Candidates for the Albanian National Council in Serbia on the TV show ‘Jeta ne Kosove’ on Thursday. Photo: BIRN

Candidates running for the leadership of the Albanian National Council in Serbia told BIRN Kosovo’s TV programme ‘Jeta ne Kosove’ on Thursday evening that if Albanians in Serbia use the national flag for official purposes, they have to pay a fine ranging from 500 to 800 euros.

“Privately the flag is used, but [its use] is not allowed by institutions. The National Council pays a fine from around 500 to 800 euros a day using the flag,” said Enver Mehmeti from the Albanian Democratic Party.

Serbian law says that minorities have the right to choose their symbols, which can be displayed on official buildings during recognised holidays, but they cannot be identical to the insignia of another country.

“Our national flag is the same as the state of Albania’s, therefore is not allowed,” said Ragmi Mustafa from the Party for Democratic Action.

Arber Pajaziti from the Alternative for Change told the BIRN Kosovo TV programme that there should be a debate about whether Albanians in Serbia should have their own flag.

“You as Kosovars feel yourselves to be Albanians and are proud of the [Albanian] national flag, but at the same time you have the [Kosovo] state flag; it would not be bad for us also to have a flag for the Albanian minority [in Serbia],” Pajziti said.

Pajaziti suggested inviting recommendations from the Academy of Sciences from both Kosovo and Albania, but the other candidates for the Albanian National Council elections who appeared on the TV programme disagreed with his idea.

The Albanian National Council in Serbia is the only institution that deals exclusively with the rights of around 80,000 Albanians living in the country.

The ANC deals with education, culture, information and the official use of language, alphabet and national symbols. Elections for the 15-member body are being held on Sunday.

Sali Salihu, the candidate for the ANC leadership from the Democratic Party, told the programme that there is a lack of school books in the Albanian language in Serbia.

But he said that a greater problem will be what to put in the Albanian-language history textbooks for ethnic Albanian pupils studying in Serbia, because of the conflict between Albanians and Serbs, particularly concerning Kosovo.

“A history book, according to the law in Serbia, can be 30 per cent national history. We will try to write history the way we know it,” Salihu said, before cautioning: “We have problem with [writing] history from the 1990s until today.”

Mustafa said however that “except for history and geography texts that directly touch on national identity”, the majority of textbooks will not cause political problems.

“School books that do not touch on national identity, such as physics, can be imported from the motherland [Albania] or written by local authors,” he said.

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