Gazivode: Seven More Cabins Given Ten-Day Deadline
Pristina's agriculture ministry served the owners of seven cabins in Medjedji Potok with orders on August 12 to vacate the property, with a lawsuit threatened if they refuse.
Owners of seven cabins on Gazivode Lake, in the stretch of shoreline known as Medjedji Potok, received orders on August 12 requiring them to vacate and clear the land their buildings stand on within ten days. The orders were issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development in Pristina, which claims the cabins were built without permits on land belonging to the ministry.
“The owner is obligated to vacate the public property within 10 days,” the order served to the owners states.
The deadline runs from the day the decision is received. Counting from August 12, when the documents were delivered to the owners’ addresses, it expires on August 22.
A Different Shore, a Different Authority
The seven properties named in the new orders do not sit on the stretch where 17 buildings have already been torn down. Medjedji Potok is on the opposite shore of the lake from the area where 16 cabins and the “Jezero” motel were demolished.
The difference is not only geographic. The earlier demolitions at Gazivode were carried out on the orders of the public utility Ibar-Lepenac, while the seven new orders come from the ministry, meaning a government authority rather than a utility company.
We have reported on this wave of demolitions before. Ibar-Lepenac earlier denied tearing down the motel at Gazivode, even though the “Jezero” motel is counted among the 17 buildings removed.
What the Order States
The explanation attached to the order says that using public property without authorization and without valid contracts endangers the public interest, the management of public property and environmental protection, and creates a risk to the sanitary protection zone around the water source.
Oversight of the order’s enforcement has been assigned to inspectors from the Central Department for Forestry and Hunting Oversight. The document also states that Kosovo police will provide monitoring and assistance if needed, at the ministry’s request. If an owner fails to comply, the ministry has announced it will pursue legal action.
The Paperwork Owners Are Presenting
At least one owner filed a complaint with the inspectorate, attaching a contract signed with the Serbian public enterprise Srbijasume.
That document is at the heart of the dispute. The owners point to contracts and permits issued under Serbian regulations, while the Pristina side does not accept them as grounds for using land it lists as its own property. Owners of the other buildings on the lake are now gathering documentation to prove ownership.
Despite the contract with Srbijasume submitted alongside the complaint, the ministry issued the property release order anyway, so the objection changed neither the content nor the deadline of the decision. The same ten day deadline applies to all seven buildings.
The buildings in Medjedji Potok did not enter this process out of nowhere. The same cabins were sealed and wrapped in tape on July 23, also on the ministry’s orders. The property release order is the second step in a process that has now been running for three weeks.
What Happens If Owners Do Not Comply?
The ministry has announced it will go to court, not carry out an immediate removal. That marks a formal break from past practice at Gazivode, where demolition was preceded by a short window for voluntary removal, with no mention of a lawsuit.
How much that difference matters in practice will become clear as early as next week. That is when owners of buildings in the villages of Kovace and Rezala receive similar urgent deadlines to vacate property, this time again on the orders of Ibar-Lepenac. Two separate proceedings are now underway on the lake at the same time, brought by two different authorities, against the same circle of owners.
