The Serbian authorities continue to misinform European officials regarding the rights of Romanians (Vlachs) in Timoc

At a meeting with OSCE High Commissioner for minorities Knut Vollebaek, the Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić claimed that in Serbia ”the position of minorities is regulated in the way that had been harmonized with the highest European and world standards”, Romanian Youth Voice reports.

This declaration of the Serbian president comes after one week before, the local authorities in Negotin (Serbia) ordered the priest Bojan Alexandrovic to demolish the Romanian monastic settlement fence and bell from Malainica.

In response to the statements of the Serbian officials that claimed that Romanians in Timoc enjoy media in Romanian language, Predrag Balasevic, leader of the Vlach community showed that 15 minutes of broadcasting in Romanian at local television of Bor, in fact relaying a TV program from Vojvodina are inadequate to the real needs of the significant Vlach (Romanian) community in north-eastern Serbia.

Also, according to TimocPress.info the representatives of the Vlach community consider the this broadcasting as scandalous, considering that the program is regulated by untrained personnel, while the coverage of Bor television signal is such that it can not be seen neither in the Bor municipality nor in more remote areas inhabited by Vlach population.

Also, according to Adevarul.ro OSCE High Commissioner for minorities Knut Vollebaek olso had on Tuesday a meeting with leaders of the Romanian community in north-eastern Serbia. They have informed the European official that while Belgrade claims to make strides in minority rights, the situation is not improving at all.

Romanian Youth Voice underline that the representatives of Romanian speaking Vlach community from Timoc showed that nothing was done for placing education in Romanian in localities that requested it, and Belgrade continued uptake the assimilation of the Romanians by the invention, standardization and wish to introduce in schools thee so-called ”Vlach language”.

Source: http://tolerance.ro/portal/minorities/romanian-youthvoicero-the-serbian-authorities-continue-to-misinform-european-officials-regarding-the/