Eviction Notices Reach Village Hall Near Gazivode Lake

The company Ibar-Lepenac handed out new notices on August 3 ordering the urgent release of property in the villages of Kovace and Rezala, on the shore of Gazivode Lake in the municipality of Zubin Potok. More than ten parcels and buildings received the notices. Owners were given 15 days to vacate the property, remove the structures and return the land to its previous state.

One notice was left at the village hall in Rezala, the building where residents mark the feast of the Holy Trinity every June. The other notices were taped to weekend houses right along the shore.

The same company had asked residents of Rezala, a week earlier, to prove ownership of their property. That deadline was seven days and expired on Wednesday. The new notice, which arrived right after it, no longer asks for proof. It orders eviction.

What the Company Cites as Grounds

Ibar-Lepenac claims that, according to official records and ownership documents, it is the lawful owner of the cadastral parcels in the Rezala cadastral zone, and that the structures on them were built without permits. The notice orders the owners to leave property described in the document as usurped, to remove anything placed on the parcels and to restore the land to its earlier condition. If the deadline is not met, the company has announced it will pursue legal action to protect its rights.

Ibar-Lepenac is the public water management company that runs the reservoir at Gazivode. Its director is Faruk Mujka. He attended a meeting on property issues in the lake area on July 14, held in the municipality of Zubin Potok, the same day a notice was delivered to the owners of the “Jezero” hotel and beach.

Timeline From April to August

The campaign in the Zubin Potok area has been running since April, in waves:

• in April, the demolition of five weekend houses on the lake was initiated in the village of Cecevo
• on June 10, with the assistance of Kosovo Police, the Rezala camp on the lake’s left bank was seized
• in early July, 11 more weekend house owners received notices to release their property
• on July 14, a notice was delivered to the owners of the “Jezero” hotel and beach
• four days before the latest round of notices, that hotel and its beach restaurant were demolished

Before the hotel and restaurant, 16 weekend houses and homes had already been torn down, bringing the total number of demolished structures at Gazivode to 17.

What Is Different From Earlier Waves

Until now, the targets have been private property: weekend houses, homes and hospitality venues. The village hall in Rezala is not anyone’s weekend house. It is a communal building the village uses once a year, to mark the Holy Trinity, and removing it would take away the only structure on the shore with no private owner behind it.

The pace is also changing. From April to mid July, four waves of notices and demolitions followed one another, and in just the past three weeks two more have arrived, first a demand to prove ownership, then a notice to vacate. Only four days separate the last demolition from the new notices posted on doors.

The European Union in Kosovo, ahead of the hotel’s demolition, called on Pristina to halt all actions at Gazivode Lake, including the demolition of buildings, until ownership is established. The demolition went ahead anyway. We reported earlier on how the Gazivode issue reached the European Parliament, and the number of demolished structures has kept rising since then.

Owners who found a notice on their door are not holding a court ruling, only a demand from a company that names itself as the owner of the parcel. That is exactly what is in dispute, whose land it is, and the question has yet to be settled before the heavy machinery reaches the shore even once.

The 15 day deadline, counted from August 3, runs out on August 18. Until then, owners can remove the structures themselves or wait for the announced legal proceedings, while the question of who owns the land beneath those structures still has no answer.