Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Liburn Aliu, Minister of Infrastructure, announced that the Gjilan-Bujanovac road has been inaugurated, through a post on Facebook on December 7th.
The post indicated that the project, worth 3 million euros, in addition to a 2900m-long four-lane road, also includes a bicycle lane, sidewalks on both sides, cable, fecal and atmospheric sewerage, lighting in the middle, and signaling.
Why is the statement being processed?
The length of the Gjilan-Bujanovac highway is over 41 km and the project for the expansion of this road included only the initial part (2,9 km) of the road towards Bujanovac.
Based on Minister Aliu's post, the claim for the expansion of the Gjilan-Bujanovac road was also found published in some Albanian-language media (see here, here and here).
Analyze:
Through research through search engines, hibrid.info found an announcement published by the Ministry of Infrastructure on September 30, 2019, indicating the start of work on expanding this road, which was also referred to in this announcement as the Gjilan-Bujanovac road.
Also, in a post encountered by hibrid.info, from Lutfi Haziri, the former mayor of Gjilan at the time, it is noted that he referred to the same project as the construction of the Gjilan-Bujanovac road.
Hibrid.info's research has found that the Gjilan-Bujanovac highway, It is 41,1 km long., with the city of Bujanovac which lies in the state of Serbia. Which shows that the highway is divided by a part of the Kosovo-Serbia border line.
Along this highway is located Dheu i Bardhë Border Crossing Point, which is located at the 23rd kilometer of this road. Based on these findings, it is shown that 23 km of the total length (41,3 km) of the Gjilan-Bujanovac road is located in the territory of Kosovo.
While based on what is said in Minister Aliu's post, it is understood that this concerns road expansion works, which include 2,9 km or 12,6% (of the Kosovo part) of the road heading towards Bujanovac.
In one video material published on the Facebook account of Alban Hyseni, the current mayor of the municipality of Gjilan, it is understood that in fact, the completed project means the expansion of the road at the entrance and exit of the city of Gjilan, which goes all the way to the village of Përlepnicë.
Conclusion:
The written statement of the Minister of Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, regarding the completion of works on the expansion of the Gjilan-Bujanovac road, is incorrect.
Hibrid.info has found that the Gjilan-Bujanovac highway is 41,3 km long (23 km in Kosovo), while the expansion project includes only 1,9 km of this road.
Based on the methodology of working on the category of truthfulness, this statement by Minister Aliu is assessed as a "false statement".
Reasoning:
In the category of truthfulness, those statements that contain statements related to objective facts, the accuracy of which can be determined through objective verification, are evaluated. Statements treated in this category receive the assessment – false statement, half-truth, or even true statement.