№ 36 - JUG SRBIJE I ALBANSKO PITANJE
№ 36 - SOUTH SERBIA AND ALBANIAN QUESTION

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Politics, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: Helsinški odbor za ljudska prava u Srbiji
Keywords: South Serbia; Presevo; Bujanovac; Serbia and Kosovo;
Summary/Abstract: South Serbia has been a neuralgic point ever since the opening of the Kosovo status issue. After NATO intervention /1999/ stability in three South municipalities -- Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja -- has been directly connected to the status issue. Both sides -- Serb and Albanian – hoped for partition, which would place the three municipalities in quite a different context. In early August 2009, American congressman Dan Rohrabacker concretized the “partition idea” – according to him, Serbia and Kosovo should switch territories with each other: Serbia would get North Kosovo with Mitrovica and Kosovo South Serbia with the three abovementioned municipalities. Given that the entire region is of strategic importance for the Serb strategists ensuring it the control over the Vardar Valley, the “offer” is unacceptable to Belgrade. For the same strategic reasons expulsion of Albanians from the three municipalities was Belgrade’s priority in the aftermath of the intervention. In this it succeeded only partially (in Medvedja). In response, local Albanians rebelled in 2001.

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