SERBS FROM CENTRAL KOSOVO TOWN THREATEN TO LEAVE AREA OVER MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES
BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 15, 2005

Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 15 August

[Announcer] Kosovo Serbs from Caglavica [central Kosovo town near Pristina] definitely do not accept the Kosovo government's Plan B for decentralization, and they reject it because this is a perfidious attempt at ethnically cleansing Caglavica of Serbs, the representatives of the enlarged composition of the Caglavica presidency have said. The presidency says it believes the Plan will implement the deliberate division of unified Serb territory and cut historic and economic ties within the Serb community.

Gracanica [Serb enclave in central Kosovo] is a cultural, religious, historic and national centre for the Serbs, not only in central Kosovo, but also in the wider area. Caglavica is geographically reliant on Gracanica, and therefore around 1,300 Serbs from Caglavica will not accept a border with Gracanica, Gaglavica presidency representatives said. Dusan Stamenkovic has a report from there:

[Reporter] Unless top Serbian leaders lend support to the position of Serbs in the [Caglavica] village - that we remain a historic, religious and national whole with Gracanica - the Caglavica presidency will call on the people to collectively leave their hearths, because we do not agree to be only a tiny speck in an ethnically pure Pristina. We expect the UN secretary-general's special envoy for assessing Standards, Kai Eide, to realize that this is the intention of the Kosovo government's Plan B, and we expect him to propose that Caglavica, Laplje Selo, Preoce, Gracanica, Susica and Novi Selo villages are combined in a single municipality, that is, Gracanica.

We also expect the decentralization plan to be implemented as a whole, that is, without partial solutions such as envisaged by Plan B. In other words, we expect the number of existing municipalities in Kosovo to be established well in advance, including their exact territory and number of population, which assumes a population census and a list of exact authorities in the local self-administration [as heard].

The Caglavica presidency will submit these positions to UN special envoy Kai Eide, UNMIK chief Soeren Jessen-Petersen, Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija chief Nebojsa Covic, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Serbian President Boris Tadic, Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, Kosovo Ombudsman Marek Anthony Nowicki, and the Serbian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod.

Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1500 gmt 15 Aug 05

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