THE ALBANIAN MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS IN PRESHEVA VALLEY (PRESHEVA, BUJANOC AND MEDVEGJA), IN THE MEETING HELD ON 14.01.2006, IN  PRESHEVA:

-         Being aware that the Albanian population of Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja (Presheva Valley) is facing the unresolved issue of its political status,

-         Committed to retaining and developing the Albanian national identity and entity,

-         Committed to Albanian integration, within the trends of European and Euro-Atlantic integration,

-         Given that the so far forms of territorial organization have not provided adequate possibilities for protecting the interests of the Albanians in the Valley

-         Committed to unifying and concentrating the political power in resolving these issues,

-         Based on the so far political activity and the armed resistance of the Albanians in this region,

-         Finding support to their requests in international documents (UN, OSCE, Council of Europe), which guarantee the individual and collective rights,

Adopted the following:

Political platform

Principles :

-         At the time when Kosova has entered the most important phase of determining its political-legal status, and the entire region of the Western Balkans aims at accelerating the process in the course of Euro-Atlantic integration, the Albanian entities in the Presheva Valley see the need for undertaking concrete and coordinated actions for resolving the issue of the Albanians in this region in the course of the integration processes taking place in Europe,

-         Albanian Municipal Members in Presheva, Medvegja and Bujanoc (herein referred to as Municipal Assembly Members) consider that the region will remain a place of a permanent crisis and an obstacle to Euro-Atlantic integrations until a fair solution to the Albanian issue in Presheva Valley is found, 

-         The Municipal Assembly Members request that the rights of the Albanians in Presheva Valley be guaranteed similarly to the other communities in the region (Kosova, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), by committing to creating special links of Presheva Valley with Kosova,

-          In the spirit of these values by finding support in fundamental documents that institutionalize the protection of the individual and collective rights, such as:

-         UN Charter,

-         The Universal Declaration on Human Rights,

-         The International Pact on Civil and Political Rights,

-         The International Pact for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

-         The European Framework Convention on Minorities’ Rights,

-         The European Convention on Human Rights and Basic Freedoms,

-         The European Charter on Regional and Minorities’ Languages,

-         The OSCE documents, especially:

1.      Suggestions from Lundi, Oslo and Hague,

2.      Helsinki Final Act 1975

3.      The Paris Charter for New Europe 1990,

4.      Documents from Copenhagen – Human Dimension,

SPECIFIC REQUESTS

o       The fair and sustainable solution for the Presheva Valley issue involves the full respect for the individual and collective rights of the Albanians, through resolving, in a fair way, the issues, such as:

1.      The Municipal Assembly Members support the stance that Presheva Valley should have the form of the administrative-territorial constitutional organization, with a function in the fields of justice, police, education, using the national language and symbols, health, economic development, culture, spatial planning, ecologic environment, natural resources, residency, social services,

2.      The decentralization of the power and the transfer of competencies should be done from the central level to the local and regional level of self-administration, in the other state institutions, especially in the justice system where the District Court, Trade Court, and the Council for Offences with territorial competencies in this region should be established,

3.      The Presheva Valley should be completely demilitarized and the existing military bases and the ones being under construction should be removed,

4.      The issue of public safety should be in the exclusive competencies of the multiethnic police and its commanding structures,

5.      The economic development of the region through creating facilitating conditions for accrediting the small or medium enterprises, attracting the foreign capital, creating the business centers through creating the Free Trade Zone, cross-boundary cooperation within the projects with the international donors,

6.      The privatization of the existing Socially Owned Enterprises should be conducted by offering equal conditions of participation,

7.      The educational system in the Presheva Valley should be harmonized with the educational system in Kosova, compatible with the European education standards, 

8.      The proportional integration of the Albanians in the structures of the local governance and all other state and public institutions in all levels,

9.      The official application of the Albanian language in the local self-administration institutions, state and public institutions in all the levels,

10.  The official usage of the national Albanian symbols, and the right to publicly celebrate the important dates from national history,

11.  The establishment of the institutions for expressing, retaining and advancing the cultural, informative, religious and traditional values, specific for the Albanians,

12.  The establishment of special institutions for social protection of the jeopardized part of the population,

13.  The creation of the possibility for a secondary health protection of the Presheva Valley population through building an hospital for these municipalities, and the development of the existing health institutions for the primary protection of the population,

14.  The sustainable return of the displace population through compensating the damages that were caused to their property, developing the road, health, and education infrastructure,

15.  The decision on amnesty for the former UÇPMB members should be respected and all the rigged trials against the Albanians should be interrupted,

16.  Adequate treatment of the Albanian Diaspora of this region by the local institutions through retaining the its connections with the homeland, with the life, customs, language, culture and through encouraging the investment of their capital in the region,

17.  In order to realize the above-mentioned aims, the Albanian entities raise the need to as son as possible create the joint representative body (National Council).

Concluding Dispositions

-         By reconfirming the will of the population for defining the Presheva Valley as a special territorial-constitutional region.

-         Municipal Assembly Members, supporting the principles of the Contact Group on the Kosova’s status, are obliged to, in case these principles are not respected and Kosova’s borders are changed, will be committed to unifying the Presheva Valley with Kosova.

Presheva, on 14.01.2006