27. Serbian minority in KosMet had decreased from around 30% in 1946 to 10% in 1991, as a result of higher Albanian birth rates and Serbian emigration to Central and North Serbia

1110

Basic Western misconceptions on the Kosovo issue and their corrections

27. Serbian minority in KosMet had decreased from around 30% in 1946 to 10% in 1991, as a result of higher Albanian birth rates and Serbian emigration to Central and North Serbia

Wrong. The last reliable population census in KosMet is of 1961 as censuses of 1971, 1981 and 1991 are arbitrary estimations by Yugoslav authorities as KosMet’s Albanians boycotted them in order to present the fake population structure of the province. Therefore, the Albanian majority in KosMet is estimated as higher as possible while the Serb minority is presented as lesser as possible. Albanian extremely high birth rate in KosMet after the WWII up to 1999 was primarily a product of political design to claim the province on the bases of ethnic rights. Today, when KosMet de facto is separated from Serbia, the birth rate of ethnic Albanians is the same as of the Serbs for the very reason that political necessity for the extremely high birth rate of the Albanians disappeared. After the WWII, the Serbs were leaving KosMet not because of the economic reasons but rather as they were discriminated, terrorized and/or brutally expelled from their homes by the local Albanians including and by the neighbors who were immediately appropriating their lands. It is true that many Serbs sold their homes and land to the Albanians but it was done under the pressure and even direct threatening of the physical extermination.