Valley Albanians organize protest

Hundreds of ethnic Albanians from Serbia’s volatile south rallied Friday in the town of Preševo.

Izvor: B92

Friday, 15.06.2007.

10:16

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Valley Albanians organize protest

The protest was staged by the association of  Veterans of the Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB), an organization that rallies former Albanians who fought Serbian security troops during the 2000 insurgency. The conflict ended in 2001 with international mediation.

BIRN reports that the association’s head, Lulzim Ibishi, told some 500 protesters that the main goal of the Albanian minority in the area is to join Kosovo, in accordance with a 1992 referendum.

"Albanians have the right to decide about their faith, and we expressed our desires at the 1992 referendum,“ Ibishi told the crowd.

There were no incidents during the rally, which was supported by mayor Ragmi Mustafa, who is also the head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, and by Jonuz Musliu, the deputy mayor of neighboring Bujanovac and a former guerrilla commander.

"This is the legitimate will of Albanians, and soon we will officially forward our demand to the Serbian parliament to join Kosovo,“ Musliu told Balkan Insight.

Other key ethnic Albanian leaders from the region, Skender Destani and Riza Halimi, who is also a deputy in the Serbian parliament, distanced themselves from the rally.

Destani told Balkan Insight that the position of his supporters is "in accordance with the position of the Contact Group“, a group of Western powers and Russia, "that advocates for an independent Kosovo but without changes of borders“.

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