Milicevic: The census will be used for political purposes, there was no will for it to be inclusive

The Executive Director of the NGO "Aktiv," Miodrag Milicevic, says that the census results will undoubtedly be used for political purposes, and the key oversight is that the process was not inclusive, especially concerning non-Albanian communities.

“If we look at the obligations and the impact it has and will have after the official results are published, it will certainly be exploited for political purposes. In practice, precisely because of all these shortcomings, including the part of the north that will be completely excluded, despite the assurances from the Kosovo side that the census would be fully implemented. This is not happening in practice. We will end up with partial results that will carry, I am sure, political consequences, including perhaps even a reassessment of the Ahtisaari Plan, which is actively included in the Constitution of Kosovo and offers constitutional guarantees to the Serbian and other non-majority communities living in Kosovo,” Milicevic told Kosovo Online.

He assessed that the questionnaire presented to the Serbian community was "scandalous," from the translation to the problematic questions, indicating a fundamental disrespect for the rights guaranteed by the constitution and laws to minority communities.

“It is scandalous that such a questionnaire and the content of such a questionnaire would be published. This is a scandal in itself and speaks not only to the quality of the translation, which is a technical issue, but more about the respect for the rights of a community. This points to a much larger fundamental problem, which is the disrespect for the rights guaranteed by the constitution and numerous laws and other mechanisms to a community, in this specific case – the Serbian community,” Milicevic emphasized.

He said that the NGO “Aktiv” had conducted extensive research and had offered the authorities in Pristina a set of recommendations that should have been implemented before the census, but none of these suggestions had been taken into account.

This resulted, he stressed, in citizens not being familiar with the details or the obligations that this process entails, even at the end of the census.

“On the other hand, the Agency of Statistics, including the government of Kosovo, did not even try to introduce a series of necessary measures to make the census fully inclusive. This means that it absolutely had to include all those who gravitate outside Kosovo and who have never had the opportunity to return to Kosovo for numerous reasons, mainly safety reasons. Here I am referring to displaced persons,” Milicevic said.

He added that, on the other hand, the Kosovo diaspora had been fully included in the census process, including the chapter related to the census of war damages from 1998 and 1999.

He emphasized that this chapter was also contentious because it had included only the war damages up to June 1999.

“And we know that there were consequences even after that date, in 1999, 2000... 2004...,” Milicevic pointed out.

Commenting on the translations of the questionnaires into Serbian, he said that this was not new as it had happened before, but it was incomprehensible that it had been carried over to documents related to the population census.

“So, once in ten years, you have an action, something fundamentally important, and there should be absolutely no irregularities, especially regarding the technical aspect that would allow someone to publish such a document with a scandalous translation. This is something that should have been corrected much earlier. Proofreaders should have done their job properly. I am not only referring to translators but also to proofreaders. Someone had to approve the publication of such a document. It is unnecessary to interpret individual questions in the document, not even the justification that the Albanian questionnaires were not the best. Such a document should not have been published before it was ensured that it was grammatically translated and aligned with all rules in a proper way,” Milicevic said.

Asked how the census results might affect the north that boycotted the process and whether a smaller number of residents living there would be artificially presented, Milicevic emphasized that the bigger problem was the mass departure of Serbs.

“For years, we have been warning the wider public and key authorities in both Kosovo and Serbia and the international community that this process is happening on a massive scale and that it will leave us with a significantly smaller number of people and citizens if this trend continues,” Milicevic said.

He emphasized that this process had begun from the moment the government had changed in Kosovo.

“What has been happening in the last few years, from the moment the government changed in Kosovo until today, has incredibly accelerated the pace of migration. Today we are talking about the sheer survival of a small number of people. If this trend continues, they will be completely marginalized in political and any other sense, without any real influence on the quality of life and political processes, as has been the case in previous years. This is not good for anyone. It is not good for the concept of a multi-ethnic Kosovo, nor for the dialogue process, and least of all for the attempt to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina, which should essentially open the way for ultimate normalization and establish greater trust among the citizens within Kosovo,” Milicevic emphasized.

He warned that the authorities in Pristina were doing nothing to stop the migration process.

“Numerous decisions, especially the latest ones from the Government of Kosovo, starting with the ban on importing goods, the ban on using the dinar, without a concrete solution for all those people who receive their salaries in dinars. This absolutely does not contribute to stabilizing the situation, but on the contrary, it accelerates migration, which is not being discussed at all, on all levels, and not only in the north,” Milicevic concluded.