INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE ON REGISTERING ORTHODOX CEMETERIES AND CHURCHES AS "STATE" PROPERTY TO FOLLOW

BANJA LUKA, JANUARY 29 /SRNA/ – The Republika Srpska Government will form an inter-ministerial working group tasked with preparing Srpska institutional response on registering cemeteries, chapels, and churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church as "state" property.

The inter-ministerial working group, formed with the aim of protecting the rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbs in the Federation of BiH, will include representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General's Office, the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property-Legal Affairs, and the Bar Association of Republik Srpska, the Government Public Relations Bureau announced. The Republika Srpska Government has expressed a strong protest over the registration of cemeteries, chapels, and churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Mostar and the surrounding area as "state" property. "This act represents a blatant attempt to rewrite history and erase the identity of the Serb people in the Federation of BiH, therefore Republik Srpska will not allow Orthodox cemeteries and holy sites to be registered as property of BiH," the statement said.