SERBIAN NATIONAL DEFENSE
HISTORY - RESOURCES

Dr Dusan T. Batakovic

Swiss-like Cantonization of Kosovo-Metohija

A PROPOSAL presented by Kosovo Serb Representatives to UN Mission in Kosovo

August 22, 1999



The solution of the Kosovo-Metohija question in a way that would be consistent with the maintaining of this Serbian province as multhiethnic and multicultural political entity due to the rising discrimination of the Kosovo Serbs requires a new approach. In light of the fact that international guarantees completely protect the interests of the Albanian minority in Kosovo and Metohija, what is needed now are additional guarantees for the protection of the Serbian population. Likewise, it is extremely important that in Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija, just as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in other Balkan countries, a multiethnic and multireligious society is fully preserved. That is particularly consistent with the OSCE's Declaration Regarding the Protection of Minorities.

The model of cantonization is an obvious answer with which, on the one hand, the existing ethnic proportions of the province as well as its multiethnic composition will be preserved, but with distinct rights for cantons with a Serbian majority. The cantons would consist mainly of rural areas, without large cities. In the cities there would be a special, mixed regime of administration. Cantons with a Serbian majority do not necessarily have to, but may, be territorially linked as well. In any case, they could -- if they themselves decide so -- be more closely linked with Serbia. The territories that would be under Albanian administration, which would also be divided into cantons, could, in accordance with a decision by the Albanian ethnic population, receive a somewhat broader autonomous status within Serbia or directly from Yugoslavia. That solution resembles the multi-layered autonomy that exists in Spain today.

Cantons: To be created only in Rural Areas

Cantons with a Serbian majority which encompass mainly rural areas (according to new cantonal borders that will be drawn in the near future, not to the existing municipal borders) would also consist of all Serbian monasteries with their properties. Prior to that, all properties that the monasteries owned before the outbreak of war in 1941 would be returned to the monasteries. Therefore, the areas where Serbs form a majority will not be dependent on local Albanian authorities due to gerrymandering. Serbian-majority cantons would encompass around 30 percent of the territory of Kosovo-Metohija.

The first and largest Serbian-majority canton would encompass the area of Ibarski Kolasin, in the borders of the current municipalities of Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan, in which there is a clear Serbian majority population.

The second canton would encompass the area between Kosovo Polje and Lipljan with the Serbian villages in that area (Caglavica, Gracanica, Laplje Selo, etc.) The current borders of the municipalities would be modified, making it possible to group together towns and villages with a majority Serbian population, forming one whole.

The third canton would encompass the area between the current municipalities of Kosovska Kamenica, Kosovska Vitina, and Gnjilane where, as in the second canton, marginal modifications of the current municipal borders are required to form one whole.

The fourth canton would encompass Sirinicka Zupa with its capital in Strpce (which today is a separate municipality); to it would probably also be joined Sredacka Zupa, as well as the areas of Opolje and Gora, which are mostly inhabited by Muslim Slavs whose native language is Serbian.

The fifth canton would consist of the Serbian rural areas from Pec to Istok and Klina, where there are a number of territorially linked Serbian villages. The properties of the monasteries of Decani and the Pec Patriarchy would also be adjoined to this canton, including of course all the property that these monasteries owned until the outbreak of war in 1941. Similarly, the properties of all other Serbian monasteries (Gracanica, Devic, Gorioc, Sv. Arhandjeli, Zociste, Banjska, Draganac, Sokolica, etc.), depending on their territorial proximity, would be adjoined to the other cantons.

The cantons with a Serb majority would have their own local administration with Serbian courts and law enforcement, and will be administred jointly with UN representatives. This is the basic precondition to avoid the present mass-exodus of the Srbian population from territories which revert to the administrative, judicial, and police administration of another ethnic group, such as in Baranja and Western Srem (the so-called Eastern Slavonia). As it turned out there, to stop the mass exodus of Serbs it was not sufficient for them to be a minority in those administrative organs, since there is no way to prevent the ethnic majority from outvoting the minority. Only a guaranteed Serbian majority in administrative, judicial, and law enforcement structures in cantons with a Serbian majority, supervised by UN administration will guarantee that they continue to live in those predominantly rural areas.

Each cantonal assembly would consist of one chamber. The same would be true for Albanian majority cantons (whose number shall be determined in the future, in compliance with the wishes of the ethnic Albanian population) in the mostly rural areas, also supervized by UN appointed administration, Neither Albanian nor Serbian cantons would be without a certain number of citizens of other ethnic backgrounds; the protection of their interests would be guaranteed by equal treatment of minority groups in each canton. In that sense, the cantons of Switzerland provide a good examplem forming political entities, which are shaped by distinct linguistic and cultural traditions. The cantonal organization will also help the full preservation of cultural heritage and rich multicultural environment.

Large Cities: Mixed Administration

In large urban zones there would be a special regime of mixed administration, distinct from that envisaged for the cantons. Mixed, Serbian-Albanian administration would be established in larger cities (Kosovska Mitrovica, Pristina, Gnjilane, Urosevac, Pec, Prizren, Vucitrn, Orahovac), as well as a special form of Kosovo-Metohija autonomy, with mixed administration and parity of representation in the judiciary and law enforcement. Ethnic majority dominance would thus be prevented in urban centers -- dominance which ethnic Albanian abused between 1968 and 1981 in their effort to force Serbs to flee Kosovo and Metohija.

Cities in these urban zones would, because of that, have bicameral municipal assemblies. The Lower House would represent the will of the people expressed at municipal elections, while the Upper House would be composed of 50 percent Serbs and 50 percent Albanians, where each ethnic group would have the right to veto.

The support of the UN and other other representatives of the international community would be of great importance for the implementation of the model of cantonization and mixed administration in large cities. The project of maintaining multiethnic cities would use the cities of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a model, in that it would receive financial credits, with which economic reconstruction and private enterprise would be fostered, as the sound basis for a multiethnic, democratic society. Kosovo-Metohija would remain a province under the jurisdiction of Serbia, and a multiethnic police force would be created as a part of the state police, in order to avoid the possibility that the "Kosovo Liberation Army" will take over police duties and form the basis for the creation of an Albanian military force on an ethnic basis which would certainly exploit the situation of a conflict breaking out in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to fight another war for secession from Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Provincial Administrative Bodies

The Assembly of the Province would consist of representatives from all the cities with mixed administration and all the cantons; it would also be bicameral, where the Upper House, made up based on ethnic parity, would allow mutual veto powers to each ethnic group, in order to avoid outvoting by the majority. Cantonal organization will be implemented for at least five years as a transitional solution, which will provide a tolerant political environment for preservation of multiethnic and multicultural composition of Kosovo-Metohija province.

written by Dusan T. Batakovic

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