From: CP6uH@plains.NoDak.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Laws: Citizenship ( VREME NDA 22 Jul 1992 )
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:20:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.19280
Organization: University of North Dakota at Grand Forks


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 43, July 20, 1992
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    Laws: Citizenship
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                        Foreigners in Their Own Country


           New states  are laboring to make  desirable subjects out
                             of their old citizens

    The  Federal  Secretariat  of  Internal  Affairs  is  drawing up a draft
    Citizenship Act;  its contents are  still a secret  because it is  to be
    proposed by the new prime  minister's government. However, what has been
    said is that modern international solutions will be applied.

    It has been  decided that a citizenship of the  F.R. of Yugoslavia is at
    the same  time a citizen of  one of its constituent  republics. The fact
    that somebody was a citizen of  the SFRY does not automatically make him
    a citizen  of the  FRY. Dr.   Nebojsa Vucinic  of the  International Law
    Department at the University of Podgorica (Montenegro) told "Vreme" that
    "if the new  Yugoslavia advocates itself as the  successor state then it
    is logical to provide the succession of citizenship".

    In  the meantime,  the old  Citizenship Act  dating from  1977 is  still
    valid; it says that every citizen  has two citizenships - the republican
    and federal. The  second one, as civil law  expert Dr. Vojislav Vukcevic
    explained, was used by the citizens  of the former Yugoslav when abroad.
    They had their republican citizenships  for "domestic use", and problems
    to accompany it.

    Some time ago  a Law on Special Conditions  for Real Estate Transactions
    was passed forbidding the sale of the privately owned Serbian houses and
    land to Kosovo Albanians, even  though both were citizens of Yugoslavia.
    In the  meantime a decree was  passed whereby immovable property  in the
    present  Yugoslavia cannot  be sold  or leased  to the  citizens of  the
    former Yugoslav republics.

    Since  citizenship  does  not  have  to  coincide with nationality, such
    legislative measures  have also afflicted  Serbs who live  in the former
    Yugoslav  republics. Their  disappointment will  be quite understandable
    when  they realize  that they  cannot exercise  owners' rights  on their
    immovables in their "homeland". It is  also not know how the said decree
    will  be implemented  regarding the  purchase of  apartments of "foreign
    nationals" as the officials say "a decision has still not been reached".
    This  right is  unofficially recognized  if they  have been residents of
    Serbia for more then twenty years.

    Connected  as   it  is  to  citizenship,   private  property  -  against
    international regulations - has not remained untouchable in Croatia. The
    government in Zagreb recently announced  that "at the next parliamentary
    session" it  will pass a  Law on the  Requisition of Immovable  Property
    owned by the citizens of the F.R.Y.  on the territory of the Republic of
    Croatia.  This  Law  will  be  passed  according  to  the  already valid
    "Provision  of June  3, 1992".   This order  cites "UN  Security Council
    Resolution on  Economical and Political Sanctions"  whereby the right to
    dispose of the real estate of the  citizens of "an enemy state" has been
    frozen. Such  legislative measures regarding citizenship  have made many
    of yesterday's  "locals" into "foreigners" and  their position at almost
    every level is greatly aggravated. A  person can now loose the effort of
    a lifetime overnight.  The present hurry to  get Croatian citizenship is
    quite understandable, especially for the  "non-Croats". Who gains by the
    Law on Citizenship?

    Article  3  of  the  said  Law  lists  the  conditions for being granted
    citizenship: "by  origin, by birth on  the territory of the  Republic of
    Croatia, by naturalization, or by international agreements". One obtains
    Croatian citizenship "by origin" if a  "both or one parent is a Croatian
    citizen". The conditions for  the Croatian citizenship by naturalization
    are: the  foreign national who has  submitted a request must  be over 18
    years of  age, he must renounce  his previous citizenship, he  must have
    been a permanent  resident of Croatia without interruption  for a period
    of at least 5 years, he must  know the Croatian language and script, and
    "it  must be  evident from  his acts  and behavior  that he respects the
    legal  order in  Croatia". Similar  regulations that  give bureaucracy a
    free hand  were also passed in  Slovenia. In effect, Mr.  Vuckovic says,
    commenting on  these new citizenship laws,  it is the discretion  of the
    state policy whether  it will "grant or deny"  citizenship. And that, of
    course,  is  conditioned  by  the  present  political  situation and the
    regime's interests.
                                                             Nemanja Jugovic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 43, July 20, 1992
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