“People in Dren woke up and saw construction machines that had never been in their village before, plowing their land. Citizens are rightly outraged! There is no place where they can receive information. The government is not saying anything. It is hiding things and keeping silent. The government does not even give explanations to the local administration. This is because the government does not consider the local government as a partner or its ally, and the government is right about that. No one can be a partner in such a venture! No one will support the government in seizing from you what your family has owned and used for generations. The land that your grandfather, great-grandfather bequeathed to you!“ – reads the message of the representatives of Leposavic locals whose land is being expropriated by the Kosovo government.
Their only request is to return to the previous state of affairs, to reverse the actions taken, for the police, and construction machines to be removed from the site and to allow the villagers to use their land as they have always used it.
The decision of the Kosovo authorities in mid-January to expropriate a hill covering over 83 ha of land in the Leposavic municipality greatly disturbed residents of the north. The land in question falls under two cadastral zones – the villages of Dren and Lesak, both privately-owned and state-owned land. This was actually one of many decisions on expropriation made by the Kosovo government, and in actuality, over 138 ha of land in the north of Kosovo has been expropriated by Pristina over the last few months. This is also the first decision over which a public discussion was held, although the Kosovo authorities have claimed otherwise.
After the EU reacted in early February, publicly pointing out the shortcomings of the process, the Kosovo government made a decision on the same day to hold public discussions on February 15th and February 21stinLeposavic and Zubin Potok, but only after the government confirmed that it had made the decisions.
Plots of land are being expropriated in the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, where special police bases are under construction.
Locals in both municipalities share a common experience – they were not informed about the expropriation in advance, no public discussion was held, and one day, they suddenly found machinery and heavily armed police on their properties.
A public discussion was held in Leposavic today. It passed peacefully, with occasional emotionally-charged speeches by affected citizens. Their legal representatives, CSO representatives, as well as the former mayor of Leposavic, Zoran Todic, spoke at the discussion.
If only you came sooner, no one believes in the honest intentions of the government
After the representatives of the Expropriation Department of the Kosovo government read the decision of the Kosovo government at the beginning of the session, an opening speech was given by lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic, a representative of the owners of expropriated land.
„Thank you for coming and if only you came earlier,“ he said.
He pointed out that all interested parties in this process are „associates and partners“.
„However, due to the mysterious and secretive nature of theprocedures that the government carried out, we are not partners. It is difficult now to imagine that we have the same goal. No one in this room, unfortunately, believes that the government’s intentions are honest. And it’s not the fault of anyone from here. The government carried out this procedure secretly, without notifying residents. Even today, we have not received an answer from you – what is the legitimate public goal, what does the government want to build,“ Vlajic said in his opening speech.
„How can we dispute the existence of a public goal if we don’t know what will be built?“ he queried.
Pointing out the government’s explanation that the expropriation is related to economic development, Vlajic stressed that it „doesn’t mean anything“.
Are you building an amusement park or a police or military base? Nobody told us anything
He added that a policeman, probably “by accident”, told the citizens two weeks ago that he was securing works on the construction of a border police base.
„Did the government explain what are the border police and their base doing between15 and 10 km from the border? As you said it yourself, Mr. Murati, that main goal must be justified. And if we don’t know what the goal is, we can’t even evaluate its justification,“ Vlajic emphasized.
Recalling part of the presentation of the representatives of the Expropriation Department in which they cited previous expropriations in other municipalities – noting that highways and schools were built on those plots, Vlajic said that it is clear that everyone needs highways or schools.
„You don’t need to convince us of it. But you need to convince us what is the purpose of a police or military base in a small village?! What is the public interest when no one wants it?! Who does it benefit?!”
In his words, the government started this expropriation by not adhering to any of the prescribed rules or procedures.
This cannot be done in that way, it is the grossest violation of human rights
„I call on you to give any example that excavators started digging other people’s private land in the southern part of Kosovo without the owners being informed about it. That has never happened and should never happen, but it happened here. People in Dren woke up and saw construction machines that had never been in their village before plowing their land. Citizens are rightly outraged! They have no place where they can get information. The government is not saying anything. It is hiding things and keeping silent. The government does not even give explanations to the local government. This is because the government does not consider the local government as a partner or as its ally, and the government is right about that. No one can be a partner in such a venture! No one will support the government in seizing from you what your family has owned and used for generations. The land that your grandfather, and great-grandfather bequeathed to you!”
On the other hand, Vlajic also reminded that all towns were built precisely with the help of the Law on Expropriation.
He underlined that when someone’s home was demolished to build a skyscraper, the owner of that house would get an apartment.
“What will these people get?! They will get a barracks five or ten meters from their yards. Where dozens and hundreds of heavy vehicles will go in and out daily. Where tens and hundreds of policemen, and soldiers, will work day and night! They will get barbed wire and five-meter-high concrete walls, spotlights that shine all night long! It will get to the point where girls will not be allowed to go outside. There are water sources on that privately-owned confiscated land! So, we will get a base on land where there have been water sources for 50 years. People and cattle drink water from that land. When anything is built there, they will run out of water!”
The representatives of the Expropriation Department then noted that this is a proposed, not the final expropriation, to which Vlajic replied that he was talking about the proposal, while the locals remarked that the works had already been launched.
„In any case, if this proposed expropriation goes ahead, the way of life in this village will be absolutely changed and destroyed. There will be no more life there,“ added Vlajic.
To Murati’s remark that the goals of expropriation cannot be achieved in a different way, this lawyer said that he is convinced they can.
„First of all, we do not know if the government has even considered such a possibility. Secondly, it is clear that there is a large area of the state and public land everywhere. Why does anything have to be built in the center of the village?! Let them find some other place. No one could prevent that, nor does anyone want to prevent it. What are they doing here?!“
According to Vlajic, this indicates that there is no public interest, because private interest is more important than the public, and the public interest in this case remains unknown.
He emphasized that the infrastructure project must be of public importance, and that until it is announced what will be built, the public importance of such a project cannot be gauged.
Vlajic reminded that the Law on Expropriation is one of the strictest laws in Kosovo, and that it provides obligations for the bearers of expropriation – in this case the government, but also the rights of those whose land is being expropriated.
„The government completely ignored its obligations. It held a public discussion today, but the first decisions for the villages of Bistrica and Kosutovo were made more than half a year ago. If the government had honest intentions, it would have held a public discussion back then. That’s why I said that there is no honest intention on the part of the government, that is, we don’t see any,“ Vlajic said, citing further obligations that the Kosovan government failed to carry out:
„It should have informed residentsand the municipality, it should have published the decision on expropriation in a daily newspaper, in the language of the citizens affected by this, to publishdecisions and to give them the right to participate in that procedure.“
While citizens can claim their rightto participate in this procedure, but no one informed them. But they saw what was going on
He also confirmed that the lawsuit was filed to declare the preliminary decision on expropriation illegal, and to establish that there is no special public interest and suspend the expropriation procedure.
„We are aware of the citizens’ right to compensation. However, that is not the reason why these people are here today. Nobody needs a few hundred or a thousand euros. They did not file a lawsuit for the money. They sued because they could not accept this expropriation. They want the whole situation, let’s put it simply, to return to the previous state, to cancel the actions that have been carried out, to remove the police, construction machines and everyone else from the site and for them to use their land as they have always used it. That is the only request of the citizens.”
Vlajic’s allegations were denied by Murati, who claimed that the decision was published in the Official Gazette, that the public discussions were announced, and that each owner was sent the decision in the Serbian language, along with the Law on Expropriation and Administrative Instructions in the Serbian language, as well as other necessary documents. They also purportedly informed the former mayor, but the envelope was returned, as well as several other envelopes sent to other citizens. He explained the procedure, underlining that it was „only a preliminary decision.“ Furthermore, Murati pointed out that a road was being built and an optical cable was being laid on the expropriated land.
Read more:
CSOs demand that the Kosovo government stop all projects on expropriated land
EU is concerned over the works in LP, asks the government to respect the law and property rights
Locals protest a border police station is being constructed on expropriated land in Leposavic
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
