Serbs in Kosmet are torn between calls by representatives of Serbian parties to boycott the census and threats of serious fines for those who do not want to be registered. A special problem is that the consequences of the war are listed, but only up to June 1999.
The population, household and apartment census began on April 5 in Kosovo and will last until May 17. And while the Serbian List called on Serbs to boycott the census, fines are foreseen for those who do not want to be registered.
Jovana Radosavljević from the non-governmental organization New Social Initiative says that adequate conditions have not been met for conducting the census, but that a boycott is not a realistic option.
"At least six months before the census, each municipality had to have established census commissions that reflect the demographic structure of the environment in which the census is conducted." It is questionable whether this was fulfilled in the beginning, especially now that in certain municipalities in Serbian areas some of the enumerators quit their jobs. Thus, the Serbs will face the circumstances in which they will be enumerated by the Kosovo Albanians, and the questionnaires themselves are particularly problematic. First of all, because they are in Latin and because the translation into Serbian is, to say the least, inaccurate. In many cases, even the questions and answers do not make sense," Radosavljević points out for "Vreme" and adds that the Serbs are in an even more difficult position due to the fact that even for providing incorrect information in the census, penalties are provided.
"It is particularly worrisome that the fines for non-participation or providing incorrect information in the amount of up to 2.000 euros are mentioned," our interlocutor points out.
Apart from the technical problems with the structure of the questionnaire itself, Radosavljević also points out that the information campaign that preceded the census was insufficient. That is why, she points out, many citizens are not familiar with the fact that the census has started and what it looks like.
War damage questionnaire
In the population census conducted by the Agency for Statistics of Kosovo, there is also a questionnaire on "war damage", in which the first question is whether the family being counted suffered economic damage as a result of the war. Whoever answers this question in the affirmative will have to mark the municipality in which he lived during the war, and then also estimate the amount of damage.
The next questions are whether the household that is the subject of the census had people killed, injured, imprisoned and missing during the war. Each such person will be listed individually. It will also be listed if the family suffered violence, torture and if the family members suffered psychological consequences during the war. But only until June 1999.
"The most problematic thing is that there is a questionnaire related to war compensation, which is a completely new practice. It includes the period until June 1999 and thus excludes the Serbian community and other non-majority communities that suffered serious material and non-material damage," explains Radosavljević.
"All this calls into question whether the census can be carried out and what the results of the census will be." On the one hand, we have political parties of Kosovo Serbs who called for the postponement of the census or a boycott. On the other hand, citizens find themselves in a situation where on the one hand they have such messages from political representatives, and on the other they have a serious fear that they will be financially punished if they do not participate in that census".
Fear of a decrease in the number of Serbs
Belgrade has not yet spoken out about the census, but Srpska Lista said that Serbs will not participate in the "fake census" whose goal is "ethnic cleansing of everything Serbian from these areas."
"I think there is a fear of political representatives, maybe even official Belgrade, that we will get a true picture of how many Serbs remain in Kosovo." We can say that this number is alarmingly low, especially in the last few years since there has been a serious outflow of people from Kosovo, primarily due to the security situation," emphasizes Radosavljević and adds that the number of inhabitants is crucial for determining the municipal budget.
"It is a special problem because municipal budgets are formed based on the population, so these municipalities will also be seriously deprived of the support that comes from the central level," concludes Radosavljević.
The last census in Kosovo was carried out in 2011 and was not carried out in four municipalities in the north, and in other majority Serb municipalities, Serbs participated only partially. According to that census, about 1,8 million people lived in Kosovo. Of these, more than 1,6 million declared themselves as Albanians, while the number of Serbs who did not boycott the census was around 25.000, which is 3,4 percent.
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