One of the typical examples of communist mentality and methods is conduct of Slovenia's Minister of "Culture." Josef Skolc in connection with the restitution case of the Betnava estate, property of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Maribor. A similar "approach" has been taken to the regional archive, Studenice estate and the Brestanice castle in Studenice. Director of the diocesan administration Mirko Krasevec and Dr. Ivan Subec stated, two weeks ago, that the diocese will take the matter to appropriate international forums. Skolc's conduct threatens the legal order and democratic government in Slovenia. [It is a big question if any of these even exist in Slovenia.]
At first this prospect did not seem to cause any particular concern as the obstructionism of the restitution process in Slovenia seems to be a constant in all the reports of the European Union on the "advances" in the Slovenian preparation for full membership in EU. Here, however, we do not have only dry statistics but a specific case with names and dates for all who want to know the true face of Slovenia.
The Diocese has already presented the documentation of its case to the president of the European Parliament, the leadership of the group which is conducting negotiations with Slovenia, conference of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, and diplomatic representatives of European Union Member states and the United States of America. However, the process before the international court has not yet been initiated. Mr. Krasevec added that, upon receipt of the opinion of the [Slovenian] government's public defender, the diocese will assuredly also file a suit against Skolc who abused his official position and the ministry [of "Culture"] for violating Article 26 of the Constitution. Minister Skolc's mockery of the claimants and contempt for them have exceeded the level reasonable people can tolerate. More than from the suit, the diocese expects from a broadly conceived action directed at the education of numerous individuals whose claims are being ignored by the government.
Here is a summary of the Betnava Saga which is gradually becoming known throughout the world.
The Maribor Diocese has filed a properly documented request for restitution of the Betnava estate with the Ministry of "Culture" on February 9, 1993. The fact finding process was completed on October 29, 1996 when the Diocese as claimant and the furniture factory Lipa Ajdovscina as current user of Betnava were presented with a neutral revision of two appraisals of real estate at the time of nationalization and at the time when the denationalization claim was filed. The revision, ordered by the Ministry of Culture was performed by authorized court appointed appraiser Joze Sket who found that the value of the estate has been enhanced by 25.67 percent ["enhanced" presumably because of the changes the communists had made during the 50 years they held it as loot ] or by 813,000 Deutschmark [Slovenians state the value of anything important in Deutschmark -- German marks -- this is because they "fought" to "free" themselves from the Germans in World War II] (out of total value of 3.175 million Deutchmark).]
The "enhancement" in value did not exceed 30 percent which is a cutoff point after which real property may not be returned to the original owner under Article 25 of the Restitution Act. As none of the parties contrasted Sket's expert opinion the Ministry of "Culture" issued, on November 8, 1996, its Statement of Intent [Will] in which it agreed that the Betnava, including its park and lands be returned to the possession of the claimant/recoverer.
All that was missing was a formal decision in the case. Unfortunately, the Parliamentary elections swept the then Minister Janez Dular out of office so that he did not have to issue the required decree. As is well-known, he was replaced by Jozef Skolc, who was from the very beginning deaf for all the appeals of the Diocese and failed to show the elementary courtesy of responding to its written requests. [Anyone who has dealt with Slovenian authorities is familiar with the primitivism of Slovenian officials who, inured in their Balkan ways, are absolute strangers to any office etiquette -- generally they are low life dredged from the communist party cadres who consider their jobs as sinecures where they don't have to do any work.]
The Diocese considered whether to start a process "because of failure of the administrative office to respond." [Slovenians use the old Soviet word "organ" known to anyone who has read Solzhenitsyn] as the Ministry of "Culture" under the leadership of Skolc cared not a whit for the "Law on the general administrative proceedings." [Nor is this the case with the Ministry of "Culture" alone -- all other Administrative units, for instance Upravna Enota Ljubljana - Center show an equal measure of contempt for the law]. Unfortunately tolerance and trust that the legal system will prevail overruled such considerations although all the deadlines for the resolution of the case prescribed by law have been exceeded more than six times. This, of course, was exploited by the authorities to the hilt.
The evasions did not come to an end even after July 15, 1999, when the "Statement of Intent" to the effect that "there is no opposition to the request of the Diocese Mariborturn that the Betnava estate be returned to it," was adopted by the government. The statement was made on the basis of the requested opinion of the Legislative Service which informs us that the Ministry of "Culture" on November 10, 1997, that is, 10 months after it became the fief of Jozef Skolc, revised its position formulated under Minister Dular's tenure and began doubting whether the loss of Betnava would be appropriate under Article 19 of the Restitution Act.
The Legislative Service did not agree with the newly arisen fears of the guardians of the Slovenian "Culture," therefore the government summit issued the above mentioned written statement that it does not oppose the return of the estate. This did not deter Skolc, however, who now declared the Betnava estate as a cultural monument of national importance and nationalized it again on October 20, 1999 under a new law on the nationalization of historical monuments.
In the interim the Diocese requested assistance of the Human Rights Ombudsman [Ivo Bizjak -- as a rule a totally useless and ineffectual official] who succeeded that Skolc on November 8, 1999 broke the "cultural silence" in his private war with the Styrian summit of the Roman Catholic Church by informing him that he had requested the Public Defender's advice how to protect the public interest under the law that has recently become effective. The deadline for Public Defender's response was subsequently extended to January 3, 2000 whereupon the Ministry of "Culture" would render a decision.
But Skolc thought up another dilatory tactics even before that deadline was up. On December 21, 1999 he wrote to Daniel Starman, the attorney representing the Diocese, that unidentified mathematical geniuses "discovered" an arithmetic error in the report of the official appraiser Sket so that the "enhanced" value of the estate should be 34.53 percent instead of the previously established 25.67 percent. Naturally, the minister did not disclose under what procedures this determination was made [a practice familiar to anyone who ever dealt with the low life creeps in the Slovenian government].
The "expert" workpapers consisted of a copy of the original report on which the established value was crossed over with and the new value penned in above it -- above the value which for years no one disputed. [This is how things are done in this Balkan principality]. When attempts were being made to find out how did the minister's mathematicians came by this "correction" it turned out that an investment made by the furniture factory Lipa valued 815,000 Deutschmark was compared with the value of the estate at the time of nationalization instead of using the value in 1993. [This is typical and familiar to anyone who deals with the thieveland authorities.]
The purpose is crystal clear: the investment of Lipa suddenly exceeds the threshold under which restitution in kind is still allowed by law.
The Diocese immediately retained the permanent court authorized official civil engineering appraiser Franc Grajfoner who prepared a supplementary expert opinion report. The report included all the instructions [the communists actually do have written instructions on appraisals -- but of course they ignore them] on valuation and assigning points to real estate and their latest supplements included in the methodology of real estate appraisals.
From the material presented it is seen that the difference in the value of the estate in 1950 when it was nationalized and the value on January of this year (2000) when Skolc should at last issue a decision on denationalization was, because of additional damage and neglected maintenance was only 547,000 Deutschmark which represents under the formula on which the Ministry of "Culture" insists as the only correct one, still an "enhancement in value" of only 22.12 percent.
We can only guess on further dilatory maneuvers of the "liberal democrat" Skolc. The claimants will not take any additional course in the supposedly inexhaustible possibilities in the administrative process suggested by Miran Zupan, legal counsel of the Ministry of "Culture" because these would only be a waste of time. They will, however, initiate court proceedings which should establish the damage they sustained because of the arbitrary actions of Jozef Skolc.
A calculation of the losses sustained because of the inability to use the Betnava estate has already been made. The author, Franc Kolenc, university professor and authorized court expert for financial affairs states that the total loss sustained by the claimants since December 1991, when the Restitution Act became effective, to the end of December 1999 amounts to 2.76 million Deutschmark.
This, then, is the sum for which the Republic of Slovenia could be liable because of Skolc's personal prejudices and hostility toward the Church reflected in his arbitrary conduct in office. It was he who brought the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in Maribor to the realization that in the "new" Slovenia any trend toward legality and due process of law has been reversed toward the arbitrariness of government officials who act in accordance with their Marxist views. The consequences of Skolc's tenure as Minister of "Culture" may well be long range, expensive, and extremely difficult to repair.
The above is a good and representative example with what persons who claim restitution in Slovenia must cope.