Kamberi: There can only be special standards for Kosovo's minority

“We can't just sit back and look at the creation of particular standards, which will apply to a minority minority hylore in northern Kosovo”, Kamberi says of Radio Free Europe referring to the Serb minority.

Last weekend, Kamberi and some representatives of Bosniaks living in Serbia met Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina.

Their joint requirement was for minorities in Serbia to enjoy similar rights as the Serb minority in Kosovo.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti at a meeting with representatives of Albanians and Bosniaks in Serbia.

According to a report issued by Kurt's cabinet, they expressed disappointment with the position of Albanians and Bosniaks in Serbia, especially in municipalities: Novi Pazar, Tutti, Sjenica, Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc.

The various “communities should be dealt with indiscriminately under universal principles and in full compliance with European Union standards”, Kurti said.

Currently, Kosovo and Serbia are in negotiations on normalising relations.

The sides have a European plan for that purpose. Its content has not been made public, but the version in which the REL has had access has included, among other things, a special arrangement for the Serb community in Kosovo.

What are the demands of Albanian representatives in Serbia?

Speaking to Kamberi, who is the only Albanian MP in Serbia's Parliament, says the fundamental demand of Albanians is to have equal treatment in the country they live in.

As a problem issue, it cites “non-adequate participation” of Albanians in the work of state institutions and education.

“Fifteen generations of young Albanians face non-recognition of diplomas [from Kosovo] and they are leaving here”, Kamberi says.

REL asked Serbia's Ministry of Education how many diplomas received in Kosovo have been recognised and whether they are known only for continuing schooling or even for employment, but until the publication of this article, there was no response.

Kamberi says they are also demanding those rights that the European Union and the Council of Europe guarantee to minorities by their standards.

Albanian minority in Serbia lives mainly in municipalities: Touches, Bujanoc and Medvedja.

Serbia's Parliament MP, Enis Imamovic, from the ranks of the Party for Democratic Action in Sandzak, says that all rights guaranteed or granted to Serbs in Kosovo or Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina should also be granted to Bosniaks, Albanians and other minorities in Serbia.

The “given rights guaranteed by the Constitution is given to national minorities to integrate into the country where they live... We do not feel this when it comes to Bosniaks”, says Imamovic, who attended the meeting with Kurti on February 4th.

His party has two deputies in Serbia's Parliament and has supported the European proposal for normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations.

In the municipalities of Novi Pazar, Tutini and Sjenica, southwest of Serbia, the majority of the population is Bosniak.

Asked whether his community requires an organisation like the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo which has not yet been formed, but has an agreement to HINA Imamovic says it opposes providing ethnic principle for municipalities.

Imamovic adds that Bosniaks also insist, in Serbia's obligation to whitewash all crimes that have occurred against Sandzak Bosniaks from the 1990s to 2000.

In 1993, 20 mostly Bosnian people have been killed in Shtrpce who have been traveling by train from Belgrade to Tivar.

In 1992, meanwhile, 17 Bosniaks from Sjeverin were killed, on the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Commenting on the meeting in Pristina, Imamovic says he is talking to all those who “have proved to be friends of the Bosnian people”.

I see no reason for state leaders to worry. For them, any request for Bosniaks' rights is a form of destabilisation”, says Iamovic.