Can Pristina continue with the process of confiscating the land of the Serbs in the north?

The Government of Kosovo has launched a new Draft Law on expropriation, in which it included training grounds, barracks, telecommunication lines for military, police and other security bodies in the construction of infrastructure facilities of public interest, including the areas and land around the facilities themselves. The interlocutors of Kosovo Online claim that Pristina, by amending that law, wants to continue seizing Serbian land in the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, and to justify, as they claim, illegal expropriation.

The law on expropriation, which is still in force, allows the expropriation of land for the construction of infrastructure facilities of public interest, which refers to the construction of hospitals, schools, streets, bridges, waterworks, factories.

Despite this, the Government of Kosovo decided on February 1 to start construction of police bases on the usurped property of Serbs from the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok.

The residents of those municipalities and the owners of the plots said then that they would not allow bases for special units of the Kosovo Police to be built on their land, after which they filed a lawsuit against that decision of the Kosovo government.

The former mayor of Leposavic, Zoran Todic, pointed out that the decision on expropriation in the north was illegal and against the will of the land owner.

He stated that with the expropriation, legal violence was carried out with the use of armed force against the Serbs from the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, from which it can be concluded that all newly built objects on the seized Serbian land are illegal.

"Although from the very beginning we pointed out the legal violence and illegality of the actions of the government from Pristina, today it is more than clear that all the previous decisions regarding the expropriation of land on cadastral plots in the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, as well as the construction of buildings, i.e. police bases on those cadastral plots, illegal, discriminatory and, what I must mention, against the will of the owners of the land plots as well as the majority of the Serbian population. By decisions from January and February this year, the authorities from Pristina grossly violated their own valid legal regulations and procedures, and what I must mention is that they implemented and tried to implement all these first-law decisions with the use and engagement of special police units armed to the teeth exclusively Albanians, which also contradicts the valid legal acts, because the ethnic structure of the constitution in these municipalities is on the side of the majority Serbian people, from which it is simply concluded that in this case classic legal violence was carried out with the use of armed force against the landowners as well as to all other residents of these municipalities. Also, it can be concluded from everything that all these newly built facilities and police bases on this usurped and stolen land are illegal," said Todic.

According to him, the fact that the Kosovo government included in the procedure the new Draft Law on Expropriation shows that Pristina will not give up on the usurpation of Serbian property, regardless of the reaction of the international community.

"Bearing in mind that against all these illegal decisions on land expropriation lawsuits have been filed with the competent judicial authorities, which until today have not declared themselves in the cases, regardless of the views and opposition of the owners and holders of property rights over the land parcels in question to be taken away from them property, regardless of the position of part of the international community and certain international organizations and their announcements, which emphasize the importance of respecting basic human rights, the right to enjoy one's own property and pointing out the importance of respecting the law, bearing in mind behavior, actions and undertakings in many cases the unilateral moves and actions of the authorities from Pristina in the past two years, as well as the knowledge that the government has included in the procedure the draft of the new law on expropriation, everything indicates that Pristina will not give up its intentions and processes to seize and usurp property and land in our municipalities", added Todic.

He stated that, in order to proceed with the procedure of land expropriation, the reason and the goal for which all these actions are being undertaken must be clearly stated, that is, it must be stated what is the public interest for which it is necessary to expropriate the land.
"However, in this case where property and land were usurped and confiscated in the subject cadastral zones in the municipality of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, the government from Pristina, referring to the law on expropriation that is in force, states in one sentence that all these procedures are initiated due to construction infrastructure facilities of public interest, for which it is clearly indicated in one of the articles of the law what these facilities are and when it is applied - construction of facilities for education, health, construction of roads, roads, streets, bridges, water supply, sewage systems, factories and production facilities etc", emphasized Todic.

According to him, it is obvious that with the new law on expropriation, Pristina intends to legalize the seizure of buildings and land of Serbian hosts and to legalize the construction and construction of new police and military bases for the needs of special units.

"What is even more worrying is that with this new law, Pristina can usurp and seize any facility and piece of land that it deems necessary for the implementation of something and some plan that is of public interest for Pristina, in this case the construction of new police and military base, which implies the additional militarization of four municipalities in the north. All this is indicated by an article of the draft of the new law on expropriation, which states that the legitimate public interest refers to facilities, training grounds, barracks, telecommunication lines for military, police and other security bodies, including and the areas and land around the buildings themselves. There is no doubt that this is another one-sided, thoughtless and extremely shameful intention of the authorities from Pristina, which is directed against the attitudes and will of the majority Serbian population, which will surely further worsen the already bad situation on the ground that we have in these four municipalities in the north," says Todic.

He emphasizes that the interest of even one resident of the municipalities in the north has never been, nor will it ever be, to build any kind of police or military base on the seized land.

"I assert this with certainty, and this is the attitude and opinion of every resident of our municipalities, which must be kept in mind. Certainly, all this does not contribute to building trust and normalizing the entire political and security situation we currently have," said Todic.

According to Todic, Pristina's goal is to legalize with a new law and continue according to its own rules the usurpation and seizure of Serbian land, as well as to deal with the Serbian people who want to live on their land.

"They are not a threat to anyone, they just calmly but decisively let everyone know that they are defending their country, their heritage and clearly said no to the kidnappers," said Todic.

As he emphasized, if there is concern that Pristina will continue to achieve its intention, all legal measures will be taken to protect Serbian land.

"If Pristina continues with legal violence and continues with the seizure of property, we will stand by our people, our hosts, the owners and heirs of the land, as we did a few months ago, we will engage lawyers and legal teams and, with the help of all legal mechanisms, challenge and oppose Pristina's intentions in land grabbing. We will certainly appeal again to all international missions, embassies and the European Union to prevent this imminent legal violence. I will repeat, the Serbian people are not a threat to anyone, but they will certainly not allow and calmly watch their land being stolen. If not "If there is understanding for the views of the land owners and the rest of the population of our municipalities in Pristina and the representatives of international missions, we have nothing else left but to stand together, by all democratic means, against the seizure of land," concluded Todic.

Dusan Radakovic from the Center for the Representation of Democratic Culture pointed out that the Government of Kosovo will continue to violate the Law on Expropriation regardless of the fact that the land it is expropriating is a source of income for Serbs.
"Pristina will continue to violate the Expropriation Laws and the confiscation of land from the Serbs in the north will continue, because a solution can always be found that something is a priority for the Government and something that is important for security, something that is in a good strategic position and from where they can they supervise and monitor the situation in the entire north of Kosovo. It doesn't matter that that land was what Serbs used to live on," says Radakovic.

As he adds, it is worrying that the international community is silent on such decisions of the Government of Kosovo.

"What I worry about is that the international community sees as little interference as possible in all this, and we can have big problems on the ground. It doesn't even respond to the complaints that arrive every day, and I think they have become useless, that's how it has been for the last few years , unfortunately. The international community does not want to interfere, but left everything to Kosovo's institutions," said Radakovic.
In his opinion, the locals should continue the fight by all legal means, through the media, through pressure on the Government, and even reach Strasbourg when possible.

The representative of the owner whose land was usurped, lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic, pointed out that there is no new information about the amendment of the Law on Expropriation, but that, in any case, there are no objective reasons for it.
"The law that is in force allows expropriation, but with strictly defined conditions that the Government of Kosovo did not respect. If that is why they are changing the law, I would say that the reason is to cover the illegality that was done," said Vlajic.

When asked whether the Kosovo government could continue with the usurpation of land by amending the mentioned law, Vlajic states that it makes its own decisions and that past events indicate that "it can do whatever it wants".

"The government is all-powerful and they have proven many times that they do not pay attention to the regulations that they have made themselves, if a regulation bothers them, they ignore it, as in this case. If that is not enough for them, they change the law. That means that they can do whatever they want. We filed lawsuits against those decisions, but the courts still haven't decided on it," said Vlajic.

He stated that he will decide on further steps when and if the Law on Expropriation is amended.

"People are dissatisfied, they don't put up with it. It's not about compensation for confiscated land, none of the owners want their money. They want the land returned to them, to use it unhindered. This must be taken care of. If The government of Kosovo wants to build certain facilities, there is plenty of municipal land, so let them build there, they don't have to usurp private land," concluded Vlajic.