Friday, April 08, 2005

UNHCR says displaced persons gradually returning to southeast Kosovo

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Excerpt from report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive

Gjilan [Gnjilane], 7 April: The UNHCR regional officials in Gjilan said that the process of returning of displaced home in the municipalities of the east region is continuing.

The head of the UNHCR Regional Office, Ignazio Matteini, said that 17 members of Serb ethnic community, and 6 members of Ashkali ethnic community, have returned during the past month.

"We also expect returning of five other members of the Serb community in a couple of days," he added. [Passage omitted] He also appreciated the work of the municipal working groups, "some of the municipalities have already approved the strategy for return."

Matteini also pointed out that there are also those leaving. "There were 53 Serbs and seven Roma left."
He said that most of them do not see any perspective here. "They are selling their properties and going to live in Serbia. I do not to speculate that, but I believe that this is an matter of existence."
Recently, the chief of the Kamenica Community Office, Nebojsa Simic, said that the main problem this municipality is facing with is the lack of perspective, adding that this is the reason that not only the Serbs but also the Albanians as well are leaving.

According to Matteini, 418 members of ethnic minorities have returned in 2004 in the municipalities of east region. Whereas in the period between 2000-2004, 2,296 persons have returned - of those 1,389 Serbs, 364 Roma, 128 Ashkali and Egyptians and 415 Albanians.

Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 7 Apr 05

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ashkali are roma who speak albanian...

what are egyptians in this context?

are they actual descendants of egyptians from egypt who moved there during the Ottoman Empire?