Aftermath of "Humanitarian" Intervention in Kosovo:
Ethnic Cleansing of Roma and Other Minorities Nears Completion
by Carol Bloom, Ann Neel, Sani Rifati and Sunil K. Sharma
www.dissidentvoice.org
April 26, 2004
The following article is an update to The Current Plight of the Kosovo Roma
<http://www.scn.org/roma/survey_intro.html> , a survey on the Romani
population based on the field reports of historian Paul Polansky, edited and
co-authored by Bloom, Neel, Rifati and Sharma, published by Voice of Roma
<http://www.voiceofroma.com/> in 2001.
On June 12th 1999, 78 days of US/NATO bombing of Kosovo ended. Now, five
years later, Kosovo is governed by the United Nations Interim Administration
(UNMIK). In the months following the end of the bombing, hundreds of
International Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), thousands of
peace-keepers (45,000-50,000 NATO/US soldiers), more than 5,000 UN police,
looked on while a massive ethnic cleansing was committed by the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) and extremist Albanians. The ethnic minorities living
in Kosovo prior to 1999 included Serbs, Roma, Turks, Gorani (Muslim Slavs),
Bosnian Croats, Jews, and others. According to UN figures, 230,000 ethnic
minorities were driven out of Kosovo since 1999, and these numbers are low
according to Serbian figures of 250,000 or more.
This was actually the second biggest ethnic cleansing in the former
Yugoslavia. The first one took place in Krajina, Croatia, where Croatian
forces ethnically cleansed the region of up to 350,000 minorities,
predominantly Serbs. One of the generals who led this pogrom was Agim Ceku,
who was trained in the US and Europe. Not only was this general in charge of
the ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo in the summer of 1999, he is
currently one of the leading commanders in charge of the Kosovo Police
Services (KPS-the UN police force of approximately 5,000 officers)! And many
of these KPS officers were actually KLA soldiers during the ethnic cleansing
campaign in the summer of 1999. It is also significant to note that very few
high level KLA commanders have been indicted or tried before the War Crimes
Tribunal in The Hague.
Very little has been reported in the media about the ethnic cleansing that
took place in the aftermath of the NATO intervention in Kosovo. In the
intervening years, what sparse coverage there has been of Kosovo has mostly
heralded it as the model of U.S./NATO allies bringing "democracy" and "civil
society" to countries previously steeped in ethnic hatreds and run by evil
despots. The fact that Kosovo went from being a multi-ethnic society within
a multi-ethnic and relatively economically stable country (the former
Yugoslavia) to being a lawless country intolerant of all but the ruling
majority, is not acknowledged by the press and even seems to be
intentionally hidden from public awareness.
Today, almost five years since the "humanitarian bombing" and the
establishment of a UN protectorate, Kosovo is one of the most dangerous
places in the world for Roma! Very few Roma, pejoratively referred to as
"gypsies," have remained; estimates range from 22,000-25,000. Before the
US/NATO intervention in Kosovo there were more than 150,000 Roma in the
region.
Over the past 700 years, Roma have settled and have established themselves
as a significant minority population in Kosovo. But since international
institutions arrived, bringing "democracy, free society, civil society,
ethnic harmony, peace and tolerance" to Kosovo, Roma are more abused,
persecuted, and ignored than ever. Today, in "free and liberated" Kosovo,
Roma often are unable to even obtain a birth certificate in the place where
they were born.
Freedom of movement is still one of the biggest concerns for remaining Roma;
most are unable to move about freely, go to work, shop for their families,
or attend schools. Very few international NGOs want to hire Roma, either
because the Albanian staff members are typically uninterested in integrating
Roma into "their" society, or because the foreign directors have fears of
being targeted by extremist Albanians. Today, many Roma are even unable to
travel to the hospital for routine or emergency treatment. For example, the
hospital in Mitrovica is an hour's drive from the Serbian enclaves near
Pristina, where many displaced Roma are living. Most of the Roma in Kosovo
today live either in Serbian enclaves, where they are protected by numbers
of minorities, or in Internally Displaced Person's (IDP) camps.
Kosovo Roma living in the UN protectorate today find themselves in a
frustrating bureaucratic "log-jam" when they try to obtain legal records,
visas, permits, etc. due to the absence of clarity concerning the lines of
authority and procedures in a region that is:
a) not governed by the nation to which it officially belongs (Serbia)
b) run by elected and appointed officials of the dominant ethnic majority
(Albanians) who are dictating, influencing, and administering policies
designed to eliminate multi-ethnicity in Kosovo
c) held in check by UNMIK and UNHCR, whose mandates create obstacles and
red-tape for Roma and other minorities trying to normalize/improve their
lives, and whose policies do not really offer them anything in the way of
protection, safety, freedom of movement, jobs, schooling for their children,
etc.
At this point, the vast majority of Kosovo Roma who took refuge in other
countries since June of 1999 have not received any form of permanent status
as refugees or political asylum seekers from those governments. In fact,
most face forced repatriation (deportation) on an ongoing (monthly,
bimonthly, quarterly) basis, even though UNHCR/UNMIK repeatedly have stated
that Kosovo is not safe for Roma -- recently even refusing entry to Romani
deportees. It should be noted that these Western European nations whose
governments refuse to grant permanent status to Kosovo Roma are the same
countries who participated/supported the NATO bombing campaign of Kosovo,
destroying parts of its infrastructure, violating international law by using
depleted uranium and cluster bombs, and then handing Kosovo over to the
Albanian majority who then ethnically cleansed the Roma. While the
international civil presence is mandated to maintain civil law and order,
protect and promote human rights and assure the safe and unimpeded return of
all refugees and displaced persons to their homes, reports by the UN
ombudsperson office, UNHCR, OSCE, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
and others state that KFOR and UNMIK have failed to fulfill these
obligations. If the Albanians succeed in creating an independent Kosovo, it
would seem that, in the end, they are to be rewarded for their massive
ethnic cleansing campaign.
Is this a picture of democracy in action? Is this what the US and NATO are
touting as a "success story"? Is another Diaspora, with no right to settle
and no hope of return, what the Roma of Kosovo can look forward to in the
21st Century?
In March of this year, fighting erupted again in Kosovo, between Albanians
and Serbs in the City of Mitrovica. The press reported that two incidents
triggered the violence -- a drive-by shooting of a Serbian youth on March
15th, followed by the drowning deaths of three Albanian youths, allegedly
chased into a river by dogs belonging to Serbian boys. The larger context of
the Albanian fight for Kosovo's secession from Serbia, a struggle that has
motivated the fighting since long before the US/NATO intervention in 1999,
is rarely mentioned in the press. It seems that the ethnic Albanian rulers
of Kosovo, having used UNMIK and the international presence in Kosovo to
rebuild this region for their dominance, are now ready to make the final
push for independence. The international press has failed to ask these
questions or fill in the background when reporting this violence, instead
repeating the story of the drowning boys as the cause of the recent
violence, sparking ethnic clashes that resulted in over 30 deaths and the
burning of more than 300 Serbian, Romani, and other minority homes at the
hands of extremist Albanians.
In sum, the Kosovo Roma are still caught in the middle of the ethnic
fighting between the Albanians and Serbs, which is now more intense than
ever.
* They are denied documents/the safety/ or the means to travel elsewhere or
to stay in Kosovo.
* They are unwelcome and unrecognized as legitimate citizens in
Kosovo/Serbia, or as refugees in Macedonia, Montenegro, and throughout
Western Europe.
* They are threatened with deportation and forced to repatriate, while UNHCR
states that they cannot safely return to live in Kosovo.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council on April 13th, 2004, U.N.
Peacekeeping Operations Director Jean-Marie Guehenno described Kosovo, five
years after the end of civil war, as a simmering cauldron of ethnic
suspicions. Mr. Guehenno stated: "The onslaught led by Albanian extremists
against Kosovo's Serb, Roma and Ashkali communities was an organized,
widespread and targeted campaign."
With the world focused on the widening war in Iraq, and the former
Yugoslavia far below media radar screens, the forgotten Roma of Kosovo are
fixed dead center in the cross-hairs of the emboldened Albanian majority,
poised to consummate their long held dream of an exclusively Albanian
Kosovo. The Roma are in even more desperate straits than the already grim
situation first reported in this publication.
Carol Bloom and Sani Rifati are respectively CFO and President of Voice of
Roma <http://www.voiceofroma.com/index.html> , an advocacy group based in
Northern California, whose goal is to provide Roma with a voice in their
local communities, as well as nationally and internationally. Ann Kneel, PhD
in Sociology from UC Berkeley, teaches at Sonoma State University in CA, and
is on the VOR Board of Directors. Sunil K. Sharma is the editor of Dissident
Voice, and is on the International Advisory Board of VOR. Voice of Roma can
be reached at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Other Articles by Sani Rifati
* The Roma and "Humanitarian" Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo
<http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles/Rifati_Kosovo.htm>
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
