Text of report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive
Prishtina [Pristina], 18 April: Kosovar political landscape has been enriched with a new political party - the Independent Liberal Party [NLS], which according to its chairman, Slobodan Petrovic, will be engaged for protecting the rights of the Serb community.
"The Independent Liberal Party will represent the interests of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, and it is important because our party has a multiethnic character," said Petrovic.
Petrovic said that his party aims a multiethnic, European Kosova, where all the citizens will have equal rights.
"The goals of the NLS are focused in preventing Serbs from leaving Kosovo, creation of conditions for their sustainable return and their integration into the Kosovar social events," said Petrovic.
As far as the future status, Petrovic said that it is not up to his political party to decide on this. "We fully support negotiations between Prishtina and Belgrade," he said.
"We do not decide on independence or something else, it is an issue that will be decided by Belgrade, Prishtina and international community," said Petrovic.
He said that they want to contribute to the political processes, adding that they have no personal interests.
"Our political party consists of young people, whereas our doors are opened to all the people of the good will, regardless of religion, race or gender," said Petrovic, and added that they will try to represent a bridge between Prishtina and Belgrade.
Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 18 Apr 06
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Dear NYoutlawyer
Read the article clearly and you will immediately notice a strong anti-Muslim bias.
The "corridors" that are mentioned there have some "gaps" which are filled by countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia etc.
Albania, for example, does not share a border with Turkey, hence the "corridor" must pass via Greece and/or Bulgaria.
Nor does Kosova share a border with Bosnia.
And neither does Bosnia share a border with "Western Europe".
So, this amounts to a rubbish "corridor".
Hence, your "argument" for "real problems" with an independent Kosova is fundamentally flawed.
According to your logic, there seem to be "real problems" with an independent Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary etc.
Or, maybe, just maybe, the problem is with you!
Yours,
"Serbia Like Nokia, Each Year a New Model, and Each Time Smaller and Smaller"
Anyone remember what happened in Croatia before the Storm? The serbs didint agree to anything international community offered them and in the end it had to be solved by force. Same here in Kosova, serbs are never going to agree to live in a democratic country they want all areas that serbs live to unite in a "great" serbia and the results are know to all. The serb problem in Kosova can only be solved by force.
Oh and dont worry about the small dick complex of the nyouthouselawyer. That bitch has a pea size brain.
I am sure most of the people who join this party will be expelled from Kosovo when the genocide being planned by Ceku starts when Kosovo gets independence.
Does the Serbian parliament have members from Kosovo? Will that be allowed when Kosovo gets independence?
nyouthouselawyer first take care of your own garbage then talk about someone elses. I know two massmurderers that your kind is sheltering.
Albanians in Kosovo elect mass murderers Prime Mininster.
Read how serbia deals with gypsies.
Balkan Insight
Belgrade Roma Rot In Cardboard City
Few Serbian Roma put much faith in official promises to tackle their poor conditions.
By Zelimir Bojovic in Belgrade (Balkan Insight, 12 Apr 06)
In the so-called Cardboard City, crammed beneath the Gazela, one of the busiest bridges in Belgrade, hundreds of Roma families live in what looks like a landfill site.
Most Roma here make a precarious living from collecting and selling cardboard, or from whatever they find in rubbish containers. Walls made of cardboard, wooden planks and nylon offer no protection against rain and snow, so their hovels are soaked through in winter.
Afrodita Saitovic, 18 years old and eight months pregnant, has lived in Cardboard City with her husband and two children for seven years.
Her family fled Kosovo in 1999, after NATO air strikes drove out the Serbian authorities. Kosovo's Roma bore the brunt of local Albanian rage for siding with the Serbs - but Serbia has been far from welcoming. Saitovic's family has been without running water or sewage since they got to Belgrade, though the city has now supplied them with electric power.
Despite the fact that she was suffering excruciating pains in her stomach, doctors at Belgrade 's Narodni Front hospital refused to examine her as she did not have a healthcare card.
"They said I should pay 1,800 dinars [about 20 euro], but I don't have enough money for food, let alone a medical examination," she said.
Saitovic said she may have to give birth in her cardboard room at home.
This family's problems are common to Roma all over Serbia. Living in unauthorised settlements, they cannot register as residents and obtain the documents they need to get access to healthcare, education and the job market.
The police require at least a house number in order to grant a residence permit, the gateway into the Serbian legal system. For people in Cardboard City, this is impossible.
The Minority Rights Centre, CPM, a Belgrade-based non-governmental organisation, is trying to help people like Afrodita Saitovic obtain residence permits.
"If the city of Belgrade changes the law and grants addresses to these settlements, a great number of people could gain access to healthcare, the jobs market and send their children to school," said Petar Antic, CPM's executive director.
The health issue is probably the most serious problem facing Roma in the cardboard slums, where unhygienic conditions are a fertile breeding ground for viruses and ailments of all kinds.
Osman Balic, head of the YUROM Centre, a Roma non-governmental organisation based in Nis, said poor healthcare cuts the average lifespan of the community very significantly.
"Only one per cent of all Roma in Serbia live to the age of 60," he said.
Dragoljub Ackovic, vice-president of the World Roma Parliament, a Roma lobby group, agreed. He said the average lifespan of Roma in Serbia was only 47, which is 20 years less than the rest of the population.
Belatedly, Serbia's ministry of health says it is taking steps to address the problem.
Djordje Stojiljkovic, the deputy health minister, said the government had launched a 60,000,000 dinar (700,000 euro) project together with the World Bank and other international organisations. The move is timed to coincide with the Decade of Roma Inclusion, an international effort to raise the economic and social status of Roma.
Some Roma activists doubt whether the Serbian government project will get far, given the small amount of money involved.
"Those funds are just a drop in the ocean of our needs," complained Ackovic.
He said the health ministry was not truly interested in tackling the poor health of the Roma. "All they want to do is to implement some projects so that they can say they are working on something," he said.
One of the many problems with addressing the Roma community's plight is the lack of hard information.
No one knows exactly how many Roma live in dire poverty. The most recent government survey, in 2002-03, suggested only that more than 80 per cent of Roma in Serbia lived in impoverished areas, most of them concentrated in some 600 unauthorised settlements.
Zarko Sunderic, from the deputy prime minister's team on poverty reduction, said, "Around 35 per cent of Roma have no access to a water supply, 65 per cent have no sewage systems, 45 per cent have no proper streets in their settlements and about one tenth of Roma live without electricity."
Sunderic added that few Roma children were vaccinated against diseases. "Tuberculosis, skin and venereal diseases, as well as asthma, are common among both grown-ups and children," he said.
Unofficial estimates suggest about 30,000 of the 100,000 Roma in Belgrade live in unsanitary settlements like Cardboard City. One of them is Halid Hasani, 32, who lives there with his wife and two daughters.
Since the last rainfall, the family have been unable to use one of their rooms, fearing that the ceiling might fall in as they sleep. But the biggest problem is the lack of water and sanitation, Hasani said.
"We used to go for water to the nearby gravel pit, but now the security guards there often refuse to give us water," he added.
Elizabeta Maloku, 24, also from Cardboard City, said her biggest problem was the rats that swarmed all around the place, keeping her awake at night.
Her daughter is already an invalid at only four years old, after being born with a lump on her neck. As is typically the case, doctors would not treat her without a healthcare card.
Antic said such people are living in a kind of limbo, with their children growing up illiterate and wholly unequipped for life in the wider society.
"If they don't get the help, the consequences could be alarming", he said, pointing to the obvious danger of these children falling into lives of crime.
Ackovic fears that the Roma cannot rely on the goodwill of Serbian officials, but should put their faith in international pressure instead.
"If Serbia wants to adopt European standards and join the European Union, then it must look after the Roma people and their health," he said.
In the meantime, the residents of Cardboard City rely on their own resources, as they have always done.
"If you have the money, you can get medical treatment," Ajeti Ilfan, 43, said. "If you can't, you might as well drop dead."
Zelimir Bojovic is a Deutsche Welle correspondent in Belgrade. Balkan Insight is BIRN's online publication. This article was published with support from Freedom House.
Maybe if the European countries would let Serbia be prosperous maybe it could take care of its people.
You probably mean murderous like it was in Kosova, Bosnia and Croatia. Its really insane how serbs never see themselves for what they really are, rapists and baby killers.
I think you are a rapist and a baby killer.
Here we go again! Nyouthouselawyer still keeping with his bs. serbs got 50% of Bosnia with the same "muslim state" propaganda and now think they will get north of Kosova as well. Unless Ceku architect of Storm devises andother one.
Post a Comment