HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cj/Qyugo-kosovo-refugees.RfaW_CuO.html Three years after their exodus, Kosovo Serbs impatient to return AFP / Aleksandar Mitic -The meeting is aimed at presenting a plan for return and collecting funds to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe" next winter for the Serbs displaced from Kosovo as well as for more than 500,000 Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia who are currently in Serbia. BELGRADE, June 24 (AFP) - Three years after the beginning of their exodus in June 1999, some 200,000 Serbs displaced from Kosovo are impatient to return to their homes and rebelling against the international community's inertia on this thorny issue. "Serbs from Kosovo have been cheated, they believed the UN mission's (UNMIK) promises that they would launch their return, but it did absolutely nothing," Zvonimir Trajkovic, an official of the Committee for Return in Kosovo, a non-governmental organization, said. Serb forces' withdrawal from Kosovo in June 1999, following the NATO bombing campaign, has opened the door to ethnic Albanian extremists who wanted to expel Serb civilians from the province. Just a few non-Albanians who have fled the province were able to come back so far. The UN administration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) justify a small figure of returnees by "lack of security for the Serb population," considering that a threat of violence by ethnic Albanian extremists still exists. More than 80,000 Serbs live mainly in enclaves strongly protected by NATO-led peacekeeping forces (KFOR) with quite a restrictive freedom of movement. On the other hand, Serbs very often cannot manage to take back their houses and apartments in Kosovo, occupied by ethnic Albanians after their departure. According to the Housing and Property Directorate, a organization in charge of restitution of property in Kosovo, only some 200 illegal occupants of the apartments had been evicted so far, out of 16,000 mainly Serb requests. "Enough of excuses! Three years have passed, people cannot stand it any more," stormed Trajkovic. In Kraljevo, Krusevac and Leskovac, towns in central and southern Serbia where the biggest number of those displaced from Kosovo are situated, protests of refugees who want to go home multiply. Trajkovic's committee hopes to organize soon a "big march accross the administrative border" that separates Kosovo from the rest of Serbia. He intends to organize this summer an action of "encircling Kosovo with 50, 000 displaced to show the world the tragedy of the Serb community." "I know that those people have suffered a lot and that they have a right to go back home," said Nebojsa Covic, Serbian deputy prime minister in charge of Kosovo, after being informed about the project. But the return has to be "organized," Covic added. He again appealed his compatriots to be patient and let Serbian authorities "exhaust all possibilities of an accord with UNMIK." For UNMIK, the return of Serbs is the "main priority." The UN administration called for a return during this summer and autumn in order to "change the climate and build a favorable environment for more significant return in 2003 and 2004," according to an UNMIK report. And at a Balkans Stability Pact meeting in Geneva next week Covic is to submit a Serbian strategy for solving the issue of refugees and displaced people. The meeting is aimed at presenting a plan for return and collecting funds to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe" next winter for the Serbs displaced from Kosovo as well as for more than 500,000 Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia who are currently in Serbia. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
