Ethnic Albanians now push for a separate region in southern Serbia
Ethnic Albanian councilors in Serbia's south have launched an initiative to form Albanian regional institutions and a separate region of the so-called "Presevo Valley".
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, August 03, 2009
A political declaration, adopted in an assembly of councilors of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, reminds that this initiative comes "in the spirit of the political platform of January 2006".
Albanians from the south of central Serbia wish to speed up talks between the government and "legitimate Albanian institutions and political representatives of the three municipalities, with international mediation, in order to accelerate the political process renewed in March this year, in line with the most progressive regional and European standards".
The documents insists on finding an acceptable solution to recognizing diplomas issued in Pristina after February 2008, when Kosovo's ethnic Albanians unilaterally declared secession.
It once again calls for Albanians arrested in Presevo in December 2008 on terrorism charges to be released from custody, and to have their case "processed within international legal mechanisms, since it is evident that the question has been politicized", and says that all members of the so-called Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Liberation Army (OVPMB; UCPMB) "are being incriminated without exception".
The armed group launched numerous attacks in the area from 1999 until 2001, seeking to join the three municipalities to Kosovo.
