PRESS RELEASE - 29.08.2017

Mr. Stankovic: The State Does Not Manipulate the Number of the Albanians

A population estimate was the only legal possibility after members of the Albanian minority had failed to be registered in the 2011 census, said Zoran Stankovic, President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. He said that following a meeting with political leaders of the Albanians from the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, it was agreed to engage experts through the international community, more precisely through the US and British Embassies, the OSCE and the EU Delegation to Serbia. The whole process was supervised by the competent national bodies, namely the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, with the assistance of the Coordination Body and in the presence of the Republic Institute for Statistics and other governmental bodies, Mr. Stankovic explained.

“Experts from the United States of America, Great Britain and the European Union worked on the population estimate. The initiative for assessment of the population resulted from the tendency of the state to overcome opened issues that inevitably caused a series of inconveniences to the Albanian minority, since most members of the minority did not wish to participate in the 2011 census,” Mr. Stankovic said.

At the bit of news that there was a section dedicated to the diaspora on the new official website of the municipality of Bujanovac, which is still under construction, which should, as explained by the municipal officials, serve for collecting data on the Albanians living abroad in order to "prevent possible manipulation of the Serbian Government on the number of Albanians in Bujanovac," the President of the Coordination Body said that it was not clear to him what kind of manipulation they  thought of.

“I did not understand how the Government of the Republic of Serbia could manipulate the number of Albanians. So, when the majority of members of the Albanian minority would not participate in the 2011 census, the government organized an assessment of the population, so that these three municipalities could operate smoothly, without being deprived of any budgetary benefits for a moment. The estimate was done by international experts, while leaders of the Albanians in South Serbia, among others, Riza Halimi and Saip Kamberi, as well as the MPs and Mayors of the municipalities of Presevo and Bujanovac, Ragmi Mustafa and Nagip Arifi, participated in it," Mr. Stankovic explained.

 If there were any doubts about and dissatisfaction with the population estimate, the political leaders of Albanians from these municipalities had the opportunity to get the answers to all their questions from international experts, Mr. Stankovic said. He pointed out that the Albanian leaders from the three municipalities had got answers to all their questions from the experts, after which it was agreed to give a positive response to the population estimate without any conditioning by any parties, Mr. Stankovic said.

The President of the Coordination Body also asked whether it was the job of the municipality to collect on its website the information on the Albanians living abroad and what was the message of the municipal officials to the people living in that area. 

As a reminder, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted a conclusion in early July 2015, based on which the presented population estimate would be in use until the next census.

Source: Coordination Body