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The Committee for National Solidarity
Tolstojeva 34, Belgrade, YU
800 Roma Killed Or Missing in Kosovo, Says
Romany
Union
BELGRADE, Jan 18, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse)
Over
800 Romany Roma have been either killed or abducted in
Kosovo since
the UN took over in the region in June
1999, a Romany spokesman said on
Wednesday, according
to the Tanjug news agency.
Jovan Damjanovic,
president of the Union of Romany
Associations in Serbia, claims to have
detailed
information on 150 Roma he said were killed by the
former
Albanian separatist militants, the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA).
He
said that the fate of a further 530 Roma who had
been reported missing was
still unknown and expressed
his concern over the future of refugee return
programs
rehousing Romany and Serb refugees in Kosovo.
Despite the
presence of 46,000 international
peacekeepers, he said that Kosovo was a
living hell
where "those who are not Albanian fear for their lives
and
their property".
Over 200,000 Serbs and non-Albanians have fled
Kosovo
since June 1999 fearing violence at the hands of the
Albanian
majority, according to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
Meanwhile Belgrade claims that over 1,000 Serbs have
been
killed or are missing in the breakaway province
since the UN moved in at
the end of NATO's bombing
campaign, which ended the conflict in Kosovo in
June
1999. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Mrs Jela Jovanovic, art historian
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