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INTEGRATION OF MINORITIES - A NEVER-ENDING PROCESS

19. February 2014.

Presevo – The President of the “Forum for Ethnic Relations " NGO, Dusan Janjic, said that representatives of the Albanians from Presevo and Bujanovac had voiced their willingness to continue some form of dialogue with the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

Mr. Janjic said that representatives of the Albanians had voiced their willingness at the Presevo round table, which was dedicated to the advancement of minority policies in Serbia, "to reach an agreement on the solvable problems in Presevo and Bujanovac, so that those issues could be removed from the agenda ".

Mr. Janjic said that the parliamentary elections, which five Albanian parties from Presevo and Bujanovac had said would boycott, hadn’t been discussed at the roundtable, but that the problems that Mr. Halimi’s PDD had with the registration of signatures of support had been debated.   

The President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Zoran Stankovic, said that he didn’t understand the decision of the Albanian leaders to boycott the processes aimed at solving the problems of their community.

“In addition to dialogue, providing accurate information is important for everything we do. At a meeting held with ambassadors in Belgrade, it was said that Serbia wasn’t doing anything for the Albanians in South Serbia, as well as that  discrimination was reflected in the fact that Serbia failed to recognize university diplomas from Kosovo and Metohija and the University of Tetovo and that there were 400 pending requests for recognition. I checked that information up and it turned out that the figures were quite different - a total of 317 requests for recognition of diplomas were submitted, out of which 284 were positively resolved, while others were awaiting resolution or were rejected, "said Mr. Stankovic.

Alexander Hug, a representative of the OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities from the Hague, said in Presevo that the integration of minorities was a never-ending process.  

“The integration of minorities into society is important but it shouldn’t turn into assimilation, "said Mr. Hug at the roundtable entitled" Improving Minority Policy in Serbia - Keeping Step with Integration", which the “Forum for Ethnic Relations” organized in Presevo. 

He also said that that didn’t only apply to Serbia, but also that it "may be applied to all regions and societies".

Mr. Hug emphasized the importance of the implementation of minority rights in everyday life, adding that "minorities can’t have maximum demands for their rights".

The mayor of Presevo, Ragmi Mustafa, called for the application of the same principles to the Albanians in South Serbia as those applied to the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

The former MP in the Serbian parliament, Riza Halimi, claimed that a decision on a new network of courts, in connection with which the Albanian leaders’ demands for having the Basic Court in Presevo were rejected, was an example of inadequate attitude of the state towards the Albanians.   

He added that "the Albanians had far more rights in the 1970’s and 1980’s”. 

Mr. Halimi also underscored the problem of a small number of the Albanians in the judicial institutions in Bujanovac and Vranje.

The State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, Nedјo Jovanovic, said that residents of the municipalities of Presevo and Bujanovac weren’t denied the right to a fair trial and that the situation would improve as of September 1, when notaries would begin to operate.  

“Thanks to the new network of courts, Bujanovac got the Basic Court, while Presevo got the Prosecutor’s Office.  On the other hand, the laws may be changed when the conditions for it are provided ", he said.

Mr. Jovanovic asked the Albanians to apply for positions in the courts, pointing out that there were vacancies at the court in Bujanovac.  

Source: B92, Jugpress and Coordination Body