Kosovo–Serbia Dialogue Must Include Presevo Valley, Mayor Says

The newly elected mayor of Presevo, an ethnic Albanian majority municipality in south Serbia, Ardita Sinani, says Belgrade is deleting the addresses of citizens in her municipality in a silent process of ethnic cleansing.

Ardita Sinani, 41, told BIRN in an interview two weeks after taking the office that Serbia authorities had deleted numerous addresses of Albanians from Presevo and two other nearby municipalities.

"Deleting addresses is a major problem. It is not normal when the addresses of those who pay their obligations on property get deleted from the civil registry," she said.

The complaints have reached Brussels. In March, the European Parliament agreed to amend the EU report on Serbia and investigate claims that Serbia has been classifying as "inactive" the addresses of mainly ethnic Albanians deemed no longer to be living at these addresses.

Many Albanians from the deprived border region left the country years ago to work abroad.

The Standing Rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilcik, and his Kosovo counterpart, Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, said the EU "will look much deeper and deal with this" allegation.

Asked by BIRN on the exact steps to be taken, they said the EU "needs more time to collect empirical data on the issue" before reaching a conclusion.

But Sinani has no doubts about what is going on - ethnic cleansing by stealth. "An ethnic cleansing is being done by the deactivation of addresses. The aim is remove Presevo valley citizens from their places," she said. "There is no readiness and willingness [on the part of Belgrade] to resolve this issue," she added.

The area has a troubled recent history. Months after the war ended in neighbouring Kosovo in June 1999, Albanians in three border...