RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 145, Part II, 2 August 2004

ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA SEEK AUTONOMY.

The leaders of the three main ethnic Albanian opposition parties in southern
Serbia
announced in Presevo on 30 July that they have agreed on a joint
program calling for regional autonomy for the Presevo Valley with the
right to join Kosova, with which the area was linked in pre-communist
times, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported.
The leaders said that the unspecified "anti-Albanian activities of
the Serbian authorities" left them with no choice. Many ethnic
Albanians still refer to the region as "eastern Kosova." In Belgrade,
Serbian Prime Minister Kostunica's advisers Slobodan Samardzic and
Aleksandar Simic said that the proposed program is unnecessary,
adding that the situation of the Albanians in the Presevo Valley
cannot be compared to that of the Serbs in Kosova, which is far
worse. Dusan Janjic of Belgrade's Forum for Ethnic Relations said
that the proposed platform resembles that of the former guerrillas in
the region and could lead to a serious crisis. PM

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO'S FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS ON SERBS TO VOTE IN
KOSOVA'S ELECTION.

 Vuk Draskovic said in Belgrade on 31 July that
members of Kosova's Serbian minority should vote in the province's 23
October parliamentary elections, the "Southeast European Times"
reported. He said that plans by some local Serbian leaders and
Serbian Prime Minister Kostunica for the Serbian minority to boycott
the vote help nobody. Draskovic called on Serbs to protect their
interests by filling the up to 30 seats to which they are entitled to
in Kosova's legislature. The previous day in Brussels, a spokeswoman
for EU foreign- and security-policy chief Javier Solana stressed that
participating in the elections is the best way for all ethnic groups
to defend their respective interests, RFE/RL's South Slavic and
Albanian Languages Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 and 30
July 2004). The OSCE announced in Prishtina on 1 August that 4 August
is the deadline for political parties to register to participate in
the 23 October vote. PM