ZORAN STANKOVIC: ASSESSMENT IN LIEU OF CENSUS

23. May 2015.

Zoran Stankovic, the President of the Coordination Body, said that the population would be counted. The agreement with the leaders of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja was reached. Views on the issue will be brought into line in Belgrade.

Because of numerous objections to and various bits of information on the number and make-up of the population in the said three municipalities, the Coordination Body announced that it would use the assessment of population. The method of counting, which will be conducted in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja, hasn’t been used in Serbia so far, but it is no mystery in the world, since it was used in the places where it had been impossible to conduct the census or where the census had failed.

“We are going to undertake one of the most important political activities in the region. The assessment will be done in accordance with international standards and, apart from our experts, one representative from the USA, the OSCE and the EU each will take part in it,” Mr. Stankovic said. An expert that will assist with implementing the knowledge in that field has been provided through the European Progress program of cooperation between the European Union and local self-governments.

Mr. Stankovic said that the assessment would be done in consultation with representatives of the three municipalities. The methodology hasn’t yet been specified and agreed upon with all the participants, which will be followed by the bringing of views into line in early June in Belgrade, when a conference will be held, where the criteria for assessing the population will be discussed.

Experts from the Institute for Statistics do estimates every year, but this time the whole procedure will be carried out in the presence of the international community. Once the job is done and the data published, no one will be able to manipulate with figures any more. A similar assessment was done back in 1991, when the census wasn’t successfully done, while this is the first time that it is being done in this manner. Anyway, the Albanians living in South Serbia mostly boycott regular censuses.

They aired their opinion only once

The history of (un) successful censuses began in 1981, when the census was held during the first demonstrations in Kosovo and Metohija, while a “wave of demonstrations” seriously swept Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja that year, which reflected on the census and the boycott that followed. Ten years later, the Albanians from South Serbia once again boycotted the census. The following census, which was held in 2002 and which the Albanians "bound themselves by oath", is also questionable because the Serb representatives pointed to certain irregularities and rated the census as a "staged process" that no one was in control of. The data emerged in public that a large number of Albanians participated in the census by means of taking their names from gravestones. During the most recent census in 2011, the Albanians continued with the old practice of boycott.

Source: Evening News

Author: Ј. Stojkovic