"More time and money for Serbia's south"

Peter, I think your comment is ridiculous, if not racist.
These are people living in the south of Serbia. As a Serb I am for measurements to improve the standard of living for ALL of our citizens. Serbs, Hungarians, Albanians, Roma. You seem to be forgetting that they pay taxes as well.
But I guess the word 'Albanian' blinded you, so you didn't read the rest of the article. Shamefull.

Peter, poor people have nothing to lose. We must lift the standard of living of those in Presevo et all if we want any chance of integrating them into Serbian society. What you are saying is madness at a time when Serbia is trying to convince the Albanians of Kosovo to remain within Serbia.

Why are you trying to destroy Serbia? Its exactly that type of attitude and unreasoned speaking that put us in the current situation that we’re in. Use your head man!

Peter, by NOT investing in the south, Albanians will look more towards Kosovo. If they feel Belgrade doesn't care about them, or if they are being sidelined because of their Albanian ethnicity, you can be sure they will look for ways out of Serbia, further fragmenting an already fragmented state.

It's time to end this nonsense of ethnic affirmative action and start treating everybody in the region equally.

Why would Serbian tax payers give any money for Albanians?So what if they are poor,thats their problem.If they need money-they should ask US to pay their bills!

This is a case of regional development.

The fact is that the south of Serbia is the most under-developed in the whole of the country. People are paid low wages if they have jobs at all.

I'd even be willing to listen to a half logical nationalistic style argument - ie that since part of this area may be eventually ceded to Kosovo that it isnt worth paying for, but arguing that the whole of the south should be neglected because Serbian citizens of Albanian ethnicity will also benefit is beyond the pale.

If i were a tax payer in Serbia-yes,i would give money,but for more gendarmerie and army troops deployed in that area.They must seal off border with Kosovo completely in that region.

Peter, this is the Milosevic policy. He invested so much in police and paramilitaries that he forgot the majority of the population. In fact, this kind of policies made many educated Serbs(i.e. my neighbour Nikola) leave Serbia wishing never to go back there.
Further more, these kind of policies brought majority of people of Serbia in to be shamed of their national identity. If anyone wanders why the war broke out in Balkans, why Serbia is blamed Serbia for the recent wars and why NATO had to intervene Peter is the answer, don’t look any further.

If some of you brave Serbians want for those parts to be still in Serbia I would suggest for you to invest more since poverty brings to uprising

It is in Serbia's interest to develop ALL areas of the contry regardless of what ethnic group forms a majority in any one area.Serbia would also be wise to develop an economic plan for Kosovo to impress the EU into investing funds there and thus marginalize the extremists.Slowly but surely the rational Europeans are awakening to the fact that the Kosovo political issue will resemble Cyprus.

Why not? It is part of serbia proper. I want to see Serbia to be like any other prospous european country from Vojvodina to Kosovo (N~Kosovo). I'm not sure but do these ethnic Albanians have ambitions to join Kosovo or rather stay in Serbia? Not the radicals but the ordinary people. I don't hate anyone but, I do hate people that wish me dead because I'm Serbian. Do these people feel the same toward us Serbs as the K~Albanians do? All Serbian citizens should live prosperously in Serbia. Lets resolve these issues and move forward. Serbia needs to improve the quality of life in Serbia and the ethnic Albanians must not be reluctant to try to work with them. When a person is 25 years old and looks like their 45 something is wrong. Let work together and make Serbia a great country! And stop teaching our children to hate each other. Thats where recosiliation & the road to peace start. We instill this hate in them and they grow up pre~racist.

It is unbalivable, just read the post from peter pan and ida. I cannot beleive that b92 is posting their coments. they are not worth e reponse.

Your government have to give them money because Serbia suck everything from the region Albanians for 100 years that’s why they are POOR now, you have to make them equal to all citizens of Serbia other ways they would like to unite with Kosovo and you will lose more and more.

The region is rife with smuggling and illegal activity. There are plenty of rich criminals there.

There's also been raids from Kosovo taking ethnic Serbs livestock and the Kosovo Albanians have done a lot of illegal woodcutting.

Why did they start rebellion in 2001. in Macedonia when they have everything there and Macedonian state doesn't have almost any control over them???They just want to grab teritories that don't belong to them,thats the whole point!

Delije,
A nice thought that would fit almost anywere in the world exept for a region there a population is unthankful to its State and wants to join Kosovo for independence.

Matthew,

You mean that the serbian government should repeat the mistakes made by the yugoslavian one in the 60:s and 70:s? Investing billions of euros in a region that has no loyalty what so ever and only wants to become independent. Yes Kosovo is poor, but before the massive investments made by the yugoslavian federal budget in the 60:s and well into the 80:s they were at the same standards as their brothers in Albania. Equal only to Haiti in poorness.

Mike, you are a little naive, the albanians in Presevo valley ARE already looking to join Kosovo, regardless of what investments that are made by the serbian government...

To Srboslav:

Your comments is a contradiction in itself. You claim that Belgrade invested billions and billions into Kosovo and still the region is as poor as it can be. The math just doesn't work my friend. If Belgrade ever invested anything in Kosovo it was only to maintain its military infrastructure. Belgrade kept Kosovo by force and exercising force over 2 million of its own citizens, of course is expensive.

But let's go a little further with your argument. In unlikely event that Kosovo was to remain part of Serbia, are you saying that it would be a mistake on behalf of Belgrade to invest to improve the life of K-albanians and make them happy? I guess that's what you are saying which in turns automatically legitimizes the claim that K-albanians don't have and don't want to co-live with Serbia.

To Peter

You brought Macedonia as an example to support your comment. Unfortunately (for you) Macedonia is a place that clearly shows that once Albanians are treated equally it is very much possible for the entire society to progress, something that Serbia and entire its political clan misses. Albanians make up to 40% of population in Macedonia and it would have been fairly easy to crack the social structure. I just didn't happen...because there was no need for it.

“You mean that the serbian government should repeat the mistakes made by the yugoslavian one in the 60:s and 70:s?”

Srboslav, absolutely not, Tito’s philosophy of Weak Serbia – Strong Yugoslavia caused a great deal of the mess we’re in now. We need an effective way to raise their standard of living. Luciano can comment on the best way to do that.

As far as Macedonia goes, guess what guys? Those Albanians that live there who have a standard of living that is comparable to the West, also have a birthrate comparable to the West. Had we raised their standard of living in Kosovo way back when, maybe just maybe we wouldn’t be so out numbered there now.

We Serbs need to get smart about what’s in our best interest and the kind of messages we want to send to the outside world. Take a page from the Croatian Handbook, they got away with the biggest single incident of ethnic cleansing in the war AND brutally attacked their allies, the Bosniaks. Yet World Public Opinion is firmly on their side! Think about that, and ask yourself what are we doing wrong?

That being said, I would support a land swap of Presevo et all & Trepca for important and substantial concessions on our historical sites that represent the very cradle of Serbian civilization such as Pec & Decani.

why would serbian people give money to a province that does not belong and that has been independent for years. serbian laws and authority and army and police does not exist there besides the albanians are doing whatever they can to kickout the rest of the serbs from there sending money there is purely for cruption reasons becouse serbian gov. (some of them) would sell their mother for the right amount of money,that is why they lost the south to the albanians.

I hope that the planned money does not include the policing cost for the region.

We have funded albanians for a long time, for decades. The result is that they mismanage funds and corruptly waste them. So, with in this in mind, I think we should not finance them. Though I think that the three municipalities in the article could and should get more investment, such as serbian monuments and other things of the sort, to show that it is Serbian and not Albanian.

Mathew, that will not work. The reason why is because everywhere one goes in Kosmet... there are serbian churches and monasteries. They're everywhere. We can't give up our heritage by saving just a few of the most famous ones.

Guys, you're all missing the big picture here, and definately misreading the article.

As far as the politician's comments go, i am glad to see what seems to be responsible governance...

Beyond any sort of silly arguments, I notice a maturity level in politics in Serbia that hasn't been seen in........well never..

And a side note, whatever you say against Albanians in the south, there's a Slovenian and Croat saying the exact same thing about a Serb..You need to get over your inferiority complexes!!!

I agree with Mike and Matthew in regards to investing and future.

Unfortunately, the farther south you go, the greater the poverty. Poverty doesn't have a national identity.

I see some resonable coments from pro serb camp and I comend them for that, but not the Peter and his friends.

Serboslav,
If thats the case, then I agree. Then what should Serbia do? Should Serbia keep what we have and their reluctant ways, or should they say, here is 15% of our land (minus N~ Kosovo) now leave us alone. Here in the US we say, if you don't like it here, leave. I guess there if they don't like it they leave, but with a part of your land.

“We can't give up our heritage by saving just a few of the most famous ones. (Lazar, 24. August 2007 23:36)”

Lazar, I certainly don’t like the idea of giving up any of Kosovo either. However, what do we do? Clearly we can not protect the Churches through force alone. We must change Albanian perspective of our Churches from one of personal liability to that of economic necessity. It’s a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation. We’ve already lost a number of Churches.

It would be great if we could retain Kosovo and integrate the Albanian population into our society. I do support Princip’s vision for a future Kosovo, but I just can’t see how it would be truly practical or how we might possibly accomplish that. Retaining Kosovo without changing attitudes towards our Churches is not a win, it’s a lose.

Here we have the opportunity to show the Albanian what it might be like for them to live in Serbian society. If we are able to truly bring the Presevo Albanians into our embrace and treat them like equals, it would do much for our argument that the rest of Kosovo could live in peace with us. Improving the lives of the Presevo Albanians is the single best thing we can do for our cause.

Being proud of Serbia and our history and culture does not mean we must hate Albanians. If anything it’s proved very destructive to our cause.

Ahmet, now you sound like an Albanian leader of the future, one that I might even be able to support. We can disagree on politics, but the use of hatred as a political tool is over and is only self destructive for both sides. I may be a “nationalist” in many ways, but I promise you I want what’s best for your people AND mine. Do not forget your future in the EU is going to be dependant on how you handle your minorities. The sooner your people recognize that, the sooner your period of “supervision” will be over. I realize you’ve led a relatively radical life, but that is coming to an end soon. Soon, you will no longer be able to use Serbs as scapegoats for the problems in Kosovo, and the hard work will begin. Are you ready to take your political views to the next level? Have you prepared for what is to come?

Ahmet, just out of curiosity, do you think maybe Haradinaj was sent to the Hague because he did not join the KLA’s political party, and instead choose to align with Rugova and therefore became an obstacle to Ceku and the KLA’s plans? I would be very curious to hear your impressions on Haradinaj’s split with the KLA. Is Haradinaj possibly a moderate?

Why would Serbian tax payers give any money for Albanians?So what if they are poor,thats their problem.If they need money-they should ask US to pay their bills!

It is unbalivable, just read the post from peter pan and ida. I cannot beleive that b92 is posting their coments. they are not worth e reponse.

Your government have to give them money because Serbia suck everything from the region Albanians for 100 years that’s why they are POOR now, you have to make them equal to all citizens of Serbia other ways they would like to unite with Kosovo and you will lose more and more.

Peter, I think your comment is ridiculous, if not racist.
These are people living in the south of Serbia. As a Serb I am for measurements to improve the standard of living for ALL of our citizens. Serbs, Hungarians, Albanians, Roma. You seem to be forgetting that they pay taxes as well.
But I guess the word 'Albanian' blinded you, so you didn't read the rest of the article. Shamefull.

If i were a tax payer in Serbia-yes,i would give money,but for more gendarmerie and army troops deployed in that area.They must seal off border with Kosovo completely in that region.

Peter, this is the Milosevic policy. He invested so much in police and paramilitaries that he forgot the majority of the population. In fact, this kind of policies made many educated Serbs(i.e. my neighbour Nikola) leave Serbia wishing never to go back there.
Further more, these kind of policies brought majority of people of Serbia in to be shamed of their national identity. If anyone wanders why the war broke out in Balkans, why Serbia is blamed Serbia for the recent wars and why NATO had to intervene Peter is the answer, don’t look any further.

If some of you brave Serbians want for those parts to be still in Serbia I would suggest for you to invest more since poverty brings to uprising

Why did they start rebellion in 2001. in Macedonia when they have everything there and Macedonian state doesn't have almost any control over them???They just want to grab teritories that don't belong to them,thats the whole point!

We have funded albanians for a long time, for decades. The result is that they mismanage funds and corruptly waste them. So, with in this in mind, I think we should not finance them. Though I think that the three municipalities in the article could and should get more investment, such as serbian monuments and other things of the sort, to show that it is Serbian and not Albanian.

Serboslav,
If thats the case, then I agree. Then what should Serbia do? Should Serbia keep what we have and their reluctant ways, or should they say, here is 15% of our land (minus N~ Kosovo) now leave us alone. Here in the US we say, if you don't like it here, leave. I guess there if they don't like it they leave, but with a part of your land.

I hope that the planned money does not include the policing cost for the region.

This is a case of regional development.

The fact is that the south of Serbia is the most under-developed in the whole of the country. People are paid low wages if they have jobs at all.

I'd even be willing to listen to a half logical nationalistic style argument - ie that since part of this area may be eventually ceded to Kosovo that it isnt worth paying for, but arguing that the whole of the south should be neglected because Serbian citizens of Albanian ethnicity will also benefit is beyond the pale.

The region is rife with smuggling and illegal activity. There are plenty of rich criminals there.

There's also been raids from Kosovo taking ethnic Serbs livestock and the Kosovo Albanians have done a lot of illegal woodcutting.

Peter, poor people have nothing to lose. We must lift the standard of living of those in Presevo et all if we want any chance of integrating them into Serbian society. What you are saying is madness at a time when Serbia is trying to convince the Albanians of Kosovo to remain within Serbia.

Why are you trying to destroy Serbia? Its exactly that type of attitude and unreasoned speaking that put us in the current situation that we’re in. Use your head man!

Peter, by NOT investing in the south, Albanians will look more towards Kosovo. If they feel Belgrade doesn't care about them, or if they are being sidelined because of their Albanian ethnicity, you can be sure they will look for ways out of Serbia, further fragmenting an already fragmented state.

It's time to end this nonsense of ethnic affirmative action and start treating everybody in the region equally.

It is in Serbia's interest to develop ALL areas of the contry regardless of what ethnic group forms a majority in any one area.Serbia would also be wise to develop an economic plan for Kosovo to impress the EU into investing funds there and thus marginalize the extremists.Slowly but surely the rational Europeans are awakening to the fact that the Kosovo political issue will resemble Cyprus.

Why not? It is part of serbia proper. I want to see Serbia to be like any other prospous european country from Vojvodina to Kosovo (N~Kosovo). I'm not sure but do these ethnic Albanians have ambitions to join Kosovo or rather stay in Serbia? Not the radicals but the ordinary people. I don't hate anyone but, I do hate people that wish me dead because I'm Serbian. Do these people feel the same toward us Serbs as the K~Albanians do? All Serbian citizens should live prosperously in Serbia. Lets resolve these issues and move forward. Serbia needs to improve the quality of life in Serbia and the ethnic Albanians must not be reluctant to try to work with them. When a person is 25 years old and looks like their 45 something is wrong. Let work together and make Serbia a great country! And stop teaching our children to hate each other. Thats where recosiliation & the road to peace start. We instill this hate in them and they grow up pre~racist.

Delije,
A nice thought that would fit almost anywere in the world exept for a region there a population is unthankful to its State and wants to join Kosovo for independence.

Matthew,

You mean that the serbian government should repeat the mistakes made by the yugoslavian one in the 60:s and 70:s? Investing billions of euros in a region that has no loyalty what so ever and only wants to become independent. Yes Kosovo is poor, but before the massive investments made by the yugoslavian federal budget in the 60:s and well into the 80:s they were at the same standards as their brothers in Albania. Equal only to Haiti in poorness.

Mike, you are a little naive, the albanians in Presevo valley ARE already looking to join Kosovo, regardless of what investments that are made by the serbian government...

To Srboslav:

Your comments is a contradiction in itself. You claim that Belgrade invested billions and billions into Kosovo and still the region is as poor as it can be. The math just doesn't work my friend. If Belgrade ever invested anything in Kosovo it was only to maintain its military infrastructure. Belgrade kept Kosovo by force and exercising force over 2 million of its own citizens, of course is expensive.

But let's go a little further with your argument. In unlikely event that Kosovo was to remain part of Serbia, are you saying that it would be a mistake on behalf of Belgrade to invest to improve the life of K-albanians and make them happy? I guess that's what you are saying which in turns automatically legitimizes the claim that K-albanians don't have and don't want to co-live with Serbia.

To Peter

You brought Macedonia as an example to support your comment. Unfortunately (for you) Macedonia is a place that clearly shows that once Albanians are treated equally it is very much possible for the entire society to progress, something that Serbia and entire its political clan misses. Albanians make up to 40% of population in Macedonia and it would have been fairly easy to crack the social structure. I just didn't happen...because there was no need for it.

“You mean that the serbian government should repeat the mistakes made by the yugoslavian one in the 60:s and 70:s?”

Srboslav, absolutely not, Tito’s philosophy of Weak Serbia – Strong Yugoslavia caused a great deal of the mess we’re in now. We need an effective way to raise their standard of living. Luciano can comment on the best way to do that.

As far as Macedonia goes, guess what guys? Those Albanians that live there who have a standard of living that is comparable to the West, also have a birthrate comparable to the West. Had we raised their standard of living in Kosovo way back when, maybe just maybe we wouldn’t be so out numbered there now.

We Serbs need to get smart about what’s in our best interest and the kind of messages we want to send to the outside world. Take a page from the Croatian Handbook, they got away with the biggest single incident of ethnic cleansing in the war AND brutally attacked their allies, the Bosniaks. Yet World Public Opinion is firmly on their side! Think about that, and ask yourself what are we doing wrong?

That being said, I would support a land swap of Presevo et all & Trepca for important and substantial concessions on our historical sites that represent the very cradle of Serbian civilization such as Pec & Decani.

Mathew, that will not work. The reason why is because everywhere one goes in Kosmet... there are serbian churches and monasteries. They're everywhere. We can't give up our heritage by saving just a few of the most famous ones.

Guys, you're all missing the big picture here, and definately misreading the article.

As far as the politician's comments go, i am glad to see what seems to be responsible governance...

Beyond any sort of silly arguments, I notice a maturity level in politics in Serbia that hasn't been seen in........well never..

And a side note, whatever you say against Albanians in the south, there's a Slovenian and Croat saying the exact same thing about a Serb..You need to get over your inferiority complexes!!!

I agree with Mike and Matthew in regards to investing and future.

Unfortunately, the farther south you go, the greater the poverty. Poverty doesn't have a national identity.

why would serbian people give money to a province that does not belong and that has been independent for years. serbian laws and authority and army and police does not exist there besides the albanians are doing whatever they can to kickout the rest of the serbs from there sending money there is purely for cruption reasons becouse serbian gov. (some of them) would sell their mother for the right amount of money,that is why they lost the south to the albanians.

I see some resonable coments from pro serb camp and I comend them for that, but not the Peter and his friends.

“We can't give up our heritage by saving just a few of the most famous ones. (Lazar, 24. August 2007 23:36)”

Lazar, I certainly don’t like the idea of giving up any of Kosovo either. However, what do we do? Clearly we can not protect the Churches through force alone. We must change Albanian perspective of our Churches from one of personal liability to that of economic necessity. It’s a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation. We’ve already lost a number of Churches.

It would be great if we could retain Kosovo and integrate the Albanian population into our society. I do support Princip’s vision for a future Kosovo, but I just can’t see how it would be truly practical or how we might possibly accomplish that. Retaining Kosovo without changing attitudes towards our Churches is not a win, it’s a lose.

Here we have the opportunity to show the Albanian what it might be like for them to live in Serbian society. If we are able to truly bring the Presevo Albanians into our embrace and treat them like equals, it would do much for our argument that the rest of Kosovo could live in peace with us. Improving the lives of the Presevo Albanians is the single best thing we can do for our cause.

Being proud of Serbia and our history and culture does not mean we must hate Albanians. If anything it’s proved very destructive to our cause.

Ahmet, now you sound like an Albanian leader of the future, one that I might even be able to support. We can disagree on politics, but the use of hatred as a political tool is over and is only self destructive for both sides. I may be a “nationalist” in many ways, but I promise you I want what’s best for your people AND mine. Do not forget your future in the EU is going to be dependant on how you handle your minorities. The sooner your people recognize that, the sooner your period of “supervision” will be over. I realize you’ve led a relatively radical life, but that is coming to an end soon. Soon, you will no longer be able to use Serbs as scapegoats for the problems in Kosovo, and the hard work will begin. Are you ready to take your political views to the next level? Have you prepared for what is to come?

Ahmet, just out of curiosity, do you think maybe Haradinaj was sent to the Hague because he did not join the KLA’s political party, and instead choose to align with Rugova and therefore became an obstacle to Ceku and the KLA’s plans? I would be very curious to hear your impressions on Haradinaj’s split with the KLA. Is Haradinaj possibly a moderate?