Podujevo
Podujevë Podujevo Podujeva Besiana Подујево | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country |  Kosovo |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ilaz Pireva (LDK) |
| Elevation | 608 m (1,995 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | ca. 35,000 |
| • Density | 130/km2 (300/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| Area code | +381 38 |
| Website | Podujevo Municipality |
Podujevë (Albanian: Podujevë, Podujeva or Besiana ; Serbian: Подујево or Podujevo) is a town and municipality located in the Prishtina District, in north-eastern Kosovo.
Podujevo is situated in a strategic position due to a regional motorway and railroad linking surrounding regions. Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 130,000, including the estimated 35,000 inhabitants of the town.[1]
Name
The Serbian name of the town, Podujevo derives from founder of city Poduj which is the older name in history of Serbia.[citation needed]
The Albanian name of the town, Besiana, derives from the word besa, and ana, meaning "region".[citation needed] Historically, people from this region are know to resist foreign occupiers, and are known to keep their word, hence Besiana.[citation needed]
Recent history
The founding member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Zahir Pajaziti, was from the Podujevo region.
During the 1999 Kosovo War the town was the site of the Podujevo massacre, on March 28, in which 14 Kosovo Albanian women and children were murdered by Serbian paramilitary forces.
This town is known for its cattle trade and for its battlefields during the last Kosovo war in 1999. It has over 70 villages. Podujevo is not one of the major cities of Kosovo but has a good potential to invite tourists from around Kosovo and other foreign places for its beautiful mountains and Lake Batlava.
The road coming into Podujevo from Central Serbia was the site of the 2001 Podujevo bus bombing, when 12 Serb pilgrims heading to the Gračanica monastery site were killed and dozens more were injured by a bomb placed by Albanian extremists.
Demographics
| Ethnic Composition | |||||||||||||
| Year/Population | Albanians | % | Serbs | % | Montenegrins | % | Roma | % | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 36,151 | 80.52 | 7,188 | 16.01 | 1,345 | 3.00 | 1 | 44,899 | |||||
| 1971 | 54,185 | 89.79 | 4,469 | 7.41 | 1,052 | 1.74 | 499 | 0.83 | 60,349 | ||||
| 1981 | 72,092 | 95.57 | 2,242 | 2.97 | 615 | 0.82 | 320 | 0.42 | 75,437 | ||||
| 1991 | 91,005 | 97.91 | 1,118 | 1.20 | 320 | 0.34 | 387 | 0.42 | 92,946 | ||||
| January 1999 | 120,000 | 98 | 1,600 | 1 | 1,200 | 1 | 122,000 | ||||||
| June 2006 | 125,226 | 99.1 | 21 | 721 | 0.7 | 125,968 | |||||||
| Ref: Yugoslav Population Censuses for data through 1991, and OSCE estimates for data for 1999 and 2006 | |||||||||||||
See also
References and notes
- ^ OSCE Template:PDFlink, June 2006, page 2: Introduction: Area and Population.
External links
- Komuna Podujevë
- Llapi (in Albanian)
