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Partition Demand Fuels South Serbia Tensions

16 02 2006  Local Serbs call for a referendum on dividing the ethnically-split town of Bujanovac into two.

By Nikola Lazic in Bujanovac (Balkan Insight, 16 Feb 06)

Serbs in Bujanovac in southern Serbia are demanding the formal partition of the town into Serbian and Albanian sectors, ahead of upcoming talks on the final status of the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo.

Bujanovac Serbs, now outnumbered by ethnic Albanians, want the vote on whether to divide the town, which has a population of 50,000, to take place this spring.

Local experts say the move is a pre-emptive response to local Albanian calls for southern Serbia to obtain special status, including an option to unite in future with Kosovo.

With a difficult economic situation and continuing animosity between local Serbs and Albanians, some do not rule out a return to the violence of several years ago, when Albanian militants staged an armed uprising in the area.

Trajko Trajkovic, a local Serb leader, has proposed a partition line that would leave Bujanovac town centre in Serb hands, while granting Albanians their own municipality.

This would encompass the large and almost exclusively Albanian village of Veliki Trnovac, which alone has about 6,500 inhabitants.

Bujanovac lies close to the border with Kosovo on the main highway running between Belgrade and the Macedonian capital Skopje. While Serbs make up around 40 per cent of the population, Albanians account for more than 50 per cent, with Roma making up the balance.

With Albanian parties currently in power in the town hall and the referendum on splitting the town representing a chance for Serbs to take back some control, analysts believe Trajkovic may easily collect enough signatures to force a vote to be held.

Bujanovac has been wracked by tension ever since the collapse of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in November 2000, when an armed conflict erupted between Serbian forces and Albanian rebels of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, UCPMB.

Under international pressure the Albanians laid down their arms in May 2001. The following spring, extraordinary local elections in southern Serbia saw Albanian parties take power in Bujanovac for the first time.

With an unemployment rate of about 33 per cent, the town is one of the poorest in Serbia, despite considerable investments by the government and international donors alike.

Average salaries are well below the national average of 200 euro per month, and many earn their living in the black economy.

Alienated by their loss of control of the town hall, local Serbs have been alarmed by the political platform adopted recently by ethnic Albanians, which calls for regional autonomy in Serbia and - more crucially - the option of joining Kosovo.

This platform draws on the sentiments expressed in an unofficial referendum in March 1992, when more than 90 per cent of Albanians in southern Serbia voted for unity with Kosovo.

Deputies in the Albanian-dominated local assembly will discuss Trajkovic's initiative at its first session in late February.

According to the 2002 Local Self-Government Act, more than ten per cent of registered voters have to sign a petition if a referendum is to be held. There are 37,000 registered voters in the Bujanovac municipality.

Trajkovic is thought to enjoy the strong support of around ten per cent of local Serbs, which should suffice to make the referendum mandatory. Local observers say this number may turn out to be bigger.

Apart from fears of being sucked into an independent Kosovo, many Serbs support a separate local authority because they blame Albanians for the town's high unemployment and generally poor economy.

"Ever since Albanians came to power in 2002, Serbs in Bujanovac have been second-class citizens, without the means in the local assembly, as a minority, to defend their interests," Trajkovic told Balkan Insight.

He said a peaceful partition would be the best solution for both Serbs and Albanians, as it would enable each group to govern its own territory.

Many Serbs like the idea. "The Serbs would know exactly what is theirs, and would have their own revenues and power, so the Albanian majority would no longer be able to do only what suits them," a local journalist told Balkan Insight.

"The Albanians stand to win a well defined territorial entity which they might easily unite with Kosovo," said another Serb, who works for the municipal administration. "One shouldn't forget that Kosovo geographically leans on southern Serbia."

"Partition is the only way for Serbs to gain power in the town and start making decisions that concern themselves," said a third local Serb, working for a state firm now going into insolvency.

A factor playing into Trajkovic's hands is dwindling confidence among Serbs in the big parties with headquarters in Belgrade. He has attracted support as an independent candidate, despite his extreme views.

However, Dusan Janjic, director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, believes Trajkovic is opening a Pandora's box by seeking ethnic-based administrative changes.

"The insistence on partition in Bujanovac may be interpreted as an offer to exchange territories," Janjic told Balkan Insight.

Janjic said Serbs were rallying to Trajkovic's initiative out of fear. "More should be done to work with the Serbs politically because the Albanians have been the focus of the attention so far," Janjic added.

A commentator on the Kosovo daily Koha Ditore, who preferred to remain anonymous, agreed, saying the plan would only stir up new agitation over borders.

"The ethnic division of the town will undoubtedly cause conflict, after which southern Serbia will be easily attached to Kosovo," he told Balkan Insight.

The authorities in Belgrade have also taken a dim view. Rasim Ljajic, chair of the Serbian government's Coordination Body for South Serbia, established in 2000 to help alleviate the Serb-Albanian conflict, said the request was "unacceptable", on account of its being "based on ethnic principles".

"This is a politically unrealistic demand, like the Albanians' demand for special status [in southern Serbia] and connections with Kosovo," he said.

Ljajic warned that local partition plans might have "far-reaching consequences for the internal political situation in Serbia".

International observers are also predictably wary of anything that looks like new, ethnic-based, partition plans in the Balkans.

Sources close to the European Union Monitoring Mission in South Serbia told Balkan Insight they viewed any division on those lines as catastrophic.

That leaves the local Albanians. Many of them are suspicious of the offer to run their own exclusive municipality.

Shaip Kamberi, a human rights activist and Party for Democratic Action deputy in the Bujanovac assembly, described the plan as "dangerous and unfeasible".

Ragmi Mustafa, president of the Democratic Albanian Party, DPA, agreed, pointing out the difficulty of organising new self-governing bodies responsible for budgets and finances.

A local Albanian journalist, Mukarem Ameti, said, "This is one of the poorest regions in Serbia so new divisions would only make matters worse."

As they already dominate the town council, Albanians perhaps have little to gain from further divisions of the resources of an already impoverished community.

However, the final outcome of the struggle lies not with local Serbs or Albanians but with the Serbian parliament. This is the body, after all, that has the power to endorse or ignore the decision of the local referendum - if it goes ahead.
Nikola Lazic works as a journalist for Novine Vranjske. He is regular Balkan Insight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRN's internet publication.