A meeting between Serbian political representatives, ministers in the Government of Kosovo, Deputy PM, MPs and mayors of all ten municipalities with Serbian majority in Kosovo was held in Mitrovica North, with the aim to achieve a general consensus on the proposed law on the census in northern Kosovo. The meeting resulted in a common position that there are no political, legal, social and security conditions to hold a census.
According to the International Recommendations for the Censuses of Population and Housing, from 2010, “the population census can be held only in terms of a fully stable political and socially secure environment.” Since these conditions are not met in any aspect, the vast majority of Serbs would boycott the census. This would make the results inaccurate and most importantly, they might not be internationally accepted and verified. It is important to note that censuses exceed the limits of the national statistical institutions, since information from the censuses are used for the purposes of international planning and development. Therefore, it is required to be internationally verified.
“Taking into account all these facts, and in the spirit of full consensus of representatives of Serbs in Kosovo, we believe that the right way to hold the census in the north is not a draft law, but the effort and work on creation of politically stable and socially secure environment for all Serbs in Kosovo. We need to work on meeting all international obligations deriving from the dialogue with joint forces, to create conditions for the equality in Kosovo and build a modern democratic society. Only then would be realistic and moral to expect that the Serbs in north would massively take part in the census,” reads the statement of the Serbian List.
