Posted on 07/30/2002 10:52:50 AM PDT by Dragonfly
Serbia: Serbs Leaving Sandzak
Departure of Serbs from Sandzak believed to be triggered by policies of Bosniak nationalists
By IWPR staff in London (BCR No 353, 26-Jul-02)
Serbs are beginning to leave the predominantly Muslim Sandzak region of south-west Serbia after losing public sector jobs, local Serb representatives say.
Some Serbs estimate that around 1,000 members of the community in the largest town in the region, Novi Pazar, have left over the last couple of years. New For Sale signs appear on Serb homes and land throughout the region almost daily.
More departures could have serious implications for the stability of the country, with some predicting a possible nationalist Serb backlash.
The exodus is believed to have been prompted by the predominantly Muslim Party of Democratic Action, SDA, which has dismissed Serb managers in state companies and local authorities since coming to power two years ago.
Federal Minister for National and Ethnic Communities Rasim Ljajic, who leads the moderate Bosniak Coalition for Sandzak, told IWPR that "the reasons for Serb departures are economic but one certainly shouldn't overlook other reasons linked to the actions of the SDA."
Head of the Serbian Radical Party, SRS, municipal committee Milan Veselinovic is more blunt, "The extremist statements and actions of the SDA have resulted in a situation in which over 70 Serb houses in the very centre of Novi Pazar have been sold in the past two years. There the Serb proportion of the population has dropped from 22 to around 17 per cent. "
The SDA led by Sulejman Ugljanin has long called for Sandzak to be made a republic and in the past prominent party members have also talked of secession from Serbia and annexation to Bosnia.
Widely-publicised statements made by Ugljanin in the 1990s include "the Muslims are well-armed, they just lack tanks" (Globus, October 1992) and "Sandzak would become a new, Muslim autonomous region in Serbia that will even secede" (Novosti, November 1990).
This was a period when convoys of Bosniaks - which is how local Muslims describe themselves - were fleeing Sandzak for Sarajevo or Turkey, fearing that the war in neighbouring Bosnia would spread and they would be targeted by the Milosevic regime.
However, while there is no longer public talk of a republic, Milosevic's fall in 2000 and a general change in Belgrade's policy direction does not appear to have done much to alter SDA thinking.
In June this year, a public statement from a session of the regional executive body the Bosniak National Council of Sandzak, which has close links with the SDA, said, "There are no reasons for us to ingratiate ourselves either to Belgrade or Podgorica, or the international community because Sandzak must be a separate territorial unit".
Participants at the session also declared that they must not give up on an illegal referendum held in 1991, in which a clear majority voted for autonomy.
Serb directors in Novi Pazar to lose their jobs include the head of the town's culture centre Dusan Raicevic; Raco Vuckovic of the Toplane heating company; Elektroras director Mile Cvetic; and Miroljub Djokanovic, director of the firm, Vojin Popovic.
In turn, appointments to local government at the end of 2000 saw Ugljanin's personal secretary Vasvija Gusinac become mayor of Sandzak, his brother, Sadik, head of the executive committee and driver, Nedzib Hodzic, deputy major.
The only Serb in authority, municipal secretary Milijan Belic "is just for decor and the local Serbs do not recognise him as their representative," said Radenko Jokovic, head of the United Peoples Party, SNS, in the Raska district.
Like Ljajic, the head of the Liberal Bosniak Organisation, Kasim Zoranic, said the major motivation behind the Serb withdrawal was economic, "The price of real-estate in Novi Pazar is three times higher than that in other parts of Serbia."
An apartment in Novi Pazar costs approximately 750 euros per square metre compared with 400 euros in the central Serbian cities of Kraljevo and Kragujevac. A Serb who had shifted from Novi Pazar to Kragujevac, and who insisted on anonymity, agreed that there was a range of motives for Serb departures.
"There was always some tension felt at work. There was no open pressure but one could feel insecurity and some kind of fear in the air. Maybe more a feeling of uncertainty of what could happen and what the Novi Pazar authorities could do," he said.
"On the other hand the difference in the price of a flat sold in Novi Pazar and one bought in Kragujevac is quite alluring especially for those who are in a difficult financial situation."
Whatever lies behind the Serb departures, SDA-ruled local authorities are showing no interest.
Assistant to the head of the Novi Pazar municipal executive committee Kimeta Ramovic recently told a Sandzak news agency that they had neither information nor any comment on the migration.
That local Serbs have lost the backing they enjoyed during Milosevic's rule has been made clear by the fact that the current Serbian leadership has not held a single meeting with them since they came to power.
Such complacency is astonishing as there's a danger that if more Serbs leave Sandzak, Bosniak nationalists could press for their demands for autonomy provoking another Balkan crisis.
Jimer is right:legall or illegal,who cares???I see for the first time Sandzak Coat of Arms and don`t know what to do:laugh or cry?!The paradox of the bosnian and Sandzak Coat of arms is that both are nothing but a theft!!!Fleur de Liese used by the Bosnian Muslims was part of the Coat of Arms of Bosnian King Tvrtko Kotromanich(a Christian) whose state Ottoman Turks(Muslims) had destroyed in XV century!!!!!And now,that gang with Don Izetbegovich in charge is claiming the regalia of something that never belonged niether to them nor their religion????
BTW Jimer,Serbian Coat of arms is an old one:it was a Coat of Arms of the SOCIALIST Republic of Serbia,not the present Serbia.
The sad truth is that Ugljanin is a Turkish disciple who wants Serbs out,Bosnian language(Serbo-Croatian+20 Turkish words= NEW LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!!!)conection with Bosnian and Albanian Muslims= A Great Muslimania in the hearth of Europe!!!!!!
God Have Mercy on Serbs in their own country!
Thanks for the enlightenment. 'Wierd' is one way of putting it.
VRN
Why do you want to see more territory of Serbia eaten away anyway? Why support this movement in an area which you clearly know very little about (including its geography!)?
Yes it does.
Yes, we could have a samantic difference. The administrative regions, however, of Serbia are apparently called Autonomous Provinces (same concept).
Here is a page from their current constitution:
I agree with Jimer that if a group of people want to establish their iconography there is nothing to stop them!But,what I was trying to emphasize is a pure distortion and theft of somebody elses history and property,period!And,that process is deliberately condoned by Western media(for various reasons) and sold to the uneducated masses to justify the criminal behaviour of the West in Balkans!
For example,the name BOSNIANS used to describe Bosnian Muslims exclusively,to the ignorant Westerners sounds like Bosnians=indigenous population of Bosnia=Serbs invaders from Serbia=Croats invaders for Croatia=Muslims are the VICTIMS!!!!
But,the truth is exactly the opposite!Indigenous Bosnian populations from VII century were Serbs and Croats and a groupof Slavs that belonged to the Bogumil sect(also Christian)!!!!800 years later Ottoman Turks conquered Christian Bosnia destroyed the state and imposed Islam!Now their succesors Alia& Gang Inc. had enough cheek to desecrate old Coat of Arms and use it as their own!!!Bosnian Muslims are Indigenous population of Bosnia as I AM INDIGENOUS ENGLISHMAN IN COMPARISSON WITH KATE!I have ben here for the last 10 years she and her ancestors(I presume) for generations!
Sandzak:term Sandzak is a Turkish word meaning :region,county and is an administrative term!The real name was SANDZAK OF NOVI PAZAR but later the name of the town was deleted.After WWII Tito and servile Serbian Communist lidership had given a limited autonomy to the Sandzak (Admiinistrativna Oblast Sandzak) Administrative Region Sandzak but that was abolished in 1952,I think???Since then,Serbia was buchered and sliced like a pizza in ONLY(??) three parts ,and two aou of three(Kosovo and Vojvodina)vere working more or less openly against Serbia!
Now,we have Sandzak Muslims openly brandishing Bosnian,Turkish and Saudi flags in the hearth of ancient Serbian lands(Old Serbia or Rashka)demanding indenpendence and Sebian egzodus is underway,again,just like in 16.century,and 1941-45 and 91-95 and 99-.....
When will it stop???
I suppose,when there are no Serbs in Kosovo,Sandzak,Macedonia,Croatia....when all the traces of their long egzistence is erased from their ancestral lands,and all the signs of Christianity are extinguished...
Saddly,I think that current generations of Serbs don`t deserve anything better!
"Sandzak" can't border Serbia and Montenegro because it is in Serbia & Montenegro. It's like saying 'California borders the USA', or 'Bavaria borders Germany'.
Who's the regional governor of "Sandzak"? Which party has the most MPs in "Sandzak's" regional parliament?
So, your friend Jimer asked you to come here and post. OK. I still don't see the point, though. I am right; he is wrong. Your post, while appreciated, doesn't quite address the issue of CoAs and "Sandzak's" 'regionness'.
I knew it from Day 1 that he was a gastarbeiter.
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