Vulovic wrote to Quint and international missions: In Kosovo, the property is being confiscated, rights are not valid

The former mayor of the municipality of Zubin Potok, Srdjan Vulovic, sent a letter to the ambassadors of the Quint countries, the heads of the EU Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, OSCE, EULEX, as well as the commander of KFOR regarding the decision of the Government in Pristina to expropriate land owned by the Serbs, all with the aim of building military and police bases in this municipality.

"I believe that you are aware that in the territory of the municipality of Zubin Potok, violent and illegal seizure of immovable property is carried out in seven different locations, most of which are privately owned, by the central authorities in Pristina with the aim of building military and police bases there some of which have already been built in Gornji Jasenovik and Banje. All this is carried out with bare force and without respect for the Law on Expropriation, the Constitution, but also the Convention on Human Rights with its protocol one, which is used with the convention. It is my duty to remind you, on my own behalf as the recent president of the municipality and on behalf of all the residents of the Zubin Potok municipality, to remind you of this once again," Vulovic stated in the letter.

He adds that the Convention on Human Rights, i.e. its protocol one, which is used with the convention, states in its first article that every natural or legal person has the right to the unhindered enjoyment of his property.

"No one can be deprived of his property, except in the public interest and under the conditions stipulated by the law and the general principles of international law. In addition, the Constitution grants property right, as well as the fact that no one can be arbitrarily deprived of personal property if it is not in accordance with the law. However, it is obvious that these rights do not apply to everyone, and equally in Kosovo, but depend exclusively on the arbitrariness of the current Government. As in the case of the property of the Decani monastery, so with regard to private property in the municipalities in the north of Kosovo," Vulovic added.

Vulovic points out that the construction of the base in Gornji Jasenovik started at the end of August last year, while with the decision 02/124 of 02.02.2023, the Government approved "further consideration of the request on its own initiative for the expropriation of real estate" on which the aforementioned special police base already exists as part of the "implementation of infrastructure projects of public interest".

"Although the Government is always trying to hide at all costs which projects are of public interest, nowhere can the intention and goal of all the expropriations in the municipalities of Zubin Potok and Leposavic be seen more clearly than in the case of Gornji Jasenovic, i.e. that it is a complete the militarization of northern Kosovo," the letter states further.

According to his words, the violent behavior of this Government, i.e. complete disregard for domestic legislation and international documents, called into question the rule of law, as one of the key preconditions.

"The illegal confiscation of property from persons of Serbian nationality aims to create a double standard, one that is established in respect of the law and international law that is reserved for the population of Albanian nationality and the other that is applied exclusively through the use of force and rifles against property and the population of Serbian nationality. The naked hypocrisy of this Government is reflected in the fact that in no provision of the Law on Expropriation is the possibility that the expropriation of immovable property can be carried out for the construction of military and police bases, which is why they avoid stating in their decisions what the public goal of expropriation is," Vulovic says.

Vulovic points out that the expropriation procedure is complex and includes various stages under strict rules that are intended, among other things, to protect the interest of the owner.

"However, the situation on the ground says something completely opposite, which is that the Government first usurped the real estate of the owners and built special police bases on them, which are already widely used, and then tried to justify it through legal procedures. It is a justified question, what is the reason for making retroactive decisions, by which the expropriation procedure is boarded several months after all the works on the construction of the police base in Gornji Jasenovik were carried out? Is the aim to fulfill a mere form or is the goal of legalizing violence? Legal violence carried out through this illegal expropriation procedure, which is contrary to all norms of domestic and international legislation, but also physical, with violence and rifles, usurpation of property and construction of police facilities on private plots," he adds.

Vulovic states that the Law on Expropriation (03/L-139) establishes the procedure, rules, and conditions under which the Government can carry out the expropriation procedure.

"Also, Article 4 provides that expropriation is directly related to the fulfillment of a legitimate goal, as well as that the selection of property to be expropriated is not done for the purpose of discrimination. While the third paragraph of the same article prescribes the purposes for which expropriation can be carried out. In violation of the aforementioned provisions of the Law on Expropriation, the government obviously aims to discriminate against the population living in the territory of the Zubin Potok municipality, because the decision cannot determine what the public goal is, but from the ground, it can certainly be concluded that the expropriation is not carried out with the aim of the economic well-being of the citizens, for the construction of roads, educational institutions or social protection. In addition, such illegal actions, i.e. violent usurpation of property, put the existence of the population in question, because the only source of income for some owners was the one they earned through the cultivation of agricultural land or deforestation on the land plots that were usurped from them," Vulovic says.

It emphasizes that with the adoption of the decision no. 02/124 of 02.02.2023 year, which approves the request on its own initiative for the expropriation of immovable properties located on the territory of the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, which allegedly aim to build infrastructure projects for the public interest, apart from directly violating the law, the Government shows that it does not even know for which parcels he wants to expropriate nor where they are actually located.

"For land plots from the Velji (Veliki) Breg cadastral zone that are located in the municipality of Zubin Potok, both in the last and in several previous decisions, the Government states that they are located in the municipality of Leposavic, and the question is rightly raised as to what kind of infrastructure projects these are for which even the Government does not know where it will be performed? This is another reason why such an illegal decision, which is not based on the correct factual situation, should be invalidated," Vulovic says in the letter.

Vulovic further recommends that everyone to whom the letter was addressed should compare whether in other parts of Kosovo, especially those bordering Albania, North Macedonia, or Montenegro, there are built border police bases located ten or more kilometers from the border zone, or if it is exclusively reserved for North Kosovo?

"Without too much trouble and relatively quickly, you will find out that there is none, that is, that the municipalities of Zubin Potok and Leposavic are unique in this respect, for the simple reason that by building these bases, they want to exert additional pressure on the local Serbs, with the aim of intimidating them to leave these places," he says.

As he says, he expects international partners to, on behalf of the democratic and civilized world they represent, unreservedly insist on the rule of law and the equal application of laws and international documents as a key attribute of every democratic society, i.e. that they cannot be selectively applied to the Serbian community in North of Kosovo.

"In addition, the Government's obligation to international partners is that the decisions it makes are in accordance with the law and that they aim at economic progress and general well-being for everyone, and not at the militarization of northern Kosovo and putting pressure on the remaining Serbs. The right to property in your countries is absolute and inviolable, therefore we expect you to demand that all started works should be stopped immediately and that the illegally built property should be removed and the property returned to the owners for free use," Vulovic says further in the letter.

In the end, he noted that the owners of the covered real estate, as well as all residents of the municipality of Zubin Potok, had no choice but to defend and protect their rights, which were recognized by the constitution, the law and all international documents, using all legal and other available democratic means.