UNMIK/PR/853
Wednesday, 23 October 2002

SRSG sees progress in Osojane

SRSG Michael Steiner today visited Osojane, Istok municipality, where 10 days earlier he had heard the concerns of the recently returned Serb community.

"I came to Osojane to see the progress and to speak about success," he told residents.

He said he was pleased to see that construction had begun on 26 houses for returnees, as he had promised on his earlier visit.

Also at that time, he had shared his outrage with Serb pensioners from Osojane who had come under attack by demonstrators in nearby Pec/Peja on 10 October.

"Yesterday, police made the third arrest in this case-and we believe that he was the organizer of this violent demonstration," he said.

SRSG Michael Steiner said that both the reconstruction of the destroyed village and the investigation into the Pec/Peja incident would continue.

He also said that although voting was a matter of individual choice, only by doing so would their voices be heard in the larger community, he said.

Also, only through participation would decentralization become a reality on the ground.

Asked to comment on a Serb proposal that Kosovo Serbs vote only in five municipalities in which they formed the majority, SRSG Michael Steiner said, "I don't believe in first and second class Serbs. I cannot imagine that the solidarity of Serbs is such that they are only prepared to vote where they are strong, and leave the others unrepresented."

Participating in the municipal structures would also make future returns for Serbs easier than had been Osojane's experience: If Serbs don't vote, he said, "no one will be in the municipality to say 'dobro dosli' where they want to return.