by examples from the practice and everyday life.

“Concretely, there is a high number of files related to the difficulties of court proceedings. Based on our information, there are several thousand pending cases in the courts related to the usurped properties, we have a certain number of cases ongoing as civil proceedings such as hindering of property, removing persons or belongings from the properties that are parts of the cases,” Senior Legal Adviser at Regional Ombudsman Office in Gracanica, Aleksandra Dimitrijevic said.

Dimitrijevic noted the courts are not consistent in their practice, and do not give priority to these cases, although they are obliged to do so.

Albina Recica from Kosovo Verification and Comparison Agency said the aim of the agency is to return the property rights to the owners who have lost that right. She noted that out of 42.742 cases submitted to the agency, 41.000 were resolved.

A journalist and Radio Gorazdevac Editor-in-Chief, Darko Dimitrijevic said that during his work as a journalist over the last 15 years he saw many examples of usurped property.

“I do not know if anywhere in the world it was recorded that private properties of the citizens are disrespected in such a manner? I could list many examples, but it is evident many properties, flats and houses are still usurped in the region where I live. Even institutions are doing so in some cases, probably intentionally, because there are decisions of the Appellate Courts, Supreme Court to return the properties to their owners,” Dimitrijevic said.

He mentioned the case of Milorad Djokovic whose house and a land plot were taken away by Pec municipality.

“A land plot he received from the very same municipality of Pec 30 years ago, where he built his house, started the life, and returned there after the war was taken away from him. The Municipal Assembly in 2010 or 2011 decided to take away his property. He launched the court proceeding against the Pec Municipal Assembly, after long and exhausting process the verdict was made in his favour. The verdict entered into force, but on the very same day when the verdict was made, Municipal Assembly again took away that property,” Dimitrijevic explained.

Lawyer Edvard Gashi said politicians, the international community and public institutions are the most responsible for everything that happened in Kosovo after 1999.

“Next to my house in Pristina, where I lived until 2011, a ten-floor building without construction permit was built, almost in the center of Pristina. Since I did not accept conditions to hand over the house “for percentage” while I was on an official trip, a fire was set in my house. Luckily, the fire was extinguished. I filed a criminal complaint against investor, I filed a complaint to the construction inspection that temporarily halted the reconstruction of the building, for some six months, and then a precedent occurred, a construction permit was issued retroactively. Such a case was probably never recorded in the world,” Gashi said.