Post by Fender on Mar 9, 2008 7:48:44 GMT -5
In the Aftermath of Ethnic Cleansing: Continued Persecution of Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and Others Perceived as “Gypsies” in Kosovo
Memorandum of the European Roma Rights Centre
The memorandum following below was presented at a hearing at the European Parliament on 27 June 2005. The hearing was organised by MEPs Kallenbach and deGroen. 1
Introduction
Six years ago, after the end of the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia, Roma Ashkalis, Egyptians and others regarded as “Gypsies” (“RAE”) were violently cleansed from their homes in Kosovo by means of arson, mass destruction of houses, killings and rape. Today, persecution of the members of these communities continues, manifested in their systematic exclusion from access to fundamental human rights. Racial discrimination against RAE communities in Kosovo is pervasive, depriving tens of thousands from even a bare minimum of dignity. Anti-Gypsy sentiment among the majority is widespread, ranging from assaults on RAE individuals to verbal abuse and dissemination of defamatory images, including images stigmatising RAE as perpetrators of crimes against Albanians, in the media.
Living in an atmosphere of persistent threats to their security, unprotected against massive exclusion from jobs and denial of access to income sources, exposed to extremely substandard and hazardous living conditions; marginalised in the public sphere, the RAE communities today experience levels of oppression which render the necessity of providing them with international protection unquestionable. Oppression of RAE is further aggravated by failure of the United Nations administration to bring to justice the perpetrators of even the most egregious crimes committed against RAE since June 1999.
A brief summary of some particularly extreme issues facing Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo follows:
Failure to Provide Just Remedy for Gross Violations of Fundamental Human Rights: RAE are denied the right to compensation for the violent crimes committed against them immediately after the end of the NATO bombing in June 1999 and the following years. In the course of the ethnic cleansing campaign, ethnic Albanians kidnapped and severely physically abused and in some cases killed Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians; raped women in the presence of family members; and seized, looted or destroyed property en masse. Whole Romani settlements were burned to the ground by ethnic Albanians, in many cases while NATO troops looked on.1 In the following years numerous RAE returnees were targeted for violent assaults such as the brutal killing of four Ashkali returnees in Dashevc/Doševac in November 2000, the numerous explosions causing deaths and destruction of newly rebuilt houses for returnees. The perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice to date. The ethnic cleansing of the RAE remains totally unremedied.
Continuing Violence, Intimidation, and Harassment: After several years during which UN officials and others assured the public that the worst violence in Kosovo was over; after Germany, Italy, Sweden and other states, considering Kosovo to be safe, terminated the international protection of many RAE and started their forceful repatriation to Kosovo, the renewal of mass violence against minorities in Kosovo in March 2004, demonstrated that forces in Kosovo intent on expelling non-Albanian minorities continue to control the course of events. Several hundreds of Roma and Ashkalis were targeted for violent attacks; at least 75 houses belonging to Romani and Ashkali families were set on fire. In Vushtrri/Vucitrn alone, some 70 houses belonging to Ashkalis were burned and destroyed.
Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo today live in a state of pervasive fear, nourished by routine intimidation and verbal harassment, as well as by occasional racist assaults by Kosovo Albanians. Most of these incidents remain unreported to the authorities due to lack of trust and fear of retaliation, reinforced and affirmed by the awareness among RAE that there has been no justice delivered in connection with the massive wave of violent crimes committed against them, and indeed that the persons primarily responsible for these crimes are the new powers in Kosovo.
A Vacuum of Protection against Discrimination: Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo are subjected to exclusion and marginalisation as a result of systematic racial discrimination. RAE remain the only communities which still live in camps for internally displaced in inhuman conditions; levels of unemployment and impoverishment among them are grossly disproportionate compared to the rest of the Kosovo population; housing conditions are markedly inferior; access to social and public services is seriously restricted. The impact of racial discrimination against RAE is particularly visible in the exercise of:
The Right to Return in Safety and Dignity: Numerous Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians remain in internal displacement throughout Kosovo and outside Kosovo unable to return due to fear for their security; due to failure of the authorities to rebuild their houses and ensure other necessary conditions for a dignified return; due to failure of the authorities to ensure that the legal owners of houses can reclaim their property which had been illegally occupied. Most poignantly, the failure of authorities in Kosovo to ensure access to fundamental rights of RAE has been demonstrated by the continuing exposure in the last six years of some 700 RAE individuals in the IDP camps in Northern Mitrovica and Zveçan to lead poisoning.
The Right to Work: Discrimination against Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians in employment is massive: With the privatisation of the Kosovo enterprises, hundreds of RAE are excluded from jobs; other opportunities for access to income sources are also largely unavailable to them; RAE involvement in the civil service is token. Discrimination in employment condemns large numbers of RAE to degrading poverty. Severe impoverishment of RAE families is also a major obstacle for access to education and health care.
The Right to Adequate Housing: For numerous families housing is extremely substandard in marked contrast to housing conditions of any other ethnicities currently in Kosovo. In a number of RAE neighbourhoods, located on the margins of towns, individuals are exposed to serious health risks due to lack of basic facilities and their access to employment, education and public services is severely restricted.
The conditions described above deter tens of thousands of individuals from returning to their homeland. Out of a community of about 150,000 individuals before 1999, the estimated number of RAE in Kosovo today is 30,000-35,000. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of individuals who fled persecution in 1999-2000, several dozens of Ashkali families left Kosovo after the March 2004 pogroms. A number of voluntary and forced returnees with whom the ERRC recently spoke were preparing to leave the province. Many of these individuals are threatened to become victims of human trafficking and other gross human rights violations. Forced returnees in 2003 and 2004 have left Kosovo in a matter of months after their forced repatriation. For many RAE, the only reason to remain in Kosovo is reportedly lack of money to arrange their leaving the province. The underlying cause of these issues is the persecution of Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others regarded as “Gypsies” in Kosovo, a persecution undertaken under the auspices of international administration in Kosovo.
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has conducted a number of field missions to Kosovo after the end of the NATO bombing. Beginning in June 1999, the ERRC has undertaken regular documentation of violent crimes against RAE committed by Kosovo Albanians, crimes including murder, rape, arson and destruction of property and looting, all undertaken with the intention and effect of enforcing the ethnic purity of Kosovo as a place for ethnic Albanians only. Most recently, in the period May 25-June 5, 2005 the ERRC carried out field research in Kosovo to assess the human rights situation of the RAE minorities, 2 as a result of renewed efforts by Western governments to assert that there are no major human rights issues in Kosovo which might obstruct the agenda of forcible expulsion of refugees from Western Europe. In these most recent documentary undertakings, the ERRC spoke with voluntary returnees and forced returnees to Kosovo; RAE community leaders, including municipal officials, in the following Kosovo municipalities: Prishtinë/Priština, Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Pejë/Pec, Gjakovë/Ðakovica, Shtimje/ Štimlje, Prizeren, and Obiliq/Obilic. The ERRC also met representatives of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) and the Kosovo Ombudsperson. Officials of these institutions acknowledged continuing violations of the rights of RAE individuals in Kosovo. Mr Kilian Kleinschmidt, head of the UNMIK Office for Returns and Communities, told the ERRC: “The real issue is the high levels of discrimination. Access to social services on a non-discriminatory basis is not working now.” 3 These are, however, apparently considered issues of not such compelling urgency as to preclude forcible return. A recent report of UNMIK to the Council of Europe reinforces the tendency to downplay the gravity of the human rights situation of RAE communities in the post-conflict period in Kosovo. In one particularly flagrant instance of understatement, the violent expulsion of RAE and other minorities from Kosovo in the aftermath of the NATO bombing is described as “mass departure of non-Albanians from Kosovo.” 4 The ERRC observes that the reasons for such approach have nothing to do with the actual situation in Kosovo. Rather, they are driven by the priority of Western European countries to expel as many Kosovo refugees as possible, regardless of the actual threats to their fundamental human rights in Kosovo and regardless of the degrading treatment they will experience as a result of such expulsions.
On the basis of field research conducted in May-June 2005 as well as other recent research, the ERRC present the following concerns:
Continuing Failure to Prevent Exposure to Extremely Hazardous Conditions
In June 1999, the Roma from Fabricka neighbourhood on the south bank of the Ibar River in Mitrovicë/a were driven away from their homes and the houses in the community burned to the ground. In response to the refugee crisis the UNHCR established three camps for the RAE IDPs in northern Kosovo – Cesmin Lug and Kablar camps in Mitrovicë/a municipality and Žitkovac/Zhikoc camp in Zveèan/Zveçan municipality. The IDP camps in question were set up near a toxic waste site, in the vicinity of the Trepca mine, and were reportedly meant to shelter the persons placed there for only several weeks. Six years later, however, around 700 RAE remain in the camps, where they have lived since 1999. These persons are constantly exposed to very high levels of lead and other metals and toxins. In July 2004, the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted an environmental health risk assessment for lead and heavy metal contamination in the Mitrovica region revealing extremely harmful blood lead levels (“BLLs”) in Romani residents of the camps. In fact, the first random blood testing for lead poisoning for Mitrovica area was first carried out in August-September 2000 by Dr. Andrey Andreyev, a Russian consultant to the UN. He submitted a report in November 2000 to UNMIK and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which revealed that the only dangerous levels he found were in the RAE IDPs camps and recommended the evacuation of those camps. 5 In spite of this report, there was no reaction to this situation. Indeed, UNMIK authorities suppressed the report, and refused to allow its distribution.
WHO conducted further blood tests at the IDP camps in July 2004. Lead has chronic multisystem effects in the human body, but the most significant effect is on IQ levels where meta analysis of numerous studies shows increases in blood lead from 10 to 20 micrograms/dl was associated with a decrease of 2.6 IQ points. These impacts are irreversible. According to the 2004 WHO report, out of a total of 58 children tested, 34 were found to have BLLs above acceptable levels. The report states that: “Twelve children were found to have exceptionally high levels. Six of them possibly fall within the range described by the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as constituting a medical emergency (=> 70 ug/dl). (Our instrumentation is only able to read up to 65 micrograms per deciliter).” 6
Jenita Mehmeti, a four-year-old Ashkali girl died in the Žitkovac/Zhikoc camp after being treated for two months in a Serbian hospital for lead poisoning, in July 2004. Her two-year-old sister, Nikolina, shows similar symptoms and has been in and out of hospital in Belgrade for treatment. However, without immediate evacuation, medical treatment will likely have little effect.
A second WHO report produced in October 2004 noted that the Roma case is urgent. According to the report, Romani children have consistently had the highest blood levels in the entire population sampled. 88.23% of soils in the camps are unsafe for human habitation and for gardening and are a major source of exposure to the Roma population.
Despite being aware of the extreme health hazards persisting in the area of the camps, UNHCR, UNMIK and local government officials have failed to take actions to ensure the safety of the affected families. Moreover, the Mitrovica municipality and other authorities in Kosovo have failed to provide conditions for the return of the Mitrovica Roma to the Fabricka neighbourhood. Several building projects in the neighbourhood aimed at facilitating return of the expelled persons have been reportedly destroyed by grenade or arson, with the intention and effect of enforcing fear of return among the Roma concerned. To their credit, the Roma currently residing in the three camps for displaced persons have not wavered in their demand to return to the neighbourhood, causing some frustration among those who have sought to impose a compromise ghettoising solution of placement in substandard housing elsewhere.
Denial of the Right to Return to Place of Origin in Safety and Dignity
To date, authorities in Kosovo have failed basically to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and assure the safe and unimpeded return of RAE refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo. As of June 2005, numerous persons belonging to RAE communities remain in internal displacement inside Kosovo. Some of them feel that return to their old neighbourhoods would be unsafe, and these are currently completely deserted. Many are unable to return to their previous homes which have been destroyed and not rebuilt or are now illegally occupied by other persons. Roma in internal displacement live in extremely substandard conditions in prefabricated houses in the IDP camps; crowded in the houses of relatives; or occupying houses of RAE currently outside Kosovo. RAE IDPs are denied the right to return as a result of numerous factors:
Individuals are unwilling to return to their old places of residence because they believe them to be unsafe. Some of these – such as the Dalmatinska neighbourhood in Prishtinë/Priština, for example – are now completely deserted by their former RAE inhabitants and occupied by Kosovo Albanians – but housing in other parts of Kosovo is unavailable;
Proceedings for reinstating the legal owners of houses which have been illegally occupied are slow, and enforcement is ineffective;
Reconstruction of houses is unduly delayed and in some instances altogether stalled;
Individuals cannot prove title to the land on which their houses used to be due to lost or invalid property ownership documents;
Social housing is unavailable;
Municipalities have failed to allocate land for construction of houses;
Municipalities want to use land where RAE houses were located for more lucrative purposes and propose unacceptable for RAE solutions to housing;
The ERRC is not aware of any data about the number of displaced RAE; in several municipalities visited by the ERRC, however, the numbers of displaced RAE reported by local community leaders ranged between 2-3 families to several dozens of families.
The IDP camp Plemetina, near Obiliq/Obilic, built in 1999, remains standing and inhabited until today, despite commitment of the Kosovo authorities to dismantle the camp by mid-2005. According to Bajrush Berisha, leader of the RAE communities in the camp, the camp is currently home to 116 families or about 464 persons which originate from five Kosovo municipalities. According to Mr Berisha, only two out of the five municipalities have so far allocated land to build houses for the Roma. Even in those places where land had been allocated, however, reportedly no construction of housing has started. The explanation by authorities for the failure to provide durable housing is “lack of donors”. According to local RAE, in the whole Obiliq/ Obilic municipality there are around 50 reconstructed houses of RAE out of about 1,000 houses destroyed in 1999-2000. 7
In Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje municipality, according to the local community leader Mr Mefail Mustafa, there are at least 70 internally displaced RAE families. These people have found a solution to their housing situation by occupying the empty houses of relatives or other RAE persons who are outside Kosovo. The displaced families reportedly include around 20 families who in 2001 voluntarily returned, assisted by the UNHCR, but were not brought to their original places of residence – many of them came from Prishtinë/Priština, for example. According to information provided to the ERRC by Rexhep Hyseni, community leader, in the whole municipality more than 200 houses belonging to RAE have not yet been rebuilt. Around 144 houses have been rebuilt thus far. 8
In Gjakovë/Ðakovica, according to Nexhip Qehaja, head of the municipal office for communities, around 15 RAE families currently in Montenegro, cannot return to their homes which were destroyed and have not yet been rebuilt. These families, as well as many other families in Gjakovë/Ðakovica do not possess property ownership documents and therefore cannot prove ownership of the land, while the municipality claims that the land is municipal property. 9
In some instances the construction of RAE houses has been stalled and the families of returnees have to live with relatives or other persons. Abdullah Presheva neighbourhood of Gjilan/Gnjilane used to have a population of about 4,000 Roma before 1999 of whom today there are about 250 individuals. Out of 360 Romani houses, some 290 were destroyed. According to Ms Shpresa Agushi, local community leader, about 20 out of 30 Romani families who recently returned to Gjilan/Gnjilane currently live in rented accommodation. The construction of 30 houses for Roma families from Abdullah Presheva neighbourhood in Gjilan/Gnjilane, was reportedly suspended with only 9 houses rebuilt or reconstructed. The rebuilding of the houses, which started in mid-2004 and for which reportedly total of Euro 1,500,000 had been donated by the Dutch government and the municipality, stopped reportedly due to lack of money to complete the rebuilding. RAE leaders from Gjilan/Gnjilane expressed the belief that there had been misuse of money and that part of the money was spent for the reconstruction of Albanian houses in neighbouring villages, despite the fact that the project was specifically meant for houses of Roma in Abdullah Presheva. Although part of the amount (reportedly Euro 800 per family) also covered expenses for legalisation of the property ownership documentation of all the thirty families, according to RAE representatives, the amount of Euro 1,500,000 should have been enough to complete the project. 10
Roma from Abdullah Presheva also reported thefts of building material for the reconstruction of Romani houses. In at least one instance, the investigation into alleged thefts conducted by the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) has reportedly been biased. According to the testimony of Seburan Ramadani to the ERRC, on an unspecified date in March-April 2005, he reported to the KPS some thefts of building material and equipment for his house. Mr Ramadani told the ERRC that he lived across the street from the place where the reconstruction of his house was ongoing. He stated that he observed that some material which used to be stored near the house was missing and that a boiler which was installed the previous day had disappeared on the following day. When he reported the thefts to the police, he was allegedly accused of having committed the thefts himself and was told that he might be brought to court. According to his testimony, there is a pending investigation against him for theft. 11
Another example of failure to guarantee the right to return has been reported to the ERRC in Pejë/Pec. The Crystal neighbourhood in the town used to be the home of more than 100 RAE families. Currently only 2-3 families live in the neighbourhood. Most of the houses were burned and destroyed in 1999-2000. According to a local official, in 2002 the then UNMIK administrator of the municipality had promised to clean the area and start rebuilding the houses but failed to fulfil the promise. According to the same source, donors have been overwhelmingly reluctant to fund projects for rebuilding houses fearing that the houses would be vandalised. In 2003, for example, two RAE houses were reportedly rebuilt and immediately after that burned down. At least 10 RAE families currently live with relatives in Pejë/Pec while waiting the municipality to act on their request for rebuilding their houses. In this as in other cases reported to the ERRC, the municipality reportedly insisted to build blocks of flats rather than individual houses for the RAE families. RAE representatives believe the reason behind such proposal is the interest of the municipality to use the land for more lucrative purposes, regardless of the fact that RAE had lived for several decades on that land. 12
Ineffective Procedure for Reclaiming Illegally Occupied Houses
Many RAE reported to the ERRC that they are denied access to their houses which in most of the cases have been occupied by Kosovo Albanians. According to RAE, proceedings before the UN Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) Claims Commission – the organ which has jurisdiction over claims raised by persons who were the owners or occupancy right holders of residential real property and who do not enjoy possession of the property, are lengthy and sometimes decisions are not effectively executed. For example, Alihajdar Krekaqe, 53, from Prizren owned a house in the town. In July 1999, while he and his wife were in their house, four persons in uniforms of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) broke into the house, tried to strangle Alihajdar with an electric cord and forced the family to leave. Alihajdar Krekaqe complained to the German KFOR in Prizren, who responded to him that the Albanians would leave his house within one month. As of June 2005, the family has nevertheless been unable to repossess their property and rents a house for Euro 100 per month in Prizren. Alihajdar filed a complaint with the HPD on November 9, 2001. As of the end of May, 2005 there has been no decision on his case. In the meantime, he filed a complaint with the Ombudsperson’s institution in September 2002, as well as sought assistance from the municipality of Prizren. According to Mr Krekaqe, each time he inquired about the status of his claim with various authorities, he was told that “his complaint is being processed”. 13
Memorandum of the European Roma Rights Centre
The memorandum following below was presented at a hearing at the European Parliament on 27 June 2005. The hearing was organised by MEPs Kallenbach and deGroen. 1
Introduction
Six years ago, after the end of the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia, Roma Ashkalis, Egyptians and others regarded as “Gypsies” (“RAE”) were violently cleansed from their homes in Kosovo by means of arson, mass destruction of houses, killings and rape. Today, persecution of the members of these communities continues, manifested in their systematic exclusion from access to fundamental human rights. Racial discrimination against RAE communities in Kosovo is pervasive, depriving tens of thousands from even a bare minimum of dignity. Anti-Gypsy sentiment among the majority is widespread, ranging from assaults on RAE individuals to verbal abuse and dissemination of defamatory images, including images stigmatising RAE as perpetrators of crimes against Albanians, in the media.
Living in an atmosphere of persistent threats to their security, unprotected against massive exclusion from jobs and denial of access to income sources, exposed to extremely substandard and hazardous living conditions; marginalised in the public sphere, the RAE communities today experience levels of oppression which render the necessity of providing them with international protection unquestionable. Oppression of RAE is further aggravated by failure of the United Nations administration to bring to justice the perpetrators of even the most egregious crimes committed against RAE since June 1999.
A brief summary of some particularly extreme issues facing Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo follows:
Failure to Provide Just Remedy for Gross Violations of Fundamental Human Rights: RAE are denied the right to compensation for the violent crimes committed against them immediately after the end of the NATO bombing in June 1999 and the following years. In the course of the ethnic cleansing campaign, ethnic Albanians kidnapped and severely physically abused and in some cases killed Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians; raped women in the presence of family members; and seized, looted or destroyed property en masse. Whole Romani settlements were burned to the ground by ethnic Albanians, in many cases while NATO troops looked on.1 In the following years numerous RAE returnees were targeted for violent assaults such as the brutal killing of four Ashkali returnees in Dashevc/Doševac in November 2000, the numerous explosions causing deaths and destruction of newly rebuilt houses for returnees. The perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice to date. The ethnic cleansing of the RAE remains totally unremedied.
Continuing Violence, Intimidation, and Harassment: After several years during which UN officials and others assured the public that the worst violence in Kosovo was over; after Germany, Italy, Sweden and other states, considering Kosovo to be safe, terminated the international protection of many RAE and started their forceful repatriation to Kosovo, the renewal of mass violence against minorities in Kosovo in March 2004, demonstrated that forces in Kosovo intent on expelling non-Albanian minorities continue to control the course of events. Several hundreds of Roma and Ashkalis were targeted for violent attacks; at least 75 houses belonging to Romani and Ashkali families were set on fire. In Vushtrri/Vucitrn alone, some 70 houses belonging to Ashkalis were burned and destroyed.
Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo today live in a state of pervasive fear, nourished by routine intimidation and verbal harassment, as well as by occasional racist assaults by Kosovo Albanians. Most of these incidents remain unreported to the authorities due to lack of trust and fear of retaliation, reinforced and affirmed by the awareness among RAE that there has been no justice delivered in connection with the massive wave of violent crimes committed against them, and indeed that the persons primarily responsible for these crimes are the new powers in Kosovo.
A Vacuum of Protection against Discrimination: Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others considered as “Gypsies” in Kosovo are subjected to exclusion and marginalisation as a result of systematic racial discrimination. RAE remain the only communities which still live in camps for internally displaced in inhuman conditions; levels of unemployment and impoverishment among them are grossly disproportionate compared to the rest of the Kosovo population; housing conditions are markedly inferior; access to social and public services is seriously restricted. The impact of racial discrimination against RAE is particularly visible in the exercise of:
The Right to Return in Safety and Dignity: Numerous Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians remain in internal displacement throughout Kosovo and outside Kosovo unable to return due to fear for their security; due to failure of the authorities to rebuild their houses and ensure other necessary conditions for a dignified return; due to failure of the authorities to ensure that the legal owners of houses can reclaim their property which had been illegally occupied. Most poignantly, the failure of authorities in Kosovo to ensure access to fundamental rights of RAE has been demonstrated by the continuing exposure in the last six years of some 700 RAE individuals in the IDP camps in Northern Mitrovica and Zveçan to lead poisoning.
The Right to Work: Discrimination against Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians in employment is massive: With the privatisation of the Kosovo enterprises, hundreds of RAE are excluded from jobs; other opportunities for access to income sources are also largely unavailable to them; RAE involvement in the civil service is token. Discrimination in employment condemns large numbers of RAE to degrading poverty. Severe impoverishment of RAE families is also a major obstacle for access to education and health care.
The Right to Adequate Housing: For numerous families housing is extremely substandard in marked contrast to housing conditions of any other ethnicities currently in Kosovo. In a number of RAE neighbourhoods, located on the margins of towns, individuals are exposed to serious health risks due to lack of basic facilities and their access to employment, education and public services is severely restricted.
The conditions described above deter tens of thousands of individuals from returning to their homeland. Out of a community of about 150,000 individuals before 1999, the estimated number of RAE in Kosovo today is 30,000-35,000. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of individuals who fled persecution in 1999-2000, several dozens of Ashkali families left Kosovo after the March 2004 pogroms. A number of voluntary and forced returnees with whom the ERRC recently spoke were preparing to leave the province. Many of these individuals are threatened to become victims of human trafficking and other gross human rights violations. Forced returnees in 2003 and 2004 have left Kosovo in a matter of months after their forced repatriation. For many RAE, the only reason to remain in Kosovo is reportedly lack of money to arrange their leaving the province. The underlying cause of these issues is the persecution of Roma, Ashkalis, Egyptians and others regarded as “Gypsies” in Kosovo, a persecution undertaken under the auspices of international administration in Kosovo.
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has conducted a number of field missions to Kosovo after the end of the NATO bombing. Beginning in June 1999, the ERRC has undertaken regular documentation of violent crimes against RAE committed by Kosovo Albanians, crimes including murder, rape, arson and destruction of property and looting, all undertaken with the intention and effect of enforcing the ethnic purity of Kosovo as a place for ethnic Albanians only. Most recently, in the period May 25-June 5, 2005 the ERRC carried out field research in Kosovo to assess the human rights situation of the RAE minorities, 2 as a result of renewed efforts by Western governments to assert that there are no major human rights issues in Kosovo which might obstruct the agenda of forcible expulsion of refugees from Western Europe. In these most recent documentary undertakings, the ERRC spoke with voluntary returnees and forced returnees to Kosovo; RAE community leaders, including municipal officials, in the following Kosovo municipalities: Prishtinë/Priština, Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Pejë/Pec, Gjakovë/Ðakovica, Shtimje/ Štimlje, Prizeren, and Obiliq/Obilic. The ERRC also met representatives of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) and the Kosovo Ombudsperson. Officials of these institutions acknowledged continuing violations of the rights of RAE individuals in Kosovo. Mr Kilian Kleinschmidt, head of the UNMIK Office for Returns and Communities, told the ERRC: “The real issue is the high levels of discrimination. Access to social services on a non-discriminatory basis is not working now.” 3 These are, however, apparently considered issues of not such compelling urgency as to preclude forcible return. A recent report of UNMIK to the Council of Europe reinforces the tendency to downplay the gravity of the human rights situation of RAE communities in the post-conflict period in Kosovo. In one particularly flagrant instance of understatement, the violent expulsion of RAE and other minorities from Kosovo in the aftermath of the NATO bombing is described as “mass departure of non-Albanians from Kosovo.” 4 The ERRC observes that the reasons for such approach have nothing to do with the actual situation in Kosovo. Rather, they are driven by the priority of Western European countries to expel as many Kosovo refugees as possible, regardless of the actual threats to their fundamental human rights in Kosovo and regardless of the degrading treatment they will experience as a result of such expulsions.
On the basis of field research conducted in May-June 2005 as well as other recent research, the ERRC present the following concerns:
Continuing Failure to Prevent Exposure to Extremely Hazardous Conditions
In June 1999, the Roma from Fabricka neighbourhood on the south bank of the Ibar River in Mitrovicë/a were driven away from their homes and the houses in the community burned to the ground. In response to the refugee crisis the UNHCR established three camps for the RAE IDPs in northern Kosovo – Cesmin Lug and Kablar camps in Mitrovicë/a municipality and Žitkovac/Zhikoc camp in Zveèan/Zveçan municipality. The IDP camps in question were set up near a toxic waste site, in the vicinity of the Trepca mine, and were reportedly meant to shelter the persons placed there for only several weeks. Six years later, however, around 700 RAE remain in the camps, where they have lived since 1999. These persons are constantly exposed to very high levels of lead and other metals and toxins. In July 2004, the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted an environmental health risk assessment for lead and heavy metal contamination in the Mitrovica region revealing extremely harmful blood lead levels (“BLLs”) in Romani residents of the camps. In fact, the first random blood testing for lead poisoning for Mitrovica area was first carried out in August-September 2000 by Dr. Andrey Andreyev, a Russian consultant to the UN. He submitted a report in November 2000 to UNMIK and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which revealed that the only dangerous levels he found were in the RAE IDPs camps and recommended the evacuation of those camps. 5 In spite of this report, there was no reaction to this situation. Indeed, UNMIK authorities suppressed the report, and refused to allow its distribution.
WHO conducted further blood tests at the IDP camps in July 2004. Lead has chronic multisystem effects in the human body, but the most significant effect is on IQ levels where meta analysis of numerous studies shows increases in blood lead from 10 to 20 micrograms/dl was associated with a decrease of 2.6 IQ points. These impacts are irreversible. According to the 2004 WHO report, out of a total of 58 children tested, 34 were found to have BLLs above acceptable levels. The report states that: “Twelve children were found to have exceptionally high levels. Six of them possibly fall within the range described by the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as constituting a medical emergency (=> 70 ug/dl). (Our instrumentation is only able to read up to 65 micrograms per deciliter).” 6
Jenita Mehmeti, a four-year-old Ashkali girl died in the Žitkovac/Zhikoc camp after being treated for two months in a Serbian hospital for lead poisoning, in July 2004. Her two-year-old sister, Nikolina, shows similar symptoms and has been in and out of hospital in Belgrade for treatment. However, without immediate evacuation, medical treatment will likely have little effect.
A second WHO report produced in October 2004 noted that the Roma case is urgent. According to the report, Romani children have consistently had the highest blood levels in the entire population sampled. 88.23% of soils in the camps are unsafe for human habitation and for gardening and are a major source of exposure to the Roma population.
Despite being aware of the extreme health hazards persisting in the area of the camps, UNHCR, UNMIK and local government officials have failed to take actions to ensure the safety of the affected families. Moreover, the Mitrovica municipality and other authorities in Kosovo have failed to provide conditions for the return of the Mitrovica Roma to the Fabricka neighbourhood. Several building projects in the neighbourhood aimed at facilitating return of the expelled persons have been reportedly destroyed by grenade or arson, with the intention and effect of enforcing fear of return among the Roma concerned. To their credit, the Roma currently residing in the three camps for displaced persons have not wavered in their demand to return to the neighbourhood, causing some frustration among those who have sought to impose a compromise ghettoising solution of placement in substandard housing elsewhere.
Denial of the Right to Return to Place of Origin in Safety and Dignity
To date, authorities in Kosovo have failed basically to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and assure the safe and unimpeded return of RAE refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo. As of June 2005, numerous persons belonging to RAE communities remain in internal displacement inside Kosovo. Some of them feel that return to their old neighbourhoods would be unsafe, and these are currently completely deserted. Many are unable to return to their previous homes which have been destroyed and not rebuilt or are now illegally occupied by other persons. Roma in internal displacement live in extremely substandard conditions in prefabricated houses in the IDP camps; crowded in the houses of relatives; or occupying houses of RAE currently outside Kosovo. RAE IDPs are denied the right to return as a result of numerous factors:
Individuals are unwilling to return to their old places of residence because they believe them to be unsafe. Some of these – such as the Dalmatinska neighbourhood in Prishtinë/Priština, for example – are now completely deserted by their former RAE inhabitants and occupied by Kosovo Albanians – but housing in other parts of Kosovo is unavailable;
Proceedings for reinstating the legal owners of houses which have been illegally occupied are slow, and enforcement is ineffective;
Reconstruction of houses is unduly delayed and in some instances altogether stalled;
Individuals cannot prove title to the land on which their houses used to be due to lost or invalid property ownership documents;
Social housing is unavailable;
Municipalities have failed to allocate land for construction of houses;
Municipalities want to use land where RAE houses were located for more lucrative purposes and propose unacceptable for RAE solutions to housing;
The ERRC is not aware of any data about the number of displaced RAE; in several municipalities visited by the ERRC, however, the numbers of displaced RAE reported by local community leaders ranged between 2-3 families to several dozens of families.
The IDP camp Plemetina, near Obiliq/Obilic, built in 1999, remains standing and inhabited until today, despite commitment of the Kosovo authorities to dismantle the camp by mid-2005. According to Bajrush Berisha, leader of the RAE communities in the camp, the camp is currently home to 116 families or about 464 persons which originate from five Kosovo municipalities. According to Mr Berisha, only two out of the five municipalities have so far allocated land to build houses for the Roma. Even in those places where land had been allocated, however, reportedly no construction of housing has started. The explanation by authorities for the failure to provide durable housing is “lack of donors”. According to local RAE, in the whole Obiliq/ Obilic municipality there are around 50 reconstructed houses of RAE out of about 1,000 houses destroyed in 1999-2000. 7
In Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje municipality, according to the local community leader Mr Mefail Mustafa, there are at least 70 internally displaced RAE families. These people have found a solution to their housing situation by occupying the empty houses of relatives or other RAE persons who are outside Kosovo. The displaced families reportedly include around 20 families who in 2001 voluntarily returned, assisted by the UNHCR, but were not brought to their original places of residence – many of them came from Prishtinë/Priština, for example. According to information provided to the ERRC by Rexhep Hyseni, community leader, in the whole municipality more than 200 houses belonging to RAE have not yet been rebuilt. Around 144 houses have been rebuilt thus far. 8
In Gjakovë/Ðakovica, according to Nexhip Qehaja, head of the municipal office for communities, around 15 RAE families currently in Montenegro, cannot return to their homes which were destroyed and have not yet been rebuilt. These families, as well as many other families in Gjakovë/Ðakovica do not possess property ownership documents and therefore cannot prove ownership of the land, while the municipality claims that the land is municipal property. 9
In some instances the construction of RAE houses has been stalled and the families of returnees have to live with relatives or other persons. Abdullah Presheva neighbourhood of Gjilan/Gnjilane used to have a population of about 4,000 Roma before 1999 of whom today there are about 250 individuals. Out of 360 Romani houses, some 290 were destroyed. According to Ms Shpresa Agushi, local community leader, about 20 out of 30 Romani families who recently returned to Gjilan/Gnjilane currently live in rented accommodation. The construction of 30 houses for Roma families from Abdullah Presheva neighbourhood in Gjilan/Gnjilane, was reportedly suspended with only 9 houses rebuilt or reconstructed. The rebuilding of the houses, which started in mid-2004 and for which reportedly total of Euro 1,500,000 had been donated by the Dutch government and the municipality, stopped reportedly due to lack of money to complete the rebuilding. RAE leaders from Gjilan/Gnjilane expressed the belief that there had been misuse of money and that part of the money was spent for the reconstruction of Albanian houses in neighbouring villages, despite the fact that the project was specifically meant for houses of Roma in Abdullah Presheva. Although part of the amount (reportedly Euro 800 per family) also covered expenses for legalisation of the property ownership documentation of all the thirty families, according to RAE representatives, the amount of Euro 1,500,000 should have been enough to complete the project. 10
Roma from Abdullah Presheva also reported thefts of building material for the reconstruction of Romani houses. In at least one instance, the investigation into alleged thefts conducted by the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) has reportedly been biased. According to the testimony of Seburan Ramadani to the ERRC, on an unspecified date in March-April 2005, he reported to the KPS some thefts of building material and equipment for his house. Mr Ramadani told the ERRC that he lived across the street from the place where the reconstruction of his house was ongoing. He stated that he observed that some material which used to be stored near the house was missing and that a boiler which was installed the previous day had disappeared on the following day. When he reported the thefts to the police, he was allegedly accused of having committed the thefts himself and was told that he might be brought to court. According to his testimony, there is a pending investigation against him for theft. 11
Another example of failure to guarantee the right to return has been reported to the ERRC in Pejë/Pec. The Crystal neighbourhood in the town used to be the home of more than 100 RAE families. Currently only 2-3 families live in the neighbourhood. Most of the houses were burned and destroyed in 1999-2000. According to a local official, in 2002 the then UNMIK administrator of the municipality had promised to clean the area and start rebuilding the houses but failed to fulfil the promise. According to the same source, donors have been overwhelmingly reluctant to fund projects for rebuilding houses fearing that the houses would be vandalised. In 2003, for example, two RAE houses were reportedly rebuilt and immediately after that burned down. At least 10 RAE families currently live with relatives in Pejë/Pec while waiting the municipality to act on their request for rebuilding their houses. In this as in other cases reported to the ERRC, the municipality reportedly insisted to build blocks of flats rather than individual houses for the RAE families. RAE representatives believe the reason behind such proposal is the interest of the municipality to use the land for more lucrative purposes, regardless of the fact that RAE had lived for several decades on that land. 12
Ineffective Procedure for Reclaiming Illegally Occupied Houses
Many RAE reported to the ERRC that they are denied access to their houses which in most of the cases have been occupied by Kosovo Albanians. According to RAE, proceedings before the UN Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) Claims Commission – the organ which has jurisdiction over claims raised by persons who were the owners or occupancy right holders of residential real property and who do not enjoy possession of the property, are lengthy and sometimes decisions are not effectively executed. For example, Alihajdar Krekaqe, 53, from Prizren owned a house in the town. In July 1999, while he and his wife were in their house, four persons in uniforms of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) broke into the house, tried to strangle Alihajdar with an electric cord and forced the family to leave. Alihajdar Krekaqe complained to the German KFOR in Prizren, who responded to him that the Albanians would leave his house within one month. As of June 2005, the family has nevertheless been unable to repossess their property and rents a house for Euro 100 per month in Prizren. Alihajdar filed a complaint with the HPD on November 9, 2001. As of the end of May, 2005 there has been no decision on his case. In the meantime, he filed a complaint with the Ombudsperson’s institution in September 2002, as well as sought assistance from the municipality of Prizren. According to Mr Krekaqe, each time he inquired about the status of his claim with various authorities, he was told that “his complaint is being processed”. 13