The population census in five regional countries, scheduled for April 2011, will show both formally and legally the number of Serbs living in the Western Balkans, which is estimated at over two million, Serbian Minister of the Diaspora Srdjan Sreckovic stated Thursday.

Sreckovic called on the members of the Serb national community to declare themselves as Serbs in censuses which will be carried out in Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia, as there is no reason for them to be afraid, taking into account that these are democratic and civilized countries, EU member states or on the way to becoming one.

Sreckovic specified that the ministry's estimates show that about 2,120,000 Serbs, which is more than a quarter of Serbia's population, live in regional countries, mainly in Republika Srpska - about 1.1 million, and about 200,000 in Croatia and Montenegro.

Apart from the countries that are scheduled to carry out a census, the data on the total number of Serbs in the region also include Slovenia and Romania.

Sreckovic pointed out that the members of the Serb national minority in Albania have not been able to declare themselves as Serbs for over 50 years, adding that he hopes that they will be able to do so in the next census. According to certain data, about 30,000 Serbs live in Albania.

When it comes to other regional countries, the 2003 statistics show that about 36,000 Serbs lived in Macedonia at the time, and their number is assessed to have increased by 15,000 by now.

Sreckovic pointed out that the data on social structure cannot be completely accurate as it depends on many things, including the degree of the protection of rights of a certain people in a given state, since those whose rights are infringed are often afraid to declare their national and religious origin.

"The position of the Serb people in regional countries is not even close to how we would want it to be and what is guaranteed by state conventions," Sreckovic stressed, adding that a certain progress has been made.

He believes that the reciprocity in honoring the rights of Serbs in the region will be secured and that Serbs living in the Western Balkan countries will have the same position as national communities in Serbia.