I hope there is a modo to moderate the talks.

I think that people have to stay calm and not to burn their mind.

Olli Rehn just said in Belgrade on the 23 or 24 of July 2009 that Serbia will not enter EU if the restitution law is not voted.

Who are the owners of the coal mines before WW2 and communist regime gave to SFRY ?

Are they the true owners, what is the heir company of these days company which was extracting at that time ?

Does the Kosovar Gov tried to take contact with this company or physical heirs ?

I think it’s the begining of the begining because if Kosova wants to enter EU they have to do the same Olli Rehn said for Serbia…?

And one cannot go into another country and occupy a house. How do you know it is Serbian (if that is your intention) ? You do not know and a mistake in this case can be fatal. If–and I suppose they are–Serb owned houses are being occupied it is by Kosovar Albanians since they know the area. Is it right? Nope. I suppose it will be solved soon. Not sure how the Albanians will be able to collect for their houses burned by the Serbs though. Any suggestions?

The Northern Albania is empty because young men are in USA (Malesia e Madhe,) Italy, Germany, GB etc,, not in Kosova. Also many moved further down in Albania, especially near the cities.

The church owns the land: OK, how they got it and did the person who gave it to them have rights to the land?

Those idiots who spew hate don’t deserve a response.

I must say that Kosova will be indipendent soon and you ARE FREE TO COME TO INVEST HERE.
WE WILL WELCOME.

You are absolutely, absolutely correct on everything you wrote in the last post. However, please, please do not attribute to me comments that I have not made myself.

All I said is that in Kosovo it is illegal to move into someone else’s property. Nowhere did I say that it does not happen, but the point is that it is illegal and eventually you will be forced to move out or purchase the property (if the owner of the property agrees to sell the property to you).

Yes, after the war in 1999 Kosovar Albanians have moved into Serbian houses, particularly in the capital city, (partly because Albanian homes were burned by the Serb troops during the war), however it was illegal then, it is illegal now and it will always be illegal to move into someone else’s house in Kosovo. Today, the vast majority of this people have either been forced out or they had to purchase the houses.

The concept has some similarities with squatting (albeit often it involves no violence).

The point I wanted to make earlier is that property rights do exist in Kosovo and that it is illegal to move into someone else’s property without their consent. The courts are dealing with these issues and anyone who has illegally moved into someone else’s property will be forced out.

Peace!

Indeed, property rights across all former communist states are being revisited with a view to returning property “confiscated” by communist regimes after WW2. In Kosovo and Metohija this is particularly interesting. Metohija means “land owned by monasteries” and much of Metohija belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church until Communists confiscated most of their land. Will the Kosovarians return land stolen from the Serbian Church? Fidel should understand that on issues such as this Albanians will be judged.

Okay, first, there’s almost no movement of Albanians from Albania to Kosovo today. That’s because Kosovo still has a lot of economic problems and very high unemployment. If you’re an Albanian in northern Albania, it’s much simpler and easy to go to Shkoder, Tirana, or abroad.

In fact, the opposite is now true. As Albania’s economy perks up — it’s currently growing by about 6% per year — a few Kosovars are drifting over the mountains and looking for work in Tirana. Only a few, but the key point is, the flow is going west not east.

“Michael” seems to be buying into the Serb nationalist view of Albanians. That is, Albanians are a faceless, formless mass of impoverished criminals who are incapable of building anything for themselves and can only live by stealing. The “Albanians coming into Kosovo from outside” thing is hardwired into this view — it’s impossible that Albanians could have a legitimate claim on Kosovo, so they must be illegal immigrants. And, of course, all they know how to do is burn and steal.

It’s a deeply racist viewpoint, and also one with a fair amount of psychological projection. By condemning the Albanians as inferior — subhuman, really — the Serbs are absolved of their own bad behavior.

On the other hand. Fidel, your claim that “it is ILLEGAL to move into someone else’s property in Kosovo” is technically correct but, as a practical matter, total nonsense. Kosovo is full of former Serb property that is now being illegally occupied by Albanians. This is so common, especially in Prishtina, that you would have to be blind to ignore it.

Now, in some cases the Albanians can claim that the property was originally Albanian. The most obvious example of this is probably the former quadrangle of the University of Prishtina. The quad was almost the only piece of green space in the city center. After the Serbs took over the university in the 1990s, the Serb leadership donated the quad to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Which proceeded to build a huge, ugly church right in the middle of it. (The church, never quite completed, still stands there today — it’s an empty, trashed, grafitti-covered hulk.) So there are some legitimate disputes.

But most of the former Serb properties are /not/ disputed — they’re houses, offices and apartments that were unquestionably the property of Serbs, and are now being occupied and used by Albanians. Often powerful and well-connected Albanians.

In the months after the bombing stopped, KLA guys were particularly notorious for simply walking in with a gun and taking over. This had almost universal popular support… and why not? After all, hundreds of thousands of Kosovars had just been driven out of their homes by Serbs with guns. So pretty much everybody was happy to watch the Serbs being pushed out in turn.

In some cases, the takeover has later been legitimized. I know a lawyer in Prishtina who makes a living getting title to Serb properties. He has a colleague in Serbia who contacts the original Serb owners and offers them some money to sell their title. Usually it’s much less than the real value of the property, but on the other hand a little money today is better than “maybe you’ll be recompensed someday, but don’t hold your breath”.

But even if we index out the disputed properties and the ones where a deal has been made, there are still thousands of Serb properties being illegally occupied. That’s a fact, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

Doug M.

Once again, you seem to be very shy to mention any figures or to provide any (neutral) source to back up your claims.

Once again, you seem to avoid mentioning the Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia that “morphed” (using your phrase) into “Kosovar Serbs”.

One day we hear that Serbian houses and apartments in Kosovo were burned, the other day we hear they are “comfortable Serbian houses and apartments”. Hence, either the Serbs from Kosovo are lying that there homes were burned or you Michael are lying. You can’t have it both ways.

For your information, NATO troops, UNMIK police and the Kosovar Police Service guard the border linking Albania and Kosovo (like all other Kosovo borders), so you cannot call it a “non-existent” border.

You seem to be either misguided and misinformed individual or plainly lying.

I love the desperate attempt to milk some sympathy for the Serbs (the Native Americans of Europe ha-ha-ha…) who probably have more war criminals amongst them than any other nation in the world. Michael, I know that you don’t like people to remind you of this, however nearly the entire Serb leadership of the 1990s has moved from Belgrade to the Hague Tribunal and you are trying to portray them as “Native Americans” of Europe. Please, stop making a complete and utter fool of yourself. What planet are you living on?

Finally, for your information (since you seem to be VERY misinformed) IT IS ILLEGAL to move into someone else’s property in Kosovo. For more details please check the Kosovo Property Agency: http://www.kpaonline.org/

Let me know if you want more…

Fidel Pardussi