UNMIK/PR/388

PRESS RELEASE - 12 October 2000

SRSG Urges Moratorium on Forced Returns Until the Spring

PRISTINA---SRSG Dr. Bernard Kouchner has urged governments where Kosovo Albanian refugees are based to stop forced and induced returns until the spring because of lack of adequate accommodation in Kosovo.

This was conveyed to representatives of various liaison offices in Pristina, following a meeting held yesterday in which the inter-agency Working Group on Returnees presented to them the updated version of the UNMIK Policy Paper on the Repatriation of Kosovar Albanians.

Some 82,000 Kosovars had returned by the end of September, of whom nearly 9,000 had been forcibly repatriated.  Even if the monthly return rate (about 15,000 in August) should moderate over the next few months, Kosovo may be faced with absorbing more than 100,000 Kosovars this year alone.

Lack of adequate accommodation and the potential overcrowding of temporary shelters are critical issues facing UNMIK and international donors as another winter approaches.  In view of the compelling circumstances, Dr. Kouchner has therefore called upon governments in the countries of asylum to impose another moratorium on forced and induced return until the spring.

Concerns over the forcible return of members of minority ethnic groups in Kosovo, as well as other vulnerable persons for whom assistance is not yet readily available, have made the call for a cessation of the returns a serious humanitarian issue.

In order to encourage the development of inter-communal communication and discussion, UNMIK has urged the governments in the countries of asylum to remove some of the pressures that tend to exacerbate ethnic tensions, such as internal displacement, by heeding its call for a moratorium on forced repatriation until March 2001, when reconstruction efforts will be able to resume in earnest.

UNMIK therefore took this opportunity of meeting with representatives of several governments to request further support to reintegration efforts.