Violence against Roma in Kosovo continues

07 November 2001

Violence against Kosovo Roma, Ashkalija and other persons regarded as "Gypsies" in the province continues unabated. "The level of intolerance still present in Kosovo society is unacceptable," stated Ambassador Daan Everts, head of the Kosovo mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), according to an OSCE press statement of October 1, 2001. A list of cases of violence and threats against Roma in Kosovo registered with various sources in the past months follows:

• A 38-year old Romani man was found dead in Gjilan/Gnjilane on October 4, 2001, according to the KFOR daily News Update of October 5, 2001. The Pri?na-based Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms reported in their Weekly Report No. 565 for October 1-7, 2001, that the victim, Mr Vehat Remzi Zemaili, was found stabbed to death in the vicinity of the local bus station. According to KFOR News Update of October 6, a group of around one hundred Roma gathered in Gjilan.
• A threatening note was found posted on the door of a Romani family's house in the town of Suhareke/Suva Reka, on September 12, 2001, demanding that the family leave town otherwise they would "vanish", according to UNMIK police of September 13, 2001.
• A hand grenade placed by unknown suspects exploded in a water barrel in the yard of a Romani woman on September 8, 2001, in the town of Viti/Vitina, according to UNMIK police.
• A Serbian man was arrested by KFOR after he attempted to rape a Romani woman in the village of Berivojce near Kamenice/Kamenica on September 1, 2001, UNMIK police reported on September 3, 2001.
• An abandoned Ashkalija house was set on fire in the Hallac i Vogel/Mali Alas village on September 1, 2001, according to an UNMIK police report dated of September 2, 2001.
• Unknown persons threw an explosive device at the house of an Ashkalija man in the Hallac i Vogel/Mali Alas village on an unspecified date in the period August 26-31, 2001, according to the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms and their Weekly Report No. 560 covering this period.
• An Ashkalija woman and child were injured in a grenade attack in the village of Hallac i Vogel/Mali Alas on August 28, 2001, according to an UNMIK police report of August 29, 2001; three Kosovo Albanian men were reportedly arrested in relation to this incident.
• An abandoned Romani house was set on fire on August 27, 2001, in the Hallac i Vogel/Mali Alas village, according to an UNMIK police report dated August 28, 2001.
• Five Romani persons were wounded in a bomb attack in Shtime/Stimlje on August 8, 2001, according to the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms and their Weekly Report No. 557 for the period of August 1-12; the Roma had recently returned from Macedonia, where they had fled in fear for their physical safety.
• A group of Serbs assaulted a group of Roma on their way to Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje on July 27, 2001, reported the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms in the Weekly Report No. 556 for July 22-31, 2001. The Roma had been returning to their pre-war homes; after six of them were injured in the incident, KFOR escorted them to their houses in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje.
• A hand grenade was thrown in the yard of a Romani house in the town of Rrahovec/Orahovac on July 18, 2001, according to an UNMIK police report dated July 19, 2001.
• A Kosovo Romani woman was abducted in the town of Kastriot/Obilic on July 15, 2001, according to an UNMIK police report of July 16, 2001.

The OSCE statement of October 1, 2001, further warned that, "democratic development will be undermined if the problems of minority communities are not recognised and addressed." It also identified the lack of freedom of movement as a problem deeply affecting all aspects of life of minorities in Kosovo. Mr Lennart Kotslainen, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission in Kosovo stated that: "For some communities this has become a fact of life; what is depply worrying is that people are starting to consider it normal not to go beyond certain invisible but known boundaries."

(Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, KFOR, OSCE, UNMIK Police)