ANOTHER BLOW TO THE PROPERTY OF SOC - CATHEDRAL CHURCH IN ZENICA REGISTERED AS "STATE PROPERTY"

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, JANUARY 27 /SRNA/ - The Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Zenica and the land surrounding the church have been registered as "state property," said the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the Federation of BiH, calling it another blow to the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ in the FBiH.

The Committee stated that during the ongoing harmonization of land registry and cadastre records, by a decision of the Municipal Court in Zenica on May 16, 2019, the church and the land around it were registered as “state property” without exception. This was "determined" by the Municipal Court in Zenica in 2019, 135 years after the church’s interior painting was completed. "According to our information, the Serbian Orthodox Church was not invited to comment on the circumstances of the registration carried out during the 2019 harmonization, nor was it invited to participate in the procedure," the Committee stated. The Committee also emphasized that in the “A” list of the land registry entry, the property is recorded first by name as the Church of the Holy Mother of God, followed by the religious community building measuring 341 square meters and the churchyard of 2,011 square meters. The description of the property in the “A” list of the land registry could have indicated to the court that the property in question belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Committee emphasized, reminding that the church was built in 1885. The Municipal Court in Zenica, in accordance with the Land Registry Law of the Federation of BiH, was obliged to send a notification to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Zenica, specifying which property was involved and the planned registration. "The court registration does not specify whether the property belongs to the municipality, the canton, or any other public authority; it simply states that the church is ‘state property,’" the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the FBiH said. The area of the land parcel and the church, totaling 2,352 square meters, is identical in both the court land registry and the municipal cadastre. The cadastre lists the Serbian Orthodox Church Parish as the possessor of the land where the Cathedral Church in Zenica is located. They said that the destruction of churches, damage, attacks, and the devastation of cemeteries indicate an organized, hostile activity against the Serbian Orthodox Church. Construction of the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Zenica began in 1883, and it was consecrated in 1885.