BETTER POSITION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES

21. April 2011.

The Serbian government, and thereby the Ministry of Interior, are committed towards improving the position of ethnic minorities and towards enabling their full involvement in society, said Ivica Dacic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, at a meeting on the general situation in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. In addition, he pointed out that the Serbian government was trying to make it possible for a greater number of members of the Albanian ethnic minority to get employed at the governmental bodies, and thereby at the police, too. At the international forum on South Serbia „Integrations: Between the Ethnic and Democratic Principle“, which was held at the „Sava“ Conference Hall, Mr. Dacic said that the Ministry of Interior wasn’t restricted as to recrutintg members of ethnic minorities. He underscored that there were only five police officers of the Albanian ethnic background in the Vranje police department in 2001, while there were 222 of them in 2011. According to him, a public competition for basic police training was announced for 50 police officers, 20 police officers in Presevo and Bujanovac each, and 10 police officers in Medvedja.

Apart from Zarko Obradovic, Minister of Education and Science, and Milan Markovic, President of the Coordination Body, the meeting was attended by the officials of international and non-governmental organizations, as well as by Albanian politicians from Presevo and Bujanovac. Mr. Obradovic underscored the importance of education of the young, especially from the aspect of developing ethnic and religious tolerance, improving trust and preventing the conduct that affects the right to diversity.

It was also said at the international forum on South Serbia that the economic, and not the political, situation was the main cause of a great number of fake asylum–seekers from South Serbia. The issue of great many asylum–seekers, who are mostly Roma and Albanians from the territory of Bujanovac and Presevo, as it was said, should be resolved through discussions with the local political leaders, as well as by improving economic situation in the region. Representatives of the Serbian government said that they were willing to improve the position of ethnic minorities and enable their full involvement in society.