Census sparks tensions across Western Balkans
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SARAJEVO — Croatia, Kosovo and Montenegro have started to count their populations as part of a year of censuses across the ethnically tense Western Balkans to keep up with EU countries doing the same.
The three countries are the first in the volatile region, torn apart by interethnic wars in the 1990s, to launch the census this year.
Because of the painful history organization of the count sparked debate and controversy throughout the region: From Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians fear that their importance will be reduced, across Montenegro, where there are complaints that Serbs are being “assimilated,” to Bosnia which did not even manage to adopt a census law.
In Kosovo, where the last census was held in 1981, while it was still a province in the Yugoslav federation, Belgrade called on ethnic Serbs not to take part in the count organized by ethnic Albanian authorities in Pristina..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110403com7.html
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