Regarding the claims presented at the forum of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia, held on Thursday, 30 November 2023, at the Cultural Center “Vuk Karadžić” in Bujanovac, on the topic “Passivization of addresses of Albanians in the Preševo Valley as a discriminatory practice”, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, hereby issues the following statement:
“We hereby reject the allegations about the implementation of passivization, as an expression of the discriminatory policy of the Republic of Serbia towards the Albanians in the southern part of Serbia, as absolutely false. The issue of the procedure and method of passivization of residence is regulated by the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens from 2011, the implementation and supervision of which is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore, it concerns exclusively the enforcement of the law, which applies equally to all citizens, under the same conditions and in the same way, without exceptions. Claims that passivization is being carried out with the intention of discriminating against certain ethnic communities is only fuelling tensions, and I consider such as inadmissible and extremely irresponsible. The intention regarding the passivization of addresses is not aimed at discrimination of any ethnic group, including the Albanian community.
I want to stress once again that the claims about the discriminatory intent in conducting passivization, be it against the Albanian or any other ethnic community, are absolutely arbitrary and unfounded.
The Republic of Serbia is a country founded on the principles of equality, fairness and respect for human and minority rights,” the statement reads.