South Serbia Street Row Threatens Serb-Albanian Govt

All 23 Albanian representatives in the 41-strong local council decided on Tuesday that the 17 streets that bear the names of Serbian historical figures should be renamed after prominent Albanians.

Serb councillors walked out of the council meeting in protest and Stojanca Arsic, a local Serb leader and council deputy chairman, announced the Serbian parties’ withdrawal from power after two years and two months in coalition with the Albanian parties.

"This decision by the Albanians is a setback. It has taken the entire region a decade backwards and we can no longer cooperate with them," said Arsic of the United Regions of Serbia, URS.
Southern Serbia is still recovering from armed clashes between Serbian security forces and Albanian insurgents in 2000 and 2001 which ended after mediation by NATO and other international officials.

Boban Pavlovic, the leader of the local committee of Serbian President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party, DS, said that Albanians rejected the Serb proposal under which only the names of streets in which Serb residents are a minority would be changed.

"The Albanian majority decided to also change the names of streets solely inhabited by Serbs, which is something we could not accept," said Pavlovic.

The proposal to rename streets was launched in July last year by the newest party representing Albanians in southern Serbia, the Democratic Party (DP).

Nedzat Behljulji, the spokesman of the party which has five councillors in the local council, said the original idea was abused by other Albanian leaders.

"Our idea was only for the streets in which a majority of residents are Albanian to be named after our historical figures, and the Serbs agreed with this," he said.

"However, the other Albanian leaders proposed that the streets be named after individuals that Serbs are, rightfully, irritated by," said Behljulji adding that only one of the town's 65 street names currently has any connection to the Albanian community.

The proposal that particularly angered Serbs leaders was for the Gnjilanski Put street, which leads to Kosovo, to be named after Fatmir Ibiši, who took part in a grenade attack near Bujanovac in February 2000 which killed one Serbian police officer and wounded three.

In order for the Albanian councillors’ decision to become final, it needs to be approved by the Serbian Ministry for State Administration and Local Self-Government.