VZCZCXRO2669
RR RUEHPOD
DE RUEHVJ #1404/01 3561018
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221018Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1161
INFO RUEHPS/AMEMBASSY PRISTINA 0214
RUEHPOD/AMEMBASSY PODGORICA 0096
RUEHVB/AMEMBASSY ZAGREB 0657
RUEHTI/AMEMBASSY TIRANA 0180
RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS 0091
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA 0075
RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE 0032
RUEHLJ/AMEMBASSY LJUBLJANA 0143
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0221
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 0357
RUEHSQ/AMEMBASSY SKOPJE 0327
RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH 0051

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 001404 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/EX, CA/FPP, CA/VO, AND EUR/SCE (MIKE FOOKS) 
DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC 
POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS 
VIENNA FOR DHS MARLA BELVEDERE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT CPAS ASEC BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA: CONSULAR FRAUD PERSPECTIVES ON NIV APPLICANTS' LAND 
OWNERSHIP DOCUMENTS 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  FPU Sarajevo recently launched an investigation of land 
ownership documents.  These documents are frequently presented by 
NIV applicants in an effort to prove economic or financial ties. 
In some cases, applicants may not have as strong an interest in the 
land as they may claim.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  Like other processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the land 
ownership system is undergoing slow reform.  The entity ministries 
of justice and the municipal administrations are involved in these 
reforms.  They are attempting to reconcile various deeds and 
parcels, the legacy of two legal systems and the recent war.  In 
order to better understand the significance of local land records, 
which are often presented to officers as proof of economic ties to 
Bosnia, FPU Sarajevo met with local officials in East Sarajevo, 
Mostar, Zenica and with the Land Administration Project 
administrators in Sarajevo. 
 
¶3.  Two types of land records are currently in use. One, 
colloquially called the Tapija and Grunt system, are property rights 
recorded in the civil registry land books or "zemljisna knjiga." 
These Grunt records are issued by regional courts.  The second is 
the Katastar, or possession/occupancy right, a record that is issued 
by the municipality.  Our field work indicates that both Grunt and 
Katastar documents are legally recognized.  However, only Grunt 
documents can be used as collateral for loans from local banks. 
This is therefore, a superior right.  Due to the dual system, every 
land parcel in Bosnia could potentially have two claims to ownership 
because Grunt and Katastar records do not match for many parcels. 
 
History 
------- 
 
¶4.  The first land registry-related document in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina was the Tapija, implemented during the Ottoman period 
(15th to 19th century).  Tapijas were originally issued to 
high-ranking members of the Turkish military and bureaucracy as a 
reward for their service.  With time, Tapijas became the standard 
documents with which real estate ownership in Bosnia was claimed and 
established.  Tapijas were hand-written without any technical 
drawings or measurements. 
 
¶5.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire replaced the Ottomans in 1878, and 
inherited the Turkish Tapija system.  The Austro-Hungarians 
attempted to modernize this system in the 1890s and it became known 
as the "Grunt" system.  In the first phase, Tapija registries were 
simply recorded into the new Grunt system.  Later, the system was 
expanded to match the European standards of the time. 
 
¶6.  However, the Grunt system leaves a significant segment of the 
Bosnian population without land records because after 1945, the new 
Yugoslavian government nationalized and expropriated land while 
instituting ambitious agrarian reforms.  Although Grunt land 
registry records were still maintained by Yugoslav authorities, as 
families were allocated parcels of land and estates were divided, 
true physical ownership became increasingly different from the 
official documentation.  Thus, the Yugoslav authorities decided to 
modernize the Grunt via technology-based land measurement in the 
1970s.  They conducted a massive aerial survey of the country, using 
photographs to record the actual possession of land parcels.  The 
new system was named the "Katastar" (cadastre) system. 
 
¶7.  The Katastar system's main differences from the Grunt system are 
that it serves as proof of possession, not ownership, and it is 
maintained by the municipal authorities, not the courts.  Katastar 
possession is an inheritable right, however, the Grunt or Civil 
Registry system still serves as the only absolute legal proof of 
real estate ownership in Bosnia today. 
 
Field Visits 
------------ 
 
 
SARAJEVO 00001404  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶8.  Concern over land documents manifests itself in a variety of 
ways throughout Bosnia.  In East Sarajevo (Republika Srpska), real 
estate experts explained the new political and administrative 
difficulty they face following the division of Sarajevo between the 
Federation and the Republika Srpska (RS) after the 1992-1995 war. 
The newly-formed regional court in Sokolac, RS, created a new land 
registry database in accordance with the entity borders.  However, 
for many disputed areas, the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo retains 
their pre-war jurisdiction and continues to issue land registry 
documents even as the Sokolac court does the same thing.  Some 
parcels now have multiple ownership documents and two different 
owners can take out a loan on the same piece of land using the 
documents from two different courts.  Thus, in East Sarajevo, there 
could be three potential claimants to land-one with Grunt ownership 
rights, a second with Katastar possession rights and a third with 
ownership rights issued by the Sokolac courts. 
 
¶9.  In Mostar, the acting mayor expressed frustration because his 
citizens must wait years for the local courts to produce copies of 
their land registry documents.  In Zenica, the mayor's office 
informed us that they estimate it will take two years and over two 
million convertible marks (about 1.5 million dollars) to reconcile 
the Katastar and Grunt systems within their municipal territory. 
Currently, the municipality does not have adequate funding to tackle 
the project. 
 
International Involvement 
------------------------- 
 
¶10.  The international community is aware of land ownership issues 
in Bosnia.  The German government sponsored Agency for Technical 
Cooperation (GTZ) maintains an office in Sarajevo where they are 
working with Swedish and Austrian partners on land reform.  The Land 
Administration Project began in 2003 and has thus far provided all 
48 Bosnian land registry offices and their branches with IT 
equipment and specialized software. The software is now in use by 
the majority of Bosnian courts.  In September 2008, representatives 
from both entities and the Bosnian Geodetic Administration along 
with representatives of Germany, Sweden and Austria signed a 
Memorandum of Understanding on the Land Administration Project.  The 
memorandum allows for continued collaboration on land administration 
reform. So far, only two municipalities (Visoko and Konjic) have 
reconciled the Grunt and Katastar property records. 
 
Consular Impact 
--------------- 
 
¶11.  Post currently accepts both Grunt and Katastar documents to 
support claims to financial and economic ties in non-immigrant visa 
applications.  However, our discovery that multiple 
ownership/possession documents may be obtained on a given land 
parcel underscores the importance of further examination concerning 
those documents. Since local banks only issue loans based on civil 
registry (Grunt) documents, these documents demonstrate a much 
stronger claim to the land. Additionally, incomplete land ownership 
may indicate that even those who claim home ownership, may have only 
a tenuous claim to remaining on the land.  Additionally, there are 
still disputes concerning ownership related to land nationalized by 
former governments.  Post will continue to closely monitor whether 
documents concerning land ownership/possession truly demonstrate 
economic ties to Bosnia. 
 
ENGLISH