By Skender Hasangjekaj The Violation of Rights and the Forced “Solution” Under the trumpet of democracy and propagation of a democratic and multiethnic civil state , Montenegro, in the eyes of a democratic Europe, has been making consecutive violations against the rights of the indigenous Albanian population in all territories administered by the Montenegrin state. Despite the formation” of a pro-European Constitution, the Montenegrin government, attempts in every sphere of life, to make life more difficult for the few Albanians, who have remained in their ancestral lands, forcing a decrease in the Albanian population through emigration and assimilation with the ultimate goal to decimate the Albanian population, in any Albanian territory administered by the state of Montenegro. At the same time that Montenegro seeks to join Euro-Atlantic structures, they use the most cunning ways possible to wrap these methods in a democratic postcard , to be presented in front of the Western world as a democratic state that respects the rights of minorities. While Europe is requesting that Montenegro decentralize their forms of local government, with respect to national minority rights, Montenegro is using diverse tactics to ensure that this decentralization does not benefit the Albanian population. From the onset of the establishment of the first Albanian political entity formed by the Albanians in Montenegro, (the Democratic League of Montenegro), among other requirements, this party has constantly demanded the return of full municipal status to the municipality of Tuz/Malesia so that this decentralization may be used to improve the rights and henceforth, the quality of life for Albanians in the region. The Montenegrin government has repeatedly made promises that Tuz/Malesia will gain the status of a full municipality, but until now, they have broken all their promises, to their citizens and to the requests made by the European Commission. To make matters worse, they have openly created double standards that the Albanian population is held to, whereas for other national ethnic minorities, a completely different standard is upheld. To execute their anti-Albanian strategy, they have capitalized on the crumbling Albanian political factor, and have often found local and some national parties, with an Albanian prefix, willing to assist in the realization of their plans. While the residents of Tuz/Malesia have repeatedly been denied the right to an independent municipality, where an absolute majority of the population is ethnically Albanian, Montenegro has allowed the establishment of other municipalities where non-Albanians are the majority. Along these lines, while implementing their plan to minimize the Albanian population to where it is no longer a factor, they began the project of splitting the previously joint Plav-Gucia district into two smaller municipalities. This was accomplished after decades of an orchestrated assimilation and mass emigration of Albanians from the region, and where Albanians now make up a relatively small percentage of the population (approximately 20% of the population in the region of Plav-Gucia, are non-assimilated Albanians). Albanian political entities, civil organizations and the non-politically affiliated Albanian voices of this region, both within and outside their homeland, strongly voiced their concerns for stopping the fragmenting of the province into two municipalities, seeing the danger in the ghettoization and the further disintegration of the Albanian factor in this region. In 2014, Gucia was given the status of a full independent municipality, while the municipality of Tuzi, remains under the jurisdiction of Podgorica, with a comical status of “Urban Municipality of Podgorica”. In the local elections of Gucia, the other parties (Montenegrin, Serb and Bosniak) formed two coalitions, whereas the Albanians competed with three political parties. Of the thirty councilors in the Gucia municipality, Albanian political parties won eight seats, where the strongest Albanian party in this province (Democratic League in Montenegro) won four seats, while the Democratic Union of Albanians and the Albanian Alliance won two seats a piece. The first municipal government of Gucia was established through a coalition of DPS (Djukanovics party which leads at the state level in Montenegro) and two Albanian parties, the Democratic Union of Albanians and the Albanian Alliance. Beginning with the first swearing in of the Municipal Assembly, the situation has been worsening for Albanians, where the Albanian symbols and language are not respected. In the hall where the assembly takes place, the Montenegrin flag and the Bosniak flag are present but the Albanian flag is missing. This occurs despite the fact that the demographic composition of the population in the newly formed municipality is nearly identical among those who declare themselves as Bosniaks and Albanians. The largest Albanian Party (Democratic League in Montenegro) strongly requested that equal rights be honored and the Albanian flag be placed in the hall. They were the lone party to make the request, which was not realized. The Councilors of this party, in a sign of revolt, did not commemorate the playing of the Montenegrin national anthem, by not standing and by abandoning the session. The Montenegrin media and the public were alarmed by the actions of these Albanian Councilors. (It should be noted, that in the Urban Municipality of Tuzi, where the absolute majority of the population is Albanians and Bosniaks make up less than 10% of the population, the Bosniak flag is present at the Municipal hall. This is a direct contradiction to what is being denied to the Albanians in Gucia who make up over 40% of the population and where not one ethnicity holds a majority “over 50% of the population”). Sequential sessions in the Gucia Municipality have had similar problems where the (Democratic League in Montenegro) urged that the laws and statutes of the Municipality be respected by ensuring that the Albanian language be equal to the Slavic language in the Assembly in both speeches and documents, but thus far, these fundamental rights have not been fulfilled for Albanians in the Municipality of Gucia. These problems continue to persist, from the denial of legal rights for Albanians in the new municipality of Gucia to the implausible statuses being developed by the Montenegrin government for the region of Tuz/Malesia by denying the people their right to vote for a full Municipality until the ethnic structure of the population has been changed, as it has done in Gucia. The full municipal status will only be granted to Tuz/Malesia once the Albanians do not constitute the majority of the population in that area. The violation of Albanian rights and the “forced solution” continue in the second decade of the 21st Century in the Albanian lands administered by the Montenegrin state. Translated by Simon Ivezaj
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 15:38:29 +0000
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