Bujanovac

Rama says Albanians "won't be assimilated"

PREŠEVO -- Albanian PM Edi Rama said in Preševo that ethnic Albanians who live in municipalities in southern Serbia have less rights than Serbs in Kosovo.

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic promised on Thursday that Albanian students in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja, southern part of central Serbia, will get free textbooks in their mother tongue by September 1, but at the same time he called on Albanians to fulfil their obligation toward the Republic of Serbia and start paying their electricity bills.

Bujanovac to become "university town"

BELGRADE -- The planned construction of a Faculty of Economics building in Bujanovac, southern Serbia, will make the town "a university town."

It will also "create conditions for economic development and political stability in the area," the signatories of an agreement to construct the facility have said.

Ethnic Albanian party "willing to work with new govt."

BELGRADE -- Riza Halimi says his Party of Democratic Action is interested in becoming a direct actor in solving the problems of Albanians in southern Serbia.

BELGRADE - The Party for Democratic Action (PDD), which has won two seats in the Serbian parliament, will not turn away from the talks on its participation in the new government, says Saip Kamberi, official of the political party gathering ethnic Albanians from the south of central Serbia.

BELGRADE - Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Peter Burkhard urged on Thursday members of the Albanian community in southern Serbia to vote in early parliamentary elections that will be held on March 16.

BELGRADE - The recent interruption of discussions with political and institutional representatives of ethnic Albanians in Presevo and Bujanovac has brought "no good to anyone," the head of the Serbian government's coordination body for southern Serbia said on Tuesday, urging a resumption of the discussions.

BUJANOVAC - The Party for Democratic Action (PDA), which gathers ethnic Albanians from southern Serbia, has decided to take part in the early parliamentary elections scheduled for March 16.

Chair of the PDA Bujanovac municipal committee Saip Kamberi confirmed for Tanjug that PDA wishes to test its strength in the elections and hopes to win at least one MP seat.