The Independent, 27 August 1999
HUMAN TRAFFICKERS HELD FOR 100 DEATHS TWO SUSPECTED
ring leaders of a Yugoslav human trafficking network were arrested on
criminal charges relating to the deaths of more than 100 Roma who drowned in
the Adriatic as they tried to reach the Italian coast in a tiny fishing
Boat.

The traffickers are accused of packing the people on to a vessel designed
for nine people. They had charged the refugees between 1,000 and 2,500
German marks (pounds 350 to pounds 870) each for the trip from Montenegro,
the smaller of the two republics still in Yugoslavia, to Italy.
The body of a small boy was pulled from the sea off the Yugoslav coast
yesterday, the latest of the past
week's grim discovery of more than 40 corpses, some of them partly
disintegrated. A further 60 passengers
on the same vessel are believed to have died. So far only one survivor has
been found.
Police said the two men, Joko Nikaljevic from Kotor and Ramadan Balja from
the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, were detained on Thursday.
Six others from Montenegro and Serbia were still at large.
About 7,000 gypsies have arrived on the shores of southern Italy in recent
weeks, bringing tales of murder, rape, torture and looting by Albanians who
accuse them of collaborating with the Serbs in the Balkan war. But many of
them now face deportation back to Kosovo after the Italian government not to
consider them refugees.
Unlike the Kosovo Albanians, the gypsies are viewed as illegal immigrants,
to be turned back at the borders or sent home. The Italian government has
defended the about face, saying the war is now over and the special status
of "humanitarian refugees", which allowed fleeing Kosovars to remain in
Italy until December, has been revoked. The timing of the measure, just as
the first wave of gypsies arrived, has provoked a barrage of criticism of
double standards and racism.
At a reception camp on a disused runway near Bari airport, 702 gypsies,
including 269 children under the age of five, have taken the places of
Kosovo Albanians who have now returned home.
They occupy the same neat rows of white caravans interspersed with brightly
coloured children's play huts and
pristine portable toilets.
In the afternoon heat, families sit outside their caravans on deck chairs
reminiscing about the past and discussing the future. Ali Ademi, 65, touches
his still tender ribcage as he recalls the day he decided to flee:
"The KLA came to our house and ordered us to hand over any arms the Serbs
had given us. When we told them we had none, they turned their machine-gun
on my brother-in-law, who was confined to a wheelchair, and killed him.
They then tied my hands with a rope and dragged me behind a car for a mile
to force me
to talk. It was pointless. I had no weapons to give them."
An elderly woman with grey hair, black eyes and wrinkled cheeks recounts
how her neighbour, a childhood friend, was raped in front of her eyes.
Nehrup Gashi, 28, from Pristina, adds: "If they try to send us back, I swear
half the people would jump overboard. We want to pick up what pieces are
left but not to become sitting ducks for the KLA. The K-For troops just
stand aside and do nothing. We went to a British barracks asking for help
but they didn't want to know."