Slovenia Delays Repaying Bosnians' Lost Savings

Former clients of Ljubljanska Banka, which closed its operations in all the other Yugoslav countries in 1991 without repaying the savings of some 300,000 people outside Slovenia, told BIRN that they have still not been reimbursed despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling last year.

"I have already been waiting 24 years for a solution," said Milenko from Banja Luka, a member of the Citizens' Association for the Return of Old Currency Deposits of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milenko said he was owed around 20,000 Bosnian Marks (around 10,000 euro).

"They asked me to fill dozens of papers, to sign statements, declarations? but so far, I haven't seen a single penny," he said.

"I was 38 when I lost my entire life savings, now I am 62 and I have little hope of getting them back," he added.

Last year, the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Slovenia to repay all former clients of Ljubljanska Banka from the beginning of December.

But while former Croat clients will be able to present individual requests for compensation, Slovenia is asking the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to first sign a memorandum and provide a database with the names of all Bosnian citizens who lost their savings after 1991.

Croatia signed a memorandum with Slovenia on the Ljubljanska Banka issue in 2013, but Bosnia and Herzegovina did not.

"We think that there is absolutely no need for such a memorandum," finanace ministry spokesperson Natasa Krsman told BIRN.

"We already sent the Slovenian authorities all the data and all the information about our citizens who were clients of Ljubljanska Banka; they already have everything they asked for," Krsman said.

Amila Omersoftic, the president of the Association for the...