Montenegrins address Thaci and Kurti: No longer want to be represented by Serbs

The Association of Montenegrins of Kosovo has submitted a request today to President Thaci and Prime Minister Kurti for regulating the Montenegrin community's official legal position in Kosovo.

There, they have asked Kosovo's president and prime minister not to be represented by Serbs.

“We expect Kosovo leaders, in accordance with their constitutional powers, to approach drafting a constitutional change or individually, and to decide them as soon as possible in the parliamentary procedure for review and final approval”, Metro broadcasts.

Kosovo Montenegrin leader Slobodan Vujicic has addressed Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Hashim Thaci, at the request that this community is recognised as an equal minority to other minorities under the country's laws in power.

This is the full letter:

We expect them, in accordance with their constitutional powers, to approach drafting a constitutional change, or individually, and to decide them as soon as possible in parliamentary procedure for final consideration and approval.

At the same time, we applied to all parliamentary clubs to declare their initiative so that, after 12 years, they would finally know the truth that PFORR and who the Montenegrins become a constitutional category. The adoption of such a change in the Kosovo Assembly requires a two-thirds majority, or minority communities' votes, and at least two-thirds of the votes of the deputies present.

We have made additional requests to Prime Minister Kurti that the Government, immediately from full implementation of the Strategy for Integration and Confirmation of the Montenegrin Community in Kosovo, approved at 12,12.2016, and that on the basis of the Law on Official Rest, Montenegrins will officially receive one day like all other communities in Kosovo.

We base our demands and expectations on the fact that Montenegrins are a traditional community in Kosovo, as evidenced by history, monument monuments, the ethnological museum, the Republican statistical institute, or more precisely all the records that start from the XIV century, when they were registered by religious affiliation using birth books until 1948, when 3.85% of us lived in Kosovo, until 1991 when only 104 were registered.

Our disappearance in this region is confirmed by previous Constitutions, while the 1974 Constitution recognises three constituent peoples living on Kosovo territory -- Albanians, Serbs and Montenegrins respectively. The current constitution has not taken into account the principle of acquired rights and turned the Montenegrin community away from the greatest judicial act.
With the adoption of the Kosovo Constitution, on April 9, 2008, the Montenegrin community has become a minority that lacks initial legal provisions for protecting specifics within the Kosovo judicial system.

The urgent institutional protection of the Montenegrin ethnic being through the resolution of our constitutional and legal position and adequate representation in the Kosovo Assembly is the constitutional and moral obligation of the institution of president, deputies, the Kosovo Government, the entire political spectrum and civil society, regardless of ethnic, religious or ideological affiliation.

Our recognition or constitutional non-recognition will be an important reference point for international factors in assessing Kosovo's progress in respecting human rights.