Friday, September 08, 2006

Kosovo town of Gnjilane seeks resignation of status Negotiating Team

Text of report by Radio-Television Kosovo TV website on 7 September

The town of Gjilane [Gnjilane] is in a state of anxiety over decentralization on ethnic lines in Kosova [Kosovo]. The political parties and entities in the municipality - the LDK [Democratic League of Kosovo], PDK [Democratic Party of Kosovo], AAK [Alliance for the Future of Kosovo], ORA, Self Determination Movement and NGOs - are strongly opposed to the Kosova Negotiation Team and especially Deputy Prime Minister Lutfi Haziri, as the main instigator of the partition of Kosova.

The Protest Council said they are calling for the resignation of the Negotiating Team because they are against the proposal it put forward for the division of Gjilane and the creation of new municipalities based on ethnic lines.

The representatives of political and civil society have called on the citizens to join in a mass protest against decentralization to be held on Saturday [9 September]. Head of PDK in Gjilane Qemajl Mustafa stressed that the proposal for decentralization will wall in Gjilane into 400 sq km with a population of around 130,000, while the municipalities, with around 12,000 dwellers, will get 230 sq km of land. Decentralization will remove from Gjilane a very large piece of its territory, it will take away its arable land and water resources and the town will be left with nothing; in addition to such decentralization plans, the main communication roads will be shut down, Mustafa added.

Source: RTK TV website, Pristina, in Albanian 7 Sep 06

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