Date: 19990615
Docket: IMM-4631-98
BETWEEN:
KEMAL IDRIZ
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER AND ORDER
BLAIS J.
[1] This is an application for judicial review of a decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board (the "Board"), dated August 5, 1998, wherein the Refugee Division determined that the applicant was not a Convention refugee.
REFUGEE BOARD DECISION
[2] The decision of the Board reads in part as follows:
The panel does not find that the claimant has established that his financial assistance to his cousins in Bihac was reported to the Bosnian government or that it was of any interest to the government. We note that in the two years between the last time he sent money and his leaving Germany, he did not experience any problems or threats, nor is he aware that any of the others who had done the same experienced any difficulties. He has not established that the men who approached and threatened him in June of 1997 were connected to the Bosnian government.
...the panel does not find that the claimant has established that there is a reasonable chance he will be persecuted for this perceived political opinion, that of having been a supporter of Fikret Abdic, if he should return to Bosnia.
(...)
The panel finds it possible that those, like the claimant, who left the country are resented by those who remained and suffered throughout the four years of that terrible war. However, for the above mentioned reasons we do not find that there is a serious chance that the claimant will be persecuted or prosecuted for not having served in the Bosnian army.
The panel therefore finds that the claimant has not established a well-founded fear of persecution on the grounds of his perceived political opinion or his not having served in the Bosnian army during the war if he should return to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
[3] I have reviewed the documentary evidence and the applicant"s testimony and, in my opinion, all elements of the Board"s decision are supported by the evidence.
[4] Counsel for the applicant made a courageous effort trying to demonstrate that international standards are still violated by the authorities in Bosnia, but failed to show how the applicant would be targeted by those abuses.
[5] The Court cannot substitute its own appreciation of the evidence to the Board"s and the applicant has the onus to demonstrate that the Board has committed a reviewable error.
[6] In my opinion, the applicant has failed to demonstrate that the Board has committed a reviewable error in rendering its decision and according to established principles on the standard of review to be applied on judicial review, the Court should not interfere.
[7] Therefore, the application for judicial review is dismissed.
[8] Neither counsel suggested questions for certification, so no questions will be certified.
Pierre Blais
Judge
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
June 15, 1999