Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

NGO Aktiv report: Exchange of territories would bring about migration of population (RTK)  

The exchange of territories between Kosovo and Serbia, from perspective of Serbian community south of the Ibar River was topic of debate organized by NGO Aktiv. The authors of this document have constructed a chain of events in case of a possible territorial division, RTK reports.

According to Aktiv, exchange of territories could lead to a political and constitutional crisis, abandonment of the idea of Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (ZSO), migration of population, assimilation instead of integration, as well as changes in demographic structure of the population.

“In this delineation scenario, Serbia would be obliged to completely withdraw the institutions, which would lead to the abolition of the institutional presence in Kosovo, which would mean the full integration of education, healthcare and social protection systems. This means large number of workers would lose their jobs, experts would seek employment in Serbia and the quality of services available to the Serbian community would decrease drastically, which is one of the factors that would contribute to further moving out of the Serbian community from Kosovo,” NGO Aktiv Program Director Miodrag Marinkovic said.

When asked if violence is possible and whether it can become a method, the Editor-in-Chief of Kim Radio, Goran Avramovic said that in his view, the danger was minimal, there was lack of willingness among ordinary people for such things.

“But if someone decides that violence is a shortcut to reach desired goal, I would not rule out the possibility it would be applied. I repeat, among ordinary people, I have impression here is a predominant feeling that no one is interested in violence any longer,” Avramovic noted.

“The issue of delineation, correction, partition has devalued current course of dialogue and reached agreements, including the one on A/CSM,” professor of political science Belul Beqaj said, adding that the idea of ​​demarcation, correction or partition is much less possible today than it was the case at the beginning.

NGO Aktiv also underlined that this is a presentation of a hypothetical scenario of a possible division which does not in any way imply violent acts against the Serbian community in Kosovo.

The report is available at: https://bit.ly/2CCZumG