The High Representative and the International Community have asked the authorities of the Republika Srpska (RS) to delay implementation of the R.S. privatization program so that international assistance could be provided to make it a credible process leading to successful transition to a free market economy.
The legal ownership of state or public assets in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has yet to be addressed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. Current RS legislation on privatization lacks a sound technical framework and in its current form can lead only to large scale fraud and the wholesale give-away of state or public property. To permit privatization by the RS entity, moreover, would violate the Dayton Peace Accords, because it would discriminate against refugees and displaced persons from the territory of the RS who have not yet been able to return.
Therefore, effective today, I hereby order that no privatization of state or publicly owned or operated companies, land, equipment, and other property, whether such ownership or action is under local, regional, or RS authority, take place within my area of Supervision until the question has been resolved by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and I have lifted this order in writing.
Robert W. Farrand
Supervisor of Brcko
December 4, 1997
