Thewesternbalkans
Kosovo’s second census since the declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 started on April 5 and it will last until May 17.
The census will tally the number of people residing in the country, family households, their education and employment, as well as the number of locals living abroad. For the first time, surveyors will also ask interviewees about damages suffered during the 1998-1999 war and if they have relatives who died or were tortured at the time.
The leading Serb parties called for boycott just hours after Pristina launched the count. “We would like to say clearly to Albin Kurti and those who support him that the Serbian people will not participate in the upcoming fake census in his organization which he wants to confirm his shameful success in expelling Serbs,” Srpska Lista, the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party.
A smaller Serb party, Partija kosovski Srba, also announced: “We are left with no other choice but to call on our fellow Serbs to: Boycott the upcoming census, do not give any data to the census teams”.
Census official Hazbije Qeriqi told that Kosovo Agency of Statistics (ASK) provided training for Serb supervisors and enumerators, as well as for other communities. And are hoping for Serb participation this time. She specified that the diaspora will participate in the census through online questionnaires.
Avni Kastrati, director of the ASK, added that, based on the Law on Population and Housing Census, the agency “will refer any citizen who does not participate for registration to the court; the penalties range from 30 to 2 000 euros, depending on the reason for not participating”.
The European Union encourages citizens, especially the Serbs, to participate in the population census, while calling on Kosovo institutions to intensify information campaigns for all residents, so that everyone has sufficient information about this process.
Kosovo last collected population data in 2011, when the field work was done by the municipalities, not the Agency of Statistics. The Serb-majority municipalities boycotted the census.
Comment: The census process was launched at an extremely tense moment in relations between Pristina and Belgrade after a series of fruitless meetings within the framework of the dialogue under the auspices of the EU, Kosovo’s refusal to create the Association of Serb majority municipalities, the introduction of the euro as only currency accepted for cash payments or transactions in Kosovo, as well as the call made by the Serb List to boycott the vote for the dismissal of the Albanian mayors in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, inhabited by a majority of Serbs.
In this context come the fears of the Serbs that the results considering the Serbian population in Kosovo could be manipulated in order to show reduced numbers.
At the same time, it should be noted that this is the first time that Kosovo attempted to register its big diaspora, which is estimated to number roughly half a million people.
Providing the latest data on the population is of particular importance as it is not only to ensure the fair distribution of funds to the municipalities, but also to help make informed political decisions, planning for public services and addressing the different needs of different demographic groups within the population.
