[Prishtina-E] FW: What is Kosova's final Status?

[kosova at jps.net]

Advocates for Kosova's Independence (AKI)
August, 2002 - Part II

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  ** AKI Newsletter, Issue 11 **
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FROM A USIP SPECIAL REPORT (7/02)--"Kosovo's final status, left undecided at
the end of the Yugoslav-NATO war in June, 1999, will need to be discussed
sooner rather than international community anticipates; a roadmap will need
to be drawn and the issue decided within the next three to five years." The
full report of 8 options for final status can be found at the USIP web site,
www.usip.org/specialreports/

In July, 2002, the United States Institute of Peace issued a special report
on the need to resolve Kosova's final status. Members of the discussion
group included Balkan experts and former diplomats such as James Hooper,
Louis Sell, Julie Mertus, and the director of the Balkans Initiative, Dan
Serwer. The report recommends that discussions between Belgrade and
Prishtina start as soon as possible and they list eight options- ranging
from various forms of conditional independence to remaining a protectorate
indefinitely. Discussion group member, Eric Witte, said that immediate
independence was ruled out as an option because the Albanians do not:

1. Demonstrate responsibility for acts of violence against minorities,
2. Show disinterest and hostility towards returns of displaced peoples, and
3. Fail to abide by rule of law.

Albanians, like other ethnic groups in the Balkans, and indeed like all of
us, have a tendency to think of their own needs as important and to downplay
the plight of others. Missing populations can easily become forgotten
populations. The situation of the Roma in the Skopje ghetto is an
international disgrace.

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	A R T I C L E S
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ROMA REFUGEES PROTEST TO UNHCR ABOUT RETURN TO KOSOVA
Balkan Human Rights Group report, 8/9/02

" The protest by some 350 Roma refugees outside the UNHCR building in
central Skopje entered its llth day on Friday, despite moves by Macedonian
authorities to end the demonstration.

The demonstrators, protesting on behalf of more than 3,00 Roma refugees
housed in two camps, as well as private houses, say they  do not want to
stay permanently in Macedonia.

For the past three years, while living in ever worse conditions in Katlanovo
and Suto Orizari camps, they  have been fed on UNHCR promises of a "safe
return" to homes in Kosovo.

Many of their houses have been burned, other occupied. Now, the UNHRC and
UNMIK admit opposition to their return means security cannot be guaranteed.
Those Roma who remained inhabit small, protected ghetto-like enclaves."
(full article below)

It could be argued that these attitudes are endemic region-wide. Indeed,
hostility to Roma refugees is Europe-wide. But it's the Albanians who are
under scrutiny here, and for the time being, it seems they must step up to
the plate and begin to show leadership in these three areas. Moral
leadership will not come from the three main political leaders, which means
such moral leadership must come from civil society.  And civil society in
Kosova, for the moment, is without any such leaders. So the circle of
seeming indifference to the plight of those who are different continues.

And what it means for the Kosova Albanians is, at best, conditional
independence until those crucial problems are resolved. At worst, it could
cost them independence for the foreseeable future. If Albanians do not want
a future as a protectorate, they had better organize and address these
issues on their own, the sooner the better.

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ROMA REFUGEES PROTEST TO UNHCR ABOUT RETURN TO KOSOVA
Balkan Human Rights List, Ustiben reports:

The protest by some 350 Roma refugees outside the UNHCR building in central
Skopje entered its llth day on Friday, despite moves by Macedonian
authorities to end the demonstration.

The demonstrators, protesting on behalf of more than 3,00 Roma refugees
housed in two camps, as well as private houses, say they  do not want to
stay permanently in Macedonia.

For the past three years, while living in ever worse conditions in Katlanovo
and Suto Orizari camps, they  have been fed on UNHCR promises of a "safe
return" to homes in Kosovo.

Many of their houses have been burned, other occupied. Now, the UNHRC and
UNMIK admit opposition to their return means security cannot be guaranteed.
Those Roma who remained inhabit small, protected ghetto-like enclaves.

Beatings, bomb attacks and abductions continue to occur weekly.

Altogether nearly 100,000 Roma fled Kosovo as armed Albanians of the KLA
carred out "ethnic-cleansing" of the Romani quarters in towns and villages
throughout the province. The largest quarters, in Pristina, Mitrovica and
Pec, were raised to the ground and have not been rebuilt.

Heavy rains have flooded Katlanovo and refugees are appealing to the UNHCR
to improve conditions in the camps. But their main hope is to be accepted by
third countries, until - if this is every possible - a return to Kosovo is
organized.

Meanwhile, many thousands of Kosovo Roma who have been seeking asylum in
Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and elsewhere, face the threat of "forced
deportation" either to Kosovo or Serbia. The justification for this is that
adults hold the old red passports of former Yugoslavia. However, many of the
children were born in the host countries.

Below is an appeal by local mediator Zenelj Berisha for outside support. The
protesters urgently need funds to pay for transport - as, starting Monday,
they will be barred from public buses.

Pictures of the protest and the camps available on request.
Balkan Human Rights List


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