UN RADIO in Kosovo

SRSG visit to IDPs

By Andrea Saula

Actuality No.1 Can I return or should I sell my property? I’ve invested in my property and I want my money back. I don’t want to live in 8 square meters with 4 family members for six years.

This woman is one of the residents of “Motel camping”, a former holiday-resort in the Southern Serbian town Bujanovac now turned into a camp housing refugees from Kosovo. Many more Internally Displaced Persons, or ‘IDP’s’, in the region are in a similar situation and share her concerns.

Hello and welcome. This is UN radio in Kosovo.

Accurate figures on the number of displaced are hard to establish but according to UN’s refugee agency UNHCR, some 200.000 non-Albanians from Kosovo are still considered to be IDPs. They now reside in Serbia proper and Montenegro.

Bujanovac, situated some 15 kilometers from the administrative boundary with Kosovo, accommodated thousands of Kosovo-Serbs and other non-Albanians who fled Kosovo in June 1999.

Now, almost six years later, that number has dropped. But still Bujanovac has two large camps with displaced persons. 107 Serbs and 220 Roma are living in ex hotel “Prolece” and camp “Salvatore”.

Last Wednesday head of UNMIK Soren Jessen Petersen visited these camps to listen to the problems and grievances of its residents and to encourage them to return.

Some of the refugees, like Slobodan Momcilovic from the village of Sadovina near Kosovska Vitina, showed anger and bitterness.

Actuality no.2 I know where my tractor is, my cows and all other property. My Albanian neighbors have them. Everything is robbed. We can go to Kosovo immediately and I will show you.

Petersen stressed he understands the anger of these IDP’s, but also tried to explain that the situation in Kosovo - especially regarding security - has improved considerably. He expressed confidence that most of them will be able to return, an issue he views as one of the main priorities in the implementation of standards.

Actuality No. 3 Some of displaced persons (edit to) were very angry and I understand their anger. I’m also angry because I think it’s a shame of all of us that six years after the end of war in Kosovo people still have to live in those kinds of conditions.

The current living conditions of the IDP’s in Bujanovac are hard to bear. Especially the situation of the Roma’s in camp Salvatore is extremely difficult. Like refugees elsewhere in Serbia and Montenegro, these people don’t have proper housing, there is lack of employment and little financial aid.

The Morina family, Roma’s from Gnjilane, say they hardly got any financial aid since they fled Kosovo.

Actuality No. 4 We can’t remember when we received something. It was long time ago. Only Red Cross of Serbia is delivering can food and warm meals.

At the end of his visit to the IDP’s in Bujanovac, UNMIK chief Soren Jessen Petersen held a press conference. Once again he appealed on all the displaced people to start working together with the Kosovo institutions, the authorities in Belgrade and international organizations.

Actuality No. 5 The good thing is that six years after the situation has improved in such a way that I see a lot of good opportunities for people to return if we address the real problems which are not so much security but they are linked to property, they are linked to employment and all things that we have to work on.

On his trip to Southern Serbia Petersen also met with local Buenovac authorities and representatives of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees plus the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohia.

That is all for today’s edition. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s program of UN Radio in Kosovo.