Albanians taking over Serbian town outside of Kosovo, from
Transitions Online: First Kosovo, Then Prokuplje?.
TRANSITIONS ONLINE: Serbian Press:
First Kosovo, Then Prokuplje?
by BBC Monitoring
22 February 2007
One Serbian newspaper delivers the shocking rumor that houses in a southern Serbian town are being bought by Albanians.
PROKUPLJE, Serbia | While Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] Serbs are waiting with trepidation the settlement of the province's status, their compatriots on the other side of the "administrative boundary line" are worried about ethnic Albanians' "designs" on the Toplica area. What until recently was only a suspicion expressed in unconfirmed rumours about Albanians buying houses and apartments in this area, primarily in Prokuplje and Kursumlija, has lately grown into increasingly frequent claims by local people, with new details and particulars.
In the competent institutions in the Toplica District they explain that these are practically impossible to prove, because the purchases, if they are in fact occurring, are mostly done in secret; they neither confirm nor deny these claims made by the people.
"I recently parked my car in the Djurevacki Put locality outside a house whose owners are abroad. However, their next-door neighbour cautioned me that 'the house has been sold to an Albanian and that I should be careful lest I should lose my car.' The same thing happened to a few neighbours that could not find parking space elsewhere and so tried to park their cars outside the house in question," an unnamed concerned resident of this locality told
Vecernje novosti, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In an effort to learn how far their suspicions were justified and after much asking around, a dozen or so local people that we contacted told us that about 50 houses in Prokuplje have been sold in this manner. They say that real estate transactions between Serb owners and Albanian buyers are handled by a lawyer in Bijelo Polje, Montenegro, who is not here to feel the possible consequences of the local people's dissatisfaction. They say that the owners of the houses, too, are protected, because they "either do not live in Toplica or have no intention of remaining here."
"Although I have no concrete proof, I am almost certain that transactions of this kind do take place. The more so since residents that have done so are hiding it, fearing their fellow residents' ostracism," Prokupac Mayor Vladimir Jovanovic told us. We received similar answers also from competent people in numerous public institutions in Toplica, as well as from local people, who attribute the sale of houses and apartments to the difficult economic situation. They say that years of emigration from the area due to economic collapse and underdevelopment play into the hands of the Albanians and make their job easier; also, that the Albanian purchasers' purpose is served by favourable prices as much as the present moment for attaining their political plans.
"This area is ethnically homogenous and so Albanians are determined to destabilize this area, too, since it is public knowledge that they have been aspiring for centuries to appropriate Toplica," leaders of the Kursumlija and Prokuplje municipalities say, adding that the competent government institutions must take action if the problem is to be solved.