The representative of the Albanian community in the south of Serbia, Shaip Kamberi, strongly condemned on Thursday the Serbian Government’s decision to ban the Kosovo Interior Minister, Xhelal Sveçla, from visiting the Preševo Valley.

Sveçla announced early Thursday that the Serbian authorities “unreasonably” rejected his request to visit the Preševo ​​Valley in the south of Serbia on the border with Kosovo.

Kamberi, who also won a mandate in the Serbian Parliament during the contested Serbian elections of December 17, said through a post on Facebook that the decision proves that “the Government in Belgrade does not change, it remains paranoid and hateful towards everything that is Albanian.”

Albanians in Serbia live mainly in Preševo, Medvegja and Bujanoc – municipalities collectively known as the Presevo Valley.

In the Preševo Valley, according to the 2002 census, there were 88,966 registered citizens, of which 57,737 were Albanians, or 65 percent.

The actual number of Albanians in the Preševo Valley is not clear.

“The visits of the officials of the Republic of Kosovo and Albania to the Preševo Valley are not only necessary, they are indispensable, they should be seen as common, as it happens in all democratic countries”, said Kamberi.

He said that the cooperation of the Albanians of the Preševo Valley with Kosovo and Albania “will not stop”, and that “Belgrade can try, but it will fail”.

The requests of Kosovar officials to visit the southern municipalities of Serbia inhabited by an Albanian majority had been rejected before.

On November 27, 2021, the authorities in Serbia rejected the request of four ministers for a two-day visit to what is known as the Preševo ​​Valley.

The rejection of the request for a visit to Serbia had come after on November 23 the Government of Kosovo had rejected the request for a visit to Kosovo of the head of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora had declared for Radio Free Europe that they are ready to reconsider their position on allowing Petkovic’s visits in the future, if “he refrains from inciting and provocative language in relation to the citizens and institutions of the Republic of Kosovo.”