KOSOVO: The Intervention "Pay-off"

KOSOVO

KOSOVO: The Intervention "Pay-off"

KOSOVO ( Theodor W. Fruendt for RNN ) February the 17_th

Ó Concept, photos and text by Theodor W. Fruendt

A region of Europe which has been given its freedom through the efforts of democratic governments and whose expelled population have been able to return to their homes, succeeded it's "ethnic cleansing"-operation with an mass exodus of almost the entire Roma-population in Kosovo.

Table of contents:

Foreword

Map of Kosovo

Remaining Roma communities inside Kosovo, October 1999

Ethnical Structures

Reports of Roma being forced to co-operate with the Serbian military;

Reports of Roma solidarity with Albanians

UNHCR and OSCE

Article II (c) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes of Genocide

Failure of K-FOR to provide adequate protection

Municipalities of origin of Roma-"IDP’s" from Kosovo in Camp-Kornik-Podgorica-Montenegro

Justification

Reports in Media’s

Much more photographs are available: theodorfruendt@hotmail.com

Foreword

The war is supposedly over, but Roma are leaving Kosovo under pressure by a self styled government under the leadership of KLA-general Hashim Thaci, his KLA and it's supporters.

Jiri Dienstbier, UNO representative for Human Rights in Kosovo, said in a report that "the UN is neither capable of establishing a civil government in Kosovo, nor can it guarantee protection for the non-Albanian minorities".

It is for the first time since the Holocaust, that European Roma minorities have been the victims of collective persecution. This people, who came to our continent for a thousand years ago suffered acts of brutality, rape, abduction and murder.

It is intolerable that a minority whose extermination Hitler set in motion should be experiencing collective persecution. Now we can see that many of the cowardly acts of murder recently committed in Kosovo remind us to the crimes of Milosevic's forces.

The following Report was done throughout a 5month period after arrival of NATO's Peaceforce K-FOR. I visited Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro.

In a region of Europe which has been given its freedom through the efforts of democratic governments and whose expelled population is able to return to their own homes, now the same Albanians are going back into their homes in Kosovo. But it is not so for Roma from Kosovo.

I wish to thank all the friends who helped me to realize this documentation:

Ali Latifi, Pristine

Anelore Hermes, Goettingen

Arber, the Hodsha

"Bureau Kolbow", entire team, Skopje

Dieter Klees, Skopje

Kurt Holl, ROM-ev. Cologne

Marina Achenbach, Berlin

Nikolaus von Holtey, Heidelberg

Natscha, Toni and Dejan, Skopje

Stefan Stefanovic, Skopje

Zoran Dimov, Skopje

And most of all, Hussein, Tahir, Fatmir, his wife Assemina and her two soons, Jusufa, and all other Romas in all camps in Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.

KOSOVO

All village-names are written in Serbo-Croatian language, to compare the dates given in this report with UNHCR-dates, which relay on the latest valid census 1991.

Remaining Roma communities inside Kosovo, October 1999

There is a pre-war table available, but most important is the supply with aid and healthcare for those which are still remain and live under permanent threat:

Municipality: Decan = 129 (in 3 villages)

Municipality: Urosevac = 2423 (in 13 villages)

Municipality: Gnjilane = 34 (in 3 villages)

Municipality: Djakovica = 10920 (in 15 villages)

Municipality: Gracanica = 150

Municipality: Istok = 557 (in 19 villages)

Municipality: Kamenica = 295 (in 5 villages)

Municipality: Kosovo Polje = 2345 (in 7 villages)

Municipality: Lipjan = 172 (in 19 villages)

Municipality: Malisevo = 28 (just in Bela Crkva)

Municipality: Mitrovica = 691 (in 11 villages)

Municipality: Obilic = 135 (in 5 villages)

Municipality: Pec = 1105 (in 15 villages)

Municipality: Podujevo = 1039 (in 5 villages)

Municipality: Prishtina = 928 (in 11 districts)

Municipality: Prizren = 339 (in 6 villages)

Municipality: Orahovac = 430 (in 2 villages)

Municipality: Stimlje = 334 (in 3 villages)

Municipality: Strpci = 68 (in 3 villages)

Municipality: Vitina = 20

Municipality: Vucitrn = 72 (in 2 villages)

total: 22214

out off the prewar-level ~ 120.000

Ethnical Structures

The UNHCR-Fact-Sheet, August 1999, is giving a total number of 128.000 Rom in Kosovo. This are the most recent census data and they refer to the following ethnic groups living alongside the Albanian majority in Kosovo: Serbs and Montenegrins (10,75%), Bosniaks (3%), Turks (0,5%), Rom (2,5%), Croats (0,4%), "Yugoslavs" (0,15%).

People are described as Rom in Kosovo if their mother tongue is predominantly Romanes and when they have Serbian as their second language. But there is another group who speaks Albanian as their mother tongue. They claim themselves as "Ahskalias" and experts describe them as a sub-group. Still, they are ethnically Rom.

The majority of all those Rom in Kosovo professes the Muslim faith.

During the recent months of war (between the end of March 1998 and the beginning of June 1999) a considerable number of Rom fled from Serbian troops to places elsewhere in Kosovo or abroad. Abroad they mainly claimed themselves as "Albanians" when they were seeking for political asylum.

Reports of Roma being forced to co-operate with the Serbian military; Reports of Roma solidarity with Albanians

Execution by decapitation of a Roma man by the UCK. The UCK officer present at the "interrogation" said that the man was a butcher hired by the Serbs to cut up the bodies of dead Albanians. He had admitted everything. According to a UCK officer, "We have done to him what he did to the corpses - chopped off his head". (Additional information: it was Roma who were forced to bury the bodies of the victims of the Serbian massacre at Rahovec/ Orahovac in the summer of 1998. They were also the source of the information concerning the number of victims.) Die Welt, 26.06. 1999

In Ribar i Vogel and Rufc i Ri in the district of Lipjan/Ljipljane at least 40 Albanians were executed, including 4 or 5 women who were raped beforehand. This was reported to OSCE and the correspondent of the New York Times, David Rohde, by expulsees on 24 April. A witness named "Sali" reported that the day after this he saw fresh graves. Four of his uncles were buried in them. The paramilitaries had forced Roma to collect up the bodies and bury them. According to statements issued by the OSCE (Ron Redmond) there are several reports which are all in agreement concerning what happened.

The members of the mission were of the impression that only very few Roma willingly cooperated with the Serbian aggressors during the war. Many were pressurized or even coerced into working for the Serbian side. Several witnessed violent forms of pressure being applied. The Roma in Pristina for example were forced to take part in a pro-Milosevic demonstration. Others were recruited to serve as Yugoslav Army transport auxiliaries. Several were arrested in their homes and forcibly conscripted into paramilitary groups in the Pristina area. They were used as tools in the commission of atrocities against Albanians. OSCE/ ODIHR mission, 27 July to 6 August 1999

The spokesman for the Roma in the Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje Roma refugee camp, J., acknowledged that some Roma had collaborated with Serbs. "All those involved withdrew along with the Serbian Army. But everyone who remained behind is innocent."

According to the vice-president of the World Union of Roma, Nikolic, "The leaders of the Roma in Kosovo have rendered their people very serious disservice." However many Roma were forced to work for the Serbian police or in the Yugoslavian Army. Nikolic estimated the number of the Roma in Kosovo at 100,000 to 150,000.

Ibrahim Makolli of the Albanian Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms CDHRF reported that during the war he arrived at a "checkpoint" manned by Roma and was threatened by them. He knew all the Roma. Makolli acknowledged that many Roma were forced to do what they did by Serbs. According to Makolli CDHRF also had proof that Roma had taken part in massacres. NYT, July 08. 1999

The Romany Union feared that the UCK intended to expel the entire Roma population of Kosovo. The UCK had tortured Roma to extract confessions of their collaboration from them. A UCK officer told the BBC that he estimated that most of the Roma had collaborated with the Serbs.

The Serbs and Roma remaining behind in Kosovo gathered together in enclaves or NATO safe havens to protect themselves. They were unwelcome as refugees in Belgrade and could not manage to find their way to a third country. This is how why Serbian ghettos in the northern part of Mitrovica or in the southern part of Prizren (in an orthodox seminary) came into being. In the latter case, 180 people - Serbs, alleged Albanian "traitors" and Roma - gathered around Father Nikola. Many of them had been forced to flee from their homes after which they were beaten and even tortured by members of the UCK. The 18-year-old M.B. reported that she had been raped by a group as revenge for her husband's alleged cooperation with the Belgrade regime. German soldiers guarded the Orthodox seminary. Father Nikola was one of 5 monks who stayed behind. According to Father Nikola there were up to 10,000 Serbs who used to live in Prizren and the surrounding area. Of these only 200 remain. Most of Serbian houses have been burned down and several people killed. Roma have also been the target of attacks under suspicion that they had allegedly collaborated with the Milosevic government. The alleged Albanian "traitors" are in the worst situation - they have nowhere else to go. According to Father Nikola no one dares to venture outside without an escort. It is too dangerous even for him to go to church. Many of the residents show evidence of mistreatment. A man by the name of Mustaf reported that he was unable to flee from his home village of Kijevo because of an injury. The Serbs had forced him to work for them. Then he was tortured by the UCK in Prizren. Likewise, X.B., who had returned from Germany, reported that he had been tortured by the UCK because he was falsely suspected of having spied for the Serbs. Many of those present had stood by and watched as their houses burned. Daily Telegraf July 22 1999

Statements of a Roma refugee from Kosovo in Belgrade: "The Kosovo Roma were loyal to the Serbian state. As a result they are now subjected to acts of revenge by the UCK." The President of the Roma Congress Party, Dragoljub Ackovic, stated that only 10,000 - 15,000 Roma remain in Kosovo, mostly the old and sick. In Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje, where formerly approximately 6,000 Roma used to live, N.L. said that he was the last Roma left and he is now preparing to leave. Ackovic estimates that around 70-75 % of the Roma would prefer to come back. 15-20 % would like to remain in Serbia and the rest wish to go to a third country. In Serbia refugees from Kosovo have been classified as "internally displaced people", not refugees. This means that they receive no official humanitarian assistance and have no right to have their children educated or obtain employment. NYT, August 1999

UNHCR and OSCE:

September/October 1999

Kosovo Polje: previously 3,500 Roma, now 1,500-2,000

Podujevo: now 850 Roma

Obilic District (Krusevac, Plemetina, Obilic, Crkvena Vodica and Janina Voda): now 2,000 Roma (200 in Obilic).

Krusevac Roma camp: 1.200 Roma.

Plementina: 450-500 Roma remain, fewer than 10 families have fled.(K-FOR has a unit stationed here but the Roma still feel insecure. The setting of Roma houses on fire and the intimidation of Roma by Albanians are still continuing.)

Lipljan: 1,400 Roma remaining (170 driven out of Dobrotin and 120 from Medvece)

Magura: formerly 40 families, now 1 family

Vrelo: now 130 internally displaced persons

Mitrovica: In Leposavic and Zvecan Districts there are 500 internally displaced persons, who are being accepted by the Serbian authorities in increasingly limited numbers. They are being forced to make way for Kosovo Serbs returning from Serbia.

Vucitrn: 70 Kosovo Roma left out of a former 1,700

Gnjiljane: 445 individuals remaining

Bostane: 45 individuals remaining

Kamenica: approximately 100 Roma remaining

Vitina: approximately 300 out of 500 Roma remaining

Urosevac: approximately 3,500-4,000 Roma remaining

Stimlje: 200 Roma

Djurkovce: 200 Roma

According to UNHCR statements, 1,800 Gabeli Roma and Maxhupi Roma in Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje, who have taken refuge in a school, have moved into a camp newly constructed by the British troops. The Roma were told that water and power would be cut off and the security forces protecting them from attacks would be withdrawn, so that the Roma were forced to agree to move to the vicinity of Obiliq/ Obilic. Approximately 300 m away from the camp is an Albanian village whose inhabitants have protested against the arrival of the Roma by throwing stones at the refugees. A refugee relief worker reported a serious threat on the part of the Albanian villagers to attack the refugee camp with hand grenades. According to the relief worker's report the Roma were living under constant fear of attack.

According to UNHCR statements, Roma and Serbs in Kosovo have been gathering together in enclaves under NATO protection in order to avoid reprisals by returning Albanians. Forgotten by Belgrade and in no position to make their way to a safe third country the Roma and Serbs have congregated in ghettos at a safer distance from their former Albanian neighbors. In Prizren 180 Roma and Serbs took shelter on the premises of an Orthodox seminary. They fled from their homes after they were beaten and tortured by Albanians, having been branded as collaborators.

OSCE/ODHIR

The members of the delegation were shocked at the atrocious conditions in several camps for internally displaced Roma, such as those in Obiliq/ Obilic and Gjakove/ Djakovica. It was clear to them that people could not continue living in conditions of this type and that refugee status in a third country was probably the only feasible alternative.

According to statements issued by UNHCR, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find accommodation in the Serbian heartland and in Montenegro for the Serbs and Roma refugees from Kosovo. In the area round Bujanovac in the southern part of Serbia 1,000 of 3,000 expulsees are already forced to live in tents, Judith Kumin, UNHCR spokesperson, said in Geneva on Tuesday, Aug. 08. 1999

Dennis McNamara, the UNHCR's Special Envoy for Kosovo, describes the position of the Roma who have fled from Kosovo to central Serbia as fundamentally desperate, and likewise that of the Serbs who fled from Kosovo. The consequences of the destruction of power stations by NATO bombing have made prospects for the winter even worse. Serbia's international isolation makes it particularly hard to find donors who will fund projects in Serbia.

August 06 1999

Figures given in the OSCE/ODIHR report on Roma refugees in the countries bordering Kosovo:

Serbia: 20,000 - 100,000

Macedonia: approximately 10,000

Montenegro: 5.000 - 8.000

Italy: several large groups (600 to 1.000)

Bosnia-Herzegovina: approximately 150 (according to UNHCR statements)

In an interview with German television ZDF, UNHCR spokesperson Judith Kumin said that the situation of the Serbs and Roma who had fled to southern Serbia was increasingly problematic. The refugees need to be provided with suitable facilities to cope with the winter which, given the difficult economic situation in Serbia, will be difficult without humanitarian assistance.

Article II (c) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes of Genocide

Under the terms of Article II (c) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes of Genocide of 9.12.1948 such mass deaths may form the basis for a charge of genocide against those Albanians responsible for the mass expulsion of the Roma.

This "ethnic cleansing" did not involve any campaign of genocide along the lines of the Serbian model but demonstrated instead that a mass exodus of population can be achieved simply through threats and intimidation and individual acts of brutality, rape, abduction and murder. The possibility that expulsion has resulted in deaths on a large scale in refugee camps in neighboring countries cannot be ignored

More photos please contact: theodorfruendt@hotmail.com

Failure of K-FOR to provide adequate protection

In Peja/ Pec the outlying districts of the city which were mainly inhabited by Serbs were set on fire. Those responsible first looted the houses and loaded up tractors. Cars were seen carrying registration plates from Kukes (Albania). K-FOR stood by and watched as the crimes took place without doing anything. The Italian forces had a particularly bad reputation. In the German sector K-FOR has set up an emergency telephone number. In Velika Hoca (Serbian name), where 3,000 Serbs used to live, the inhabitants are afraid of acts of aggression by returning Albanian expulsees and do not dare venture outside the village.

In Graca (500 inhabitants), 10 kilometers from Pristina, Albanian returnees expelled the Serbs and Roma. British K-FOR soldiers stood by without doing anything as homes went up in flames.

Along with his father and cousin, the 22-year-old F.G. was abducted from his home in Krusha e Madhe/ Velika Krusa by UCK fighters and so brutally mistreated that he was unable to make his way home. The ERRC attempted to inform K-FOR troops but were referred backwards and forwards between one post to another. It was only with difficulty that they were able to persuade K-FOR to come to the village and take the seriously injured F.G. to hospital. Members of ERRC had to go ahead of them on foot because of the danger of sniper action locally. (A K-FOR soldier said "I am not going to risk my life for you, you can be sure of that.") G. did not want to be taken to hospital unless he was given protection there. After having promised this, as soon as they were at the hospital K-FOR withdrew immediately.

The delegation reported that the Roma felt that generally they were not sufficiently protected by K-FOR. The K-FOR troops took too long in responding to threats to the Roma. The reason was that the K-FOR soldiers did not know enough about the situation of the in Kosovan society. The delegation found that K-FOR's willingness to protect the Roma increased as soon as they were provided with adequate and detailed information about the alarming position of the Roma.

OSCE/ODIHR mission, 27 July to 6 August 1999

The person in charge of the refugee camp in Krushevc/ Krusevac, near Obiliq/ Obilic, reported that when they informed K-FOR soldiers about incidents in the camp, the British soldiers simply replied "We don't understand". St Sava Youth Press Service, 21.8.1999

Municipalities of origin of Roma-"IDP’s" from Kosovo in Camp-Kornik-Podgorica-Montenegro

Names, ages and date of arrival on request

These are just Numbers of families:

From Decan: 38

From Djakovica: 672

From Glogovac: 5

From Gnjilane: 7

From Istok: 111

From Klina: 165

From Kosovo Mitrovica: 167

From Kosovo Polje: 293

From Lipljan: 242

From Obilic: 353

From Orahovac: 3

From Pec: 349

From Precale: 4

From Pristine: 182

From Srbica: 8

From Suva Reka: 38

From Vucitrn: 72

Out of this: Children and youth in the age: 0 - 17 = 1337

Justification

It is intolerable that a minority whose extermination Hitler set in motion - a people who dwelt on our continent for a thousand years ago - should be experiencing collective persecution.

It is for the second time since the Holocaust, that European Roma minorities have been the victims of collective persecution. Now we can see that many of the cowardly acts of murder recently committed in Kosovo remind us to the crimes of Milosevic's forces.

The "ethnic cleansing" did not involve any campaign along the lines of the Serbian model but demonstrated instead that a mass exodus of population can be achieved simply through threats and intimidation and individual acts of brutality, rape, abduction and murder.

The representatives of NATO, UN, USA and the European governments did not effectively condemned publicly the mass expulsion of entire Roma communities and the alarming racist behavior of a of the Kosovo Albanian population.

The continued economic assistance for Kosovo hasn't been made conditional on the Albanian population's in term of a correct treatment of the minorities. And, this despite the fact, that it is region of Europe, which has been given its freedom through the efforts of democratic governments and whose expelled population is able to return to their own homes.

K-FOR and the UN-police, UNIP, never maintained a day- and night presence in all Roma communities in order to protect the population under threat.

In the Italian, French, German and US sectors; KFOR needs to arrest troublemakers. While KFOR has been more effective in the British sector, there, too, it has failed to protect minorities.

The winter has been taken place all over the regions were refugees are living also in tents. I receive almost every day messages by refugees which are giving reports of bad conditions because of the cold, lack of food-supply, even their children are dying in hospitals, because once they finally coming to a hospital, it is often too late.

Camps, such like Stenkovac 2, Macedonia, are closed down only because of political reasons. It remains to be seen how the UNHCR-Program is going to fail. Once to the supply with humanitarian aid stops, the situation will detour into social problems not only for the refugee but also those private families who give them shelter.

As a heavy storm the Kornik-camp in Podgorica has blown 113 tents away, were in one night hundreds of refugees lost their tents, UNHCR was urging for help, after leaving the camp for many month under control of a local "refugee-profiteer" who is a Roma by himself.

Zagreb, February 2000

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Reports in Media’s

A Roma man said that Albanians came to his house in Magura and told him to leave within two hours. They seized his six-year-old daughter and threatened to cut her throat.

Approximately 4,000 Roma from the villages around Pristina have sought refuge in a school in Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje. 350 Roma sought safety in a UNHCR camp near the cemetery in Gjakova/ Djakova and some have asked to be evacuated. Another 1,000 Roma in the town wanted to remain.

Hamaya Jusuf, a deaf-mute Roma man in receipt of welfare benefits, born in Rahovec/ Orahovac in 1963 has been missing since mid-June.

The journalist Bernhard Küppers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, reported from Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje, where a reception camp for Roma expelled from Obiliq/ Obilic had been set up in the "Aca Marovic" elementary school. The Roma woman Atici Jakupi had died as a result of the stress. Relatives dare not set foot outside the camp without an escort. Around 21 June, in Vranjevac near Pristina, Albanians killed two Serbs and two Roma, one of them the Roma man A.G. The Albanians regarded the Roma as accomplices of the Serbs.

Roma families were evacuated from Peja/ Pec by international organizations.

Rape of a 30-year-old mother of two children by six uniformed members of the UCK in her home in Fabricka Street, Kosovska Mitrovica. The woman was severely traumatized. ERRC, 9.7.1999; HRW, August 1999

The relatives of the Roma men B.B. (34) and V.B. (24) told HRW that persons unknown had killed both these men in Mitrovica.

HRW learned that members of the UCK had begun engaging in 'acts of violence against Serbs, Roma and Albanians in Kosovo. HRW had evidence of 5 killings by the UCK in Rahovec/ Orahovac, Prizren and Peja/ Pec, as well as 4 abductions, 1 rape and 14 detentions, accompanied by physical mistreatment in 12 of the cases, RW: Flash #50, Violent Abuses by KLA Members, Beatings, Killings and Rape Taking Place in Kosovo. 25.6. 1999

K-FOR was led to the UCK torture cellar in Prizren raided by German troops (on 18.6.1999) by Roma, all of whom bore signs of injuries.

Four armed members of the UCK raped two women in Piskota (a neighborhood or district of Gjakove/ Djakovica), according to an eyewitness report by the husband of one of the victims. The next day the family fled to Dusanova. A few days later they were driven out from there also together with other Roma by threats from neighboring Albanians, the Roma district was burned down and everyone who remained behind was killed. K-FOR representatives in Prizren told ERRC that they had not been in a position to provide protection for the area, where they had already come under fire from the windows of nearby buildings. HRW, August 1999

When German soldiers occupied an UCK police station they found the body of a 70-year-old man and 15 other men injured. The men who were freed were Roma and Serbs. They reported that they had been beaten and tortured by members of the UCK.

A Kosovo Roma man living in Britain reported a telephone conversation on 17.6.1999 with his brother who was living in Kosovo. His brother said that members of the UCK members had made extremely menacing threats against the 100 Roma families living in the Roma district of Koljibarska Mahala in Prishtina. The UCK fighters said, in so many words, "Once we have finished with the Serbs we will finish off Hitler's work with you." According to the Kosovo Roma man resident in Britain members of the UCK who gave as their reason the explanation those thieves prevented a Roma family who wanted to return from Skopje to Prishtina from doing so and collaborators were not wanted in the city.

A 29-year-old Roma man was picked up by a UCK patrol during the afternoon and brutally beaten in the cellar of a school serving as army quarters. Four assault troopers took turns. When asked by the reporter about the matter of torture one soldier said, "The gypsies should all be put down. They looted our homes and yesterday they confessed to it."

A 67-year-old Roma woman reported being knocked to the ground and her house set on fire.

Expulsion by UCK fighters of almost all the Roma families (200-300 individuals) from a street in Vushtrri/ Vucitrn. The local UCK representative was unable to prevent the expulsion. The French soldiers called to help did not intervene but instead transported the expulsees by road to the town of Zvecane. They were looked after by the Red Cross in the nearby town of Leposavic and then found refuge in Novi Sad.

A Roma man from Rahovec/ Orahovac was seen held in police custody in a private house in Drenovc/ Drenovica; he was said to have been badly mistreated.

A Serbian Red Cross worker told the BBC that "They only come to the refugee camp because the food is free here, so they become accustomed to not working."

In Graca (500 inhabitants), 10 kilometers from Pristina, Albanian returnees drove out Serbs and Roma. British K-FOR soldiers stood by without doing anything as the houses went up in flames.

The homes of thousands of Roma were set alight and the Roma forced to flee. Roma are easily identifiable, most of them living in their own neighborhoods ("ghettos") within the towns. The (Spanish) Romany Union has said that the UCK have sworn to eliminate the Roma population of Kosovo.

Over 500 Roma, driven out by the UCK, have been stranded in Nis for the last few days. However Serbia does not want to find accommodation for these people. On the contrary, the Roma already living on Serbian territory have been threatened and ordered to leave their houses in order to make room for Serbian refugees.

Roma in Gjakove/ Djakovica told HRW that Ibish Beqiri (60 yrs) was abducted by unknown assailants and his body later found in Gramocel. HRW: FRY, Abuses Against Serbs and Roma in the New Kosovo, August 1999, Volume 11, No.10 (D)

K-FOR transported 200-300 Roma from Vucitrn to the town of Zvecane; from there the expelled Roma made their way with difficulty to the town of Leposavic, where they were looked after by the Red Cross.

Abduction of five Roma (Adrian Agim, 19, Tasim Halimi, 26, Skelzen Hamza, 36, Jusuf Hamza, 38, Hazlun Mursemi, 48) by uniformed members of the UCK in Rahovec/ Orahovac. K-FOR was informed but according to ERRC they did nothing about the matter. Letter from ERRC to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 16.7.1999

The homes of Roma in Vushtrri/ Vucitrn were burned down. Albanians told journalists that they would only punish those guilty of getting their hands dirty would be punished. However they reported that Roma would also be driven out of their homes if they had themselves fled from other towns. They were said to have been told, "If you don't go, we will kill you." They tried to obtain help from the UCK headquarters, who told them to remain in their houses.

A 67-year-old Roma woman from the south of Kosovo told a BBC reporter that Albanians burned down her house. She also said that the same Albanians knocked her to the ground.

In Mitrovica Albanians particularly targeted houses in the mainly abandoned Roma quarter of the town for looting and burning.

Approximately 30 Roma houses in Brekoc were set on fire and destroyed within 3 hours. A few days’ earlier men in UCK uniforms had ordered the occupants to leave their homes. HRW visited the Roma neighborhood on 24.7.1999 and saw the charred ruins. Approximately 600 Roma from Brekoc and other parts of Gjakove/ Djakovica are at present in a UNHCR camp in the town guarded by Italian K-FOR troops. The Roma are able to leave the camp at any time but do not dare to do so because of their fear of retaliatory action by the UCK. A man in the camp said that "All the Roma who collaborated with the Serbs have left the camp. And we are held prisoner here even though we have done nothing." None of the Roma interviewed wanted their names to be disclosed.

Approximately half of the 120-150,000 Kosovo Roma have fled from Kosovo since the middle of June 1999, fearful of the revenge of the returning Albanians. Dragoljub Ackovic, Chairman of the Roma Congress Party, admitted that "several dozen" Roma had taken part in looting and robbery in Kosovo. Ackovic estimated the total Roma population of the Yugoslav Federal Republic at 800,000. Some 8,000 Roma from Kosovo have sought refuge in Belgrade and several thousand others in Montenegro. Up to 5,000 Roma wanted to leave the Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje district of Pristina but were unable to because they did not know where to go.

A refugee reported that four UCK soldiers had turned up at his house in Qungur/ Cungur, near Peja/ Pec on 6 July 1999. He was forced into a car and driven to a house in Peja/ Pec. There he was assaulted with truncheons and interrogated from 11 p.m. until 11 a.m. The after-effects of his mistreatment are still causing him considerable pain. The soldiers insisted that he should leave Kosovo. "There is no room for gypsies in Kosovo now. The only people living here will be Albanians", he was told.

Hamza Halit Skelzen, a Roma factory worker born in Rahovec/ Orahovac in 1965, has been missing since the beginning of July.

A Roma refugee in Bujanovac (southern Serbia) told how he arrived home in his hometown of Gjilan/ Gnjilane in Kosovo to find a group of Albanians wearing black trousers and UCK shoulder insignia waiting for him. They asked him to accompany them. At the UCK's headquarters he was questioned as to whether he or any of his neighbors had any rifles or shotguns. He said they did not and was then very severely beaten with a metal bar. He knows of many other Roma who have experienced the same sort of treatment.

Isaac Adrian, a Roma man born in Rahovec/ Orahovac in 1979,has been missing since the beginning of July (his father worked with the police in an administrative capacity). He was last heard of staying in Gjakove/ Djakovica.

Mitrovica: The French K-FOR commander Philippe Tangy was of the opinion that the destruction of the Roma quarter could not have been prevented; the small houses were crowded up against one another and the fire had spread rapidly.

At nighttime between 14 and 17.7.1999 Roma houses in Landovica, a village 10 km north of Prizren were destroyed and looted. Seven houses were burned down. On the Saturday morning two Albanians associated with the fire-raising were arrested by K-FOR.

Another community of around 200 Roma from the area around Istok asked to leave the area, because when it was announced that the K-FOR contingent there was to be withdrawn the Roma felt they were no longer had sufficient protection.

NYT reported that 5,000 Roma expelled by Albanians were accommodated in Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje in a refugee camp in a schoolhouse or in tents in the school grounds

In the area around Mitrovica two groups of Roma (200 and 400 individuals) took refuge in a school and a warehouse.

A total of approximately 120,000 Roma have fled from Kosovo, 90,000 of them to Central Serbia, 30,000 abroad. It is believed that only 10 per cent of the original Roma population are still left in Kosovo. It is feared that the Roma who have fled from Kosovo to Serbia face the threat of famine. The Committee for the Protection of the Human Rights of the Roma in Kragujevac (Serbia) has stated that most of the temporary accommodation for Roma was extremely cramped. The Committee warned of the prospect of epidemics of disease. Cases of hepatitis have already been recorded In Roma settlements in Kragujevac.

Roma have also fled to Montenegro; for example there were 8,500 Roma from Kosovo in the Kornik district in Podgorica alone, 3000 of them accommodated in a tented camp. They had no running water and not a single latrine. Diarrhea and respiratory illnesses were rife, according to a worker for the US organization World Vision who is providing the refugees with advice on health issues.

On 17.7.1999 106 Roma left Shtime/ Stimlje for Ferizaj/ Urosevac, as they no longer felt safe in their homes.

5,000 Roma who wanted to flee from Kosovo to Serbia had been turned back at the border by the Serbian authorities and were camped around a school in Fushe Kosova/ Kosovo Polje. A 42-year-old Roma man told TAZ that Albanians, robbed and beaten drove out the Roma in Kosovo of their houses. Many of the Roma stated that the UCK had organized what amounted to regular hunts of the Roma.

The number of Roma refugees in Serbian towns is as follows:

Nis - 2,000,

Bela Palanka - 800,

Raska - 1,000,

Kraljevo - 1,500,

Krusevac - 800,

Vranje 500,

Belgrade - 8-10,000.

There are 15,000 Roma refugees living in Montenegro.

Police roadblocks are reported to have been set up round Belgrade to prevent further groups of refugees entering the city.

A Roma extended family with 33 members were forced to leave there home in the village of Dobratin/ Velika Dobraja in Kosovo in the middle of the night by UCK men. Afterwards the Albanians burned the house down. The family fled with a horse and cart and after an epic journey found shelter in an elementary school outside Pristina/ Prishtine serving as a refugee camp for Roma. According to statements made by Ibrahim Hasani, the person "in charge"; there were 5,044 Roma refugees in the temporary camp. Hasani reported that after the departure of the Serbian police the Albanians began "to beat, abduct and kill" the Roma. Hasani reported 20 cases of kidnappings of Roma known to him personally.

The homes of approximately 70 per cent of the Roma refugees in Kosovo have been burned down.

A ship carrying 889 Roma refugees from Kosovo on board was discovered 60 miles off the coast and taken into the southern Italian port of Brindisi.

Italian coastguards stoppped a boat in the Adriatic Sea with more than 200 refugees from Yugoslavia intending to enter Italy illegally on board, including 195 Roma.

K-FOR troops in Kosovo discovered more camps where Roma and Serbs have been held captive by the UCK. In one camp K-FOR troops discovered bodies, in another camp 4 Roma and 3 Serbs were freed. Associated Press, 14.7.1999

There are unconfirmed reports of three families were killed by being burned alive in their houses in the village of Dubrava (Istok/ Istog). The ERRC reported that it was suspected that three Roma from the town of Gjakove/ Djakovica had been killed there in June. HRW: FRY, Abuses Against Serbs and Roma in the New Kosovo, August 1999, Volume 11, No.10

According to statements issued by the human rights organizations ERRC and HRW, the UCK are responsible for a large part of the acts of violence committed against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo. Every day Serbs are being threatened, beaten up and killed by militant Kosovo Albanians. Both organizations taw on the statements made by victims concerning the unending sequence of atrocities perpetrated since the Yugoslav troops left in the middle of June. Men in particular have frequently been abducted, mistreated and killed. According to HRW, since the Yugoslav Army left more than 164,000 Serbs and "a significant number " of Roma have fled the province.

"Prizren has become a hotbed of criminal activity. Almost everywhere anarchy reigns. People simply take whatever they fancy. Unprotected civilians and alleged collaborators are killed and women raped. The Albanian victors in the war are systematically expelling and robbing Serbs and Roma and occupying their houses or setting them on fire." Report in the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, 28/1999, 12.7.1999 (Susanne Koelbl)

A Roma refugee reported that he had been forced to leave Kosovo. Albanians who tried to abduct his daughter had beaten him. The next day his house was set on fire. He fled but his mother refused to leave. Ten days later he learned that his mother had been killed (by asphyxiation). Albanians had gone through the neighborhood calling out "Gypsies, gypsies" before entering his house and committing the crime. Balkan Crisis Report, IPWR No. 61, 27.7.1999

A boat carrying 541 Roma from Kosovo (208 children, 149 men and 184 women) reached Brindisi. The day before 762 Roma from Kosovo had reached Italy. On 19 July the Italian government decided that Italy would not accept any more refugees from Kosovo as the war was over. Anyone arriving now will be regarded as having no right of entry and will be sent back to their country of origin. All the Roma reaching Brindisi and Bari reported that they had been badly mistreated. Their houses had been destroyed and their lives threatened.

A boat carrying 541 Roma, 208 of them children had arrived at Brindisi. The day before 762 Roma refugees had arrived.

There are only approximately 10,000 Roma still in Kosovo. 7,000 have fled from Prizren, 35,000 from Gjakove/ Djakovica and approximately 13,000 from Peja/ Pec. The total number who has fled is estimated at approximately 120,000. The majority has crowded into the Roma areas of towns in Serbia, up to 20,000 persons in Belgrade alone. Approximately 20,000 have fled to Macedonia. The Serbian authorities have told the Roma, as they have told Serbs from Kosovo, that the situation in Kosovo is "completely safe " and they should return home.

In Qungur/ Cungur, a Roma village with 120 houses approx. 7-km from Peja/ Pec, houses were taken over and the fittings stolen. Several houses were demolished or burned down. Italian K-FOR troops stationed in Peja/ Pec were not deployed. The Roma were not allowed to return to their village.

A German K-FOR soldier in Kosovo discovered a cellar where the Albanian UCK had tortured people. General Fritz von Korff, the officer commanding the German forces, confirmed that three Roma who alleged that they had been mistreated led the German soldiers to the cellar where 130 UCK fighters were accommodated. The Germans also found instruments of torture.

Mr. N.A., in charge of the refugee camp in Krushevc/ Krusevac, near Obiliq/ Obilic reported that "there used to be more than 6,000 people in this camp, both Roma and Serbs, but since we have been surrounded by Albanians who attack us every day only 2,000 have stayed here, and they do not feel themselves to be at all safe." Mr A. reported that the situation was less than satisfactory, as they only had flour and beans and "no yeast to make bread". There are no trained medical personnel in the camp so those women have to help one another give birth. "Two babies died not long after they were born because there was no milk. We stopped people leaving the camp because we were afraid that they would run away. We are trying to get hold of mangles for the nappies and medicines. Mothers are having to give their babies water instead of food and wrap them up in rags." The camp is under the protection of UNHCR and when Mrs. Sadako Ogata visited the camp she promised help as requested, but to date none has been received.

The Roma man A.G., 47, father of seven children, showed scars on the back of his head inflicted while he was detained in a UCK prison beside a British base in Kosovo. He said "First of all five men came to my house and said that I was a thief. I told them to come in and they said that everything that I had belonged to them. Then they said that I had carried away Albanian bodies during the war." Mr G. and his family are among the 1,400 Roma living in a camp guarded by British troops, several miles from Pristina.

The Italian television reported that a ship carrying approximately 200 Roma refugees from Kosovo was sighted 60 miles from Bari. Four Italian coastguard vessels were reported to be escorting the ship to the port of Bari. In July alone some 5,200 Roma arrived in Italy on board ships from Montenegro.

According to the Roma Human Rights Committee in Kragujevac there are Roma refugee camps in the following Serbian towns:

Bela Palanka: 800 refugees

Belgrade: 8,000 to 10,000 refugees

Bor/ Borski Rudnik, Knjazevac, Majdanpek, Negotin: 20,000 refugees

Kragujevac: 1,300 refugees, including 365 women and 700 children

Krusevac: 1,000 refugees

Nis: 3,100 refugees

Novi Sad: 700 refugees

Raska: 150 refugees

Vranje: 1,100 refugees

In the following towns there are refugees sheltering with relatives:

Belosevac,

Brenica,

Dragobraca,

Grosnica

Kolonija.

64.The majority of the refugees are women, one third are children. According to the Committee, the refugees are suffering from hunger. Diarrhea and hepatitis threaten children in particular. The Roma refugees believe that the Yugoslavian Red Cross discriminates against them and distributes relief materials preferentially to Serbian refugees. Of the Western relief agencies only Oxfam has supplied 200 blankets. The Roma are asking for blankets, clothing, medicines, and sanitary and personal hygiene items, food and building materials for the construction of temporary accommodation.

A Roma man was injured in the neck and one leg in a hand grenade attack in Mali Alas, near Lipjan. K-FOR arrested an Albanian man in connection with this attack. The K-FOR soldiers confiscated one AK-47, 200 rounds of ammunition, 3 hand grenades and a pistol.

In the locality of Stupelj in central Kosovo two Roma were shot at and wounded. Five armed men attacked the two sisters.

The bodies of 17 Roma were discovered off the coast of Montenegro. They were Roma refugees from Kosovo who drowned as they were making the crossing to Italy after their ship sank. The Roma were apparently travelling in company with other refugees, 69 of who were rescued three days earlier. A report in the daily newspaper "Vijesti" claimed that a gang of criminals who smuggled refugees from Kosovo into Italy was responsible. The smugglers demanded 1,100 US dollars for each adult and 550 US dollars for every child under 10.

The bodies of 33 Roma were recovered from the sea of the coast of Montenegro. The persons who drowned are presumed to have been refugees from Kosovo attempting to reach Italy clandestinely. It is feared the number of victims will continue to rise, as there were at least 100 people on board the vessel. (Since this was happened the pressure was gone for EU, and as a result of it the aid to Montenegro was dramatically reduced)

For further informations please contact:

Theodor W. Fruendt

Tel + Fax: +385 1 3760439

Email: theodorfruendt@hotmail.com

fruendt@couriermail.de

RomNews

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KOSOVO: The Intervention "Pay-off"

KOSOVO ( Theodor W. Fruendt for RNN ) February the 17th

KOSOVO ( Theodor W. Fruendt for RNN ) February the 17_th