Pristina is evicting Serbs from their apartments: We bought them legally, but for Kurti, the law doesn't apply

After a series of decisions by Kosovo authorities that directly threaten the interests of Serbs, Pristina has taken a new step these days. Serbs in northern Kosovo have received a notice from the Kosovo Privatization Agency to leave the apartments they received from the companies where they worked or still work and which they have purchased, and to hand them over to Albanians who once lived in those apartments but lost their ownership rights under the then-law when they left their jobs and did not buy the apartments.

At risk of losing their legally acquired homes are Serbs who received apartments from "Trepca", purchased them in accordance with the law, and thus became owners before 1999.

Among them is Aleksandar Milentijevic from Zvecan, who told Kosovo Online that he bought his apartment in November 1998 after being allocated it by "Trepca" through a competition.

"We purchased this property in 1998. I have a court-certified decision. Everything is legal. As a worker with 40 years of service, I received the apartment from the company. I was first on the ranking list," says Milentijevic.

He says the problems started 10-15 years ago, and even the police have come.

"There was a French organization that came here to evict me, but we protested, and they gave up," he recalls.

Milentijevic notes that his case is not isolated, as many others have received eviction notices with different dates, and no one wants to even look at the papers that confirm their ownership.

"The people are upset… I can't understand that I have a problem with an apartment that I legally purchased. We live in Kosovo, we are raising families. Where will we go now? I have no idea…," Milentijevic says worriedly.

Even certified decisions are not a guarantee that they will keep their apartments.

"We showed the papers, but they see nothing… They have a different law. What will we do with Kurti… For him, the law doesn't apply, nothing applies to him," he adds bitterly.

He explains that they received the apartments when the previous tenants, Albanians, left their jobs, thereby losing their rights to these apartments.

He particularly notes that the Albanians did not buy these apartments at that time.

"Nobody forced them to leave their jobs and apartments. These were unpurchased apartments, and 'Trepca' gave us a decision on unpurchased apartments. They left their jobs and apartments, and according to the law, the owner who does not live in them loses the tenancy rights, the company takes them away and allocates them to workers without apartments," says Milentijevic.

He hopes that the decisions made before the war and legally confirmed in court will have a fair outcome and that they will be able to stay in the apartments where they have lived for more than 25 years.

"We who have decisions from 1997/1998 hope that, with the support of the state, we will retain our rights. Everything was purchased. I don't know what they are looking for now… They have some other urban planning and land registry. The former owner has the support of the Kosovo authorities, they received some falsified papers. Given the decisions we have, they can't do anything to us. They did not purchase the apartments, and if you don't live in the apartment for a year or two, what more do you have to ask for… However, the court is theirs, we see what they are doing to the arrested Serbs… There is no court," Milentijevic concluded.

He also shows pictures of his burned house in the village of Rudnik. Albanians use the property in Rudnik, and he has never been able to reclaim it, even though it is registered in the Kosovo cadastre.

"I am from the village of Rudnik, near Pec. We lived there until the end of the war, and in 1997, we started building a new house. My father, brother, and I. We have a property, five hectares of land, three hectares of forest, and to this day, Albanians are working it. Even then, there was an agreement with the owner, Agim Voce, that since I didn't have the money to pay for the apartment, I would transfer the field in Rudnik, for which I was getting a million marks before the war. I didn't want to sell it because we lived well and didn't want to leave Kosovo," Milentijevic explains.

Even today, he says, he does not want to leave Kosovo.

"I suggested then, to the Frenchwoman who was mediating, that they work my land for 20 years. That she come with me to the village and pay me for the 20 years they have been working my land," says Milentijevic, showing documents according to which he received a decision on ownership of the property in Rudnik in the Kosovo system.

He still cannot access his property to this day.

The Bogosavljevic family faces the same problem; they received a decision that the apartment they have lived in for more than 30 years must be vacated and handed over to an Albanian.

The notice requesting them to leave the apartment arrived at the end of May.

"We have been here for 30 years. My father bought this apartment at the beginning of 2000. He was a worker at 'Trepca' and purchased the apartment," Bogosavljevic told Kosovo Online.

He doesn't know why this issue is being raised now.

"Someone has appeared who believes that the apartment is theirs, and I don't know why they didn't come forward earlier… We don't know where we'll go, we're fighting by all means to keep the apartment because it's ours, we have a decision. This is happening at the worst possible time for us. This is our apartment, no one had a decision for it before us. Some people lived here before us, but they didn't have the decision," Bogosavljevic explains clearly.

Two days ago, the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, pointed out that there is a political motive behind the eviction notices, stating that Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti continues to implement a policy of ethnic cleansing through the decision to evict Serbs from their apartments and settle Albanians in northern Kosovo.

Petkovic also said that the Office for Kosovo and Metohija has sent letters to numerous addresses.

"Through diplomatic channels, we are doing everything to stop this decision, but I must say that this agency was established contrary to the Brussels Agreement, which stipulated that people from Belgrade, Pristina, and the EU would be part of it. They are now unilaterally implementing decisions to evict Serbs and settle Albanians, which is being done together with fake Albanian mayors," said Petkovic.

He pointed out that this concerns more than 100 families, around 150 of them.

"Pristina does not implement decisions made in favor of Serbs, as there are over 29,000 requests before the UNMIK agency to return property to Serbs south of the Ibar. These requests are not being processed, but the requests of Albanians are," Petkovic indicated.

However, Serbs do not lose hope. They believe that justice will prevail and that they will be able to defend their rights in court and continue to live in the apartments they purchased about 30 years ago.