Serbia’s Ethnic Albanians Fear Belgrade is Silently Deleting Addresses

Experts and citizens are voicing concern that the addresses of minority ethnic Albanians in Serbia are being made quietly inactive by the Serbian authorities, without the subjects being informed.

Flora Ferati Sachsenmaier, a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany has investigated the issue of addresses of ethnic Albanians in Serbia being made "passive", in collaboration with the Albanian Forum for Economic Development in Serbia, AFEDS.

She told BIRN that most of the affected individuals have only received about their vanished addresses orally, accusing Serbia of discrimination. "The core of this discriminatory policy towards Albanians is the concealment of traces," she told BIRN.

"Any institution or individual who intends to register the cases of Albanians in Serbia, based on legal acts or decisions issued by the police, will be able to tell only a small part of the truth about the passivity of Albanians there," Ferati Sachsenmaier said.

The office in Medvedja in southern Serbia of the National Council of Albanians said in January that every ethnic Albanian citizen who fears their address has been made inactive should submit "a copy of the legal act (decision or notification) by the relevant body (police station)."

The Council was established based on Serbian law, one of several formed to represent the interests of Serbia's ethnic minorities. Its leaders are elected by direct vote every four years.

Current leader Ragmi Mustafa, told BIRN that the council has been dealing with the issue of silently deactivated addresses since 2012.

Based on official data alone, in the last three years alone, "1,700 Albanian settlements in Medvedja have been made inactive...