sign in sign up
<<
Home , Battle of Knin, Bosnians, Bosnian War, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croats of Montenegro, Eternal Flame (Belgrade)

VOLUME 3 • NUMBER 140 • 2005

After The Was Over DP/24134•2005 DP/22922•2005 DP/23794•2005

SERBIA: woman and a new life in . : Croatian family applies for citizenship. : A family of in Bosnia. DP/21160•2005

BOSNIA: An ethnic Croat risked staying in during the war. Balkan

BOSNIA: Widows Images of the massacre still wait- BOSNIA: An ethnic Serb farmer ing to go home. went back to the Sarajevo region. DP/21656•2005 2005 DP/22484•2005 THE COMPLICATED MOSAIC OF

BOSNIA: A Muslim family returned home to DP/22689•2005 a Serb-dominated region BOSNIA: Croat returnees to the after the war. DP/21074•2005 DP/20851•2005

CROATIA: Croatian family who fled Serb militias in 1991 now back home. DP/20998•2005

CROATIA: An ethnic Serb returnee still waiting to reclaim her occupied home.

BOSNIA: Croatian continues to live and work in another refugee’s property. DP/21296•2005

CROATIA: An ethnic Croat family from Bosnia resettled in Croatia. DP/20991•2005 POSTWAR LIFE

BOSNIA: An ethnic Serb family living in a Muslim-dominated DP/22784•2005 region of Bosnia. region in the Bosniak-Croat .

DP/22392•2005 Mostar’s restored .

DP/23184•2005 The ‘miracle’ of Dayton

4 REFUGEES –10 yearsyears laterlater

“THE BRIDGE, IN ALL ITS BEAUTY AND GRACE, WAS BUILT TO OUTLIVE US. IT WAS AN ATTEMPT TO GRASP ETERNITY”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY VINCENT WINTER

REFUGEES 5 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

The war years: A temporary footbridge replaces Mostar’s historical bridge. BY R AY W ILKINSON ings to further his war aims against neighboring Bosni- an . held uleiman the Magnificent commis- The ancient stones crashed into snow swollen tor- prisoners of war by sioned the 16th century masterpiece to rents below and Croatian journalist Slavenka Draku- ethnic Serb forces. reflect the caliph’s own omnipotence. lic, who had also penned the earlier lines about the The mortar used to lace the dazzling Mostar bridge, lamented: “Why do we feel more pain Seeking safety stone pieces together high over the looking at the image of the destroyed from Serb snipers in a muddy trench reputedly was mixed from the bridge than the image of massacred and behind U.N. finest egg whites and horse hair and in people? We expect people to die. The armored personnel the intervening centuries scholars, global travelers and destruction of a monument to civi- carriers. Sclergy revered the bridge not only for its physical beau- lization is something else. The bridge ty but also as a symbol of religious and cultural toler- transcended our individual destiny.” ance, a structure which outlasted Ottoman and Austri- As much as any other single event an , royalist and 20th century in an unfolding tragedy which would communist cadres. last for nearly four years, the Mostar On a bitterly chill day in November 1993, Croatian bridge and its wanton destruction Slobodan Prljak saw the bridge at Mostar, deep became another type of symbol—this in the heart of the newly declared independent country time not of tolerance, but of the intol- of Bosnia and , not as one of the ’s erance and depravity into which the cultural jewels but as an impediment to one of the 20th Balkan region of was mired at century’s latest and most insidious developments—the the start of the . ‘’—the separation or murder of ‘inferi- or’ local peoples. A KEY PLAYER “It’s just an old bridge,” the Christian general said It had all seemed so different casually as he ordered his artillerymen to destroy the during the previous four decades. graceful arch and 11 other surrounding historical build- After and his commu-

6 REFUGEES ©B. GYSEMBERGH/CS/BIH•1992 AP/H. DELIC/DP/BIH•1996

As much as any other single event, the wanton destruction of the bridge at Mostar became a symbol of the intolerance and depravity into which the Balkan region was mired.

nist seized power in conflict between , and Muslims erupted /CS/BIH•1996 in the waning days of World across that country, too. War II, he welded it into a politically sig- In the ensuing fighting and localized -within- nificant state which successfully strad- wars between 1992 and 1995, several hundred thousand dled the world’s power blocs— persons were killed. Serb forces committed the worst

UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN communist, socialist, capitalist and single atrocity in Europe since the end of the Second third-world. when they massacred nearly 8,000 Muslim But when Tito died in 1980, ethnic, men and boys around an obscure town called Srebreni- political, economic and religious tensions resurfaced ca. Concentration camps were established. Half of and the façade of Yugoslav unity fell apart. After a Bosnia’s entire population—men, women, children, the decade of increasing regional tensions, and old and the disabled—were ripped from their homes. Croatia declared from the Serb-domi- nated central authorities in Belgrade in 1991. War engulfed parts of Croatia. declared its own independence in 1992 and interethnic Ljubjana SLOVENIA VOJWODINA

CROATIA

Banja BOSNIA Belgrade AND HERZEGOVINA Srebrenica SERBIA Sarajevo Mostar Mitrovica KOSOVO

/CS/BIH•1995 FYR OF The UNHCR/C. GALBE

REFUGEES 7 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

DP/21829•2005 Digging new graves for recently identified victims ‘Ethnic cleansing’ became part of the international the Dayton Accords on , 1995, at a of the in 1995. vocabulary. The bulk of Bosnia’s factories, , U.S. Air Force base called Wright-Patterson in Ohio. roads, schools, homes and water and supplies The guns fell silent. Bosnia was split into two almost were destroyed as were entire towns and in equal parts, the so-called Republika Srpska, spiritual Croatia. home to ethnic Serbs, and a Bosniak-Croat Federation. unhcr became the humanitarian organization Under the terms of Annex 7 of the Dayton Accords (see in the Balkans and began the most wide-ranging and story page 14), unhcr again became the lead humani- complex operation in its history, spearheading a pro- tarian agency—this time repatriating the war’s civilian gram to care for 3.5 million civilians. Central to that victims from stinking collective centers across the operation was what became the longest-running air region, from abandoned homes and bomb-damaged bridge in history, a 3 1/2-year, almost daily shuttle of - buildings where they had squatted after the original go planes which helped feed the Bosnian capital of owners had also fled; from as far away as refugee centers Sarajevo. and private homes in Europe and North America— Only a few years before, in 1984, this same city had bringing them back to a shattered landscape sown with been the proud host to the world at the Winter Olympic mines, with almost no physical infrastructure, few jobs Games, but now it had been reduced to a hapless collec- and simmering ethnic hatreds. tion of traumatized civilians cowering in their dark- On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Dayton ened homes, targets in a virtual ‘ shoot’ by Serb agreement in November, the bridge at Mostar today gunners perched high in the surrounding hills. again provides a dramatic backdrop against which to After an increasing American and interven- highlight developments in the last decade—an easy ref- tion, the Bosnian phase of the Balkan nightmare splut- erence point to measure the progress or lack of it—in tered to a halt in the most unlikely of venues when the trying to patch together again Europe’s battered south- major protagonists agreed to what became known as east corner.

UNHCR again became the lead humanitarian agency— back to a shattered landscape sown

8 REFUGEES A brief history of the BALKANS

1878 they overrun the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica December 11, 1999 The Congress of redraws the map of the and massacre nearly 8,000 men and boys. Political change begins to sweep the Balkans. Balkans and despite ignoring the wishes of local The catastrophe hastens the intervention of Croatian strongman Franjo Tudjman dies and a populations creates three new countries, U.S. and NATO forces. democratic system is established. In October Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. the following year, Slobodan Milosevic August 12, 1995 concedes defeat in presidential elections in June 28, 1914 As the tide of war turns decisively against Serb Belgrade and on June 28,2001, is handed over to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro- forces, Croatia launches the International Tribunal in to Hungarian throne, is assassinated by a Serb to retake Serb-held . Some 250,000 face war crimes. gunman during a visit to the Bosnian capital of ethnic Serbs flee Croatia during the war. Sarajevo, precipitating and the 2001 subsequent collapse of the Austrian and November 21, 1995 Conflict breaks out in the former Yugoslav Ottoman empires. Yugoslavia, the ‘Kingdom of The Dayton Peace Accords end hostilities in of Macedonia (FYROM) and more Serbs, Croats and ’ is created from Bosnia and Herzegovina. NATO-led than 150,000 people flee, principally to the debris in 1918. implementation forces deploy and UNHCR is neighboring Kosovo. In August, the country’s designated as the lead humanitarian agency two opposing sides sign a peace agreement and October 24, 1944 to oversee the , feeding and civilians begin to return to the country. In the dying days of World War II, Josip Broz rehousing of the region’s uprooted peoples. Tito’s partisans liberate the Yugoslav capital of February 4, 2003 Belgrade and establish a communist regime 15, 1998 The parliamentary endorsement in Belgrade of which will last for nearly a half century. Croatia peacefully reintegrates the last of its the Constitutional Charter of a new country— lands seized by Serb forces in the east of the the State Union of — June 25, 1991 country, assuming full for the first also marks the formal demise of the earlier Following Tito’s , internal differences time over its entire territory. of Yugoslavia which collapsed begin to surface. Croatia and Slovenia declare during the of the 1990s. independence, but the Serb-dominated , 1999 federal Yugoslav army overruns 30 percent of July 2004 As the rest of the former Yugoslav Republic Croatian territory. Later in the year, UNHCR is Bosnia passes an important milestone in its attempts to recover from war, a new crisis declared the lead humanitarian organization in rebirth when the one millionth person been simmering in its southern Kosovo the crisis. displaced during the war returns home. between the majority ethnic March 3, 1992 and Serbs. When peace talks collapse January 2005 in , NATO launches a 78-day air war Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and independence, but ethnic Serb forces seize against Serbian forces. Within days the first of Montenegro helped by UNHCR, the European 70 percent of the country and lay to the nearly 900,000 ethnic Albanians flee or are Union and the Organization for Security and forced out of the province into Albania, capital, Sarajevo. UNHCR begins a 3 1/2-year Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agree to resolve airlift to feed the city, the longest humanitarian Macedonia and Montenegro. all outstanding refugee and internal air bridge in history. displacement issues by the end of 2006. , 1999 1991-95 After acceptance of a peace plan, NATO and September 2005 In four years of warfare, several hundred Russian forces enter Kosovo, closely followed An estimated 2.5 million uprooted persons thousand people are killed; the term “ethnic in later weeks by virtually the entire ethnic have returned home in all areas of the Balkans cleansing” enters the international vocabulary Albanian population which had fled only since the mid-1990s. However, some 620,000 as agencies struggle to feed and protect months earlier. It became one of the fastest civilians are still waiting to go back, the some 3.5 million civilians. Bosnia’s physical refugee exodus and returns in history. However, major problem being the return of ethnic infrastructure, in particular, is virtually fearing reprisals from the Albanians some Serbs and other minorities to Kosovo. UNHCR destroyed. 230,000 , Roma and other spent around $500 million on assistance in the minorities flee in the opposite direction, into decade-long Dayton process, but after being July 11, 1995 Serbia and Montenegro. A U.N. civil the lead humanitarian agency during both war Serb forces perpetrate the worst single administration, UNMIK, is established to run and peace, has been phasing out its operations atrocity in Europe since World War II when Kosovo. in the region for the last few years. this time repatriating the war’s civilian victims with mines, few jobs and simmering ethnic hatreds.

REFUGEES 9 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

DP/21234•2005 DP/23026•2005 Throughout the Balkans, around 2.5 million people

People have been The bridge and surrounding buildings have been THE GOOD NEWS returning to lovingly restored in a multi-million dollar internation- Throughout the Balkans, around 2.5 million peo- so-called minority al rescue project. Original stonework was saved from ple returned home in the last few years. As many as areas all across the Balkans in recent the river far below and new pieces mined from the orig- 650,000 refugees permanently settled overseas and years. inal quarry. A temporary footbridge which provided dropped off the monitoring screens of agencies such as access between the two divided parts of the town, itself unhcr. An ethnic Croat a symbol of war and division, has been dismantled. In Bosnia, following the signing of the Dayton farmer in Bosnia’s Terraced restaurants with brightly colored parasols Accords, more than one million civilians went back, Republika Srpska. serve local specialties such as cevapi(sausage), jag- almost half of them to areas where they are now ethnic njetina (lamb), silovane paprike (stuffed peppers) and minorities—the most difficult and sensitive part of the An extended Bosnian family, half fiery , as locals and an increasing number of entire repatriation project. of them now living tourists mix easily. Children swim in the Neretva to Five billion dollars in aid poured into the country in permanently in the escape the cloying summer temperatures. Laughter the early peace years. Around half of Bosnia’s 500,000 , at and music waft across the gorge. destroyed homes were rebuilt or replaced. Some their rebuilt home in Few people these days stop to inspect at one end of 200,000 property disputes were resolved peacefully. the former Croat the bridge a small memorial slab, topped by the tail fin Like the bridge at Mostar, Sarajevo enjoyed a rebirth, stronghold of rpg near Mostar. of an exploded rocket propelled grenade ( ) with the flourishing once more with the snappy street life, smart simple inscription in English “Don’t Forget ’93.” boutiques and restaurants of an earlier era, even though And just several streets away there is an even stark- the overgrown shells of some downtown buildings are er reminder of the conflict—rows of ghostly and shrap- a constant reminder of the more recent past. nel splattered buildings, too gutted and expensive to The number of international troops rebuild and maybe not enough political will among the in Bosnia dropped from a high of 69,000 to 7,000 in the country’s leaders to do so. absence of any major security incidents. Like the contrasts in Mostar itself, optimists and The Croatian government in 1998 reintegrated the pessimists both have plenty of ammunition to bolster last of its lands seized by federal Yugoslav forces in the their respective views of what has happened in the early days of the war, bringing to a peaceful conclusion region in the last 10 years. the conflict between those two countries.

10 REFUGEES have returned home in the last few years.

The Zagreb government, accused by many critics of dragging its feet over ethnic Serb returns, nevertheless said it had welcomed back more than 130,000 refugees in the last decade. Another 240,000 persons internally displaced during the war had gone back to their towns and villages. In Yugoslavia, which later formally changed its name to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the number of refugees dropped since 1996 by more than two-thirds to some 150,000 today. More than 100,000 civilians returned to Croatia and Bosnia and in a major development in the last few years, 116,000 other refugees responded positively to Belgrade’s invitation to settle there permanently and become citizens. The international community welcomed Belgrade’s new flexibility by approving an early $1.3 billion aid

package to help that country’s battered economy. DP/20974•2005 Across the three countries, these major returns did A young ethnic lead to Serbs, Croats and (Muslims) living side Serb girl near Knin by side again and working together in many areas. lion people in that region quickly repatriated. See sepa- after her return from (In the southern Balkans, separate ethnic conflicts rate story page 26). Serbia. had erupted in 1998 in Serbia’s Kosovo province and in Authoritarian regimes in Belgrade and Zagreb 2001 in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were replaced by democratic governments and (fyrom) after the guns had already fallen silent further Yugoslavia’s former leader, Slobodan Milosevic was north. There were additional massive displacements of sent to The Hague, where he remains today, answering civilians during those conflicts, but more than one mil- war crimes charges.

REFUGEES 11 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

For these three women from Croatia and Bosnia, In January, the governments of Bosnia, Croatia and ship of the Dayton Accords’ humanitarian objectives their only future is in unhcr an old folks home Serbia and Montenegro, together with , the during which the agency spent $500 million on protec- near the Serbian and the Organization for Security and tion and assistance projects. It would also bring to a capital of Belgrade. Cooperation in Europe (osce) said they would fit the close an extraordinary era both for the organization and final piece to the refugee jigsaw in their respective coun- the region. tries. They signed a Sarajevo Agreement or “3 x 3 Initia- Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of the tive” in which they agreed to resolve all outstanding international community in Bosnia, an unabashed regional displacement problems by the end of 2006. realist-optimist, called The Decade of Dayton nothing That would effectively complete unhcr’s - less than a “miracle.”

12 REFUGEES There are an estimated 620,000 refugees and internally displaced persons throughout the Balkans still waiting to go home but some of them have nothing to go back to.

. Nothing else mat- tered.”

THE BAD NEWS In an old folks home on the outskirts of Bel- grade, three ladies in their 70s share a tiny bedroom, each with an bedstead and one side table. Two are from the Knin region of Croatia and the third from Gorazde in Bosnia. All were driven from their homes by the war and, as ethnic Serbs, they sought temporary safety in Ser- bia. In the intervening years of exile they succes- sively lost their husbands, relatives, and worldly pos- sessions. Seventy-eight-year- old Draginja Matijas expected to return to her farmhouse after only a few

DP/23720•2005 days when she fled in pan- ic in 1995 but now “all I have in the world is this,” The former British Liberal politician said recently: she explains clutching a black handbag. “This is all,” “The miracle in Bosnia is how much has been done in she repeats in tears. “I’m too old except to die here.” Her 10 years. [Remember] a sixteenth of the population was two companions nod in agreement that that will proba- killed, more than in France during World War II and bly be their fate, too. half the population made homeless…” There are an estimated 620,000 refugees and inter- A local aid worker who survived the siege of Sara- nally displaced persons throughout the Balkans still jevo was equally emphatic about the results of the waiting to go home but some of them like the three Accords: “We would have signed an agreement with ladies in Belgrade—the forgotten detritus of any war— the devil to end the war, all the suffering and all the have nothing to go back to.

REFUGEES 13 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

An ethnic Serb woman who continues to live in exile

Leading the return home THE DAYTON PEACE reflecting its ethnic reality, the  UNHCR, as the lead agency, ethnic origin, religious belief or ACCORDS ended the war in so-called Bosnian Serb Republic was entrusted “with the role of political opinion.” Bosnia and Herzegovina. They (Republika Srpska) and the coordinating among all agencies were initialed by the leaders of Bosniak-Croat Federation. assisting with the repatriation” and  All parties agreed to repeal “do- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia At the start of the Balkan wars, developing “a plan that will allow mestic legislation and administra- and the Federal Republic of Yu- the U.N. Secretary-General in 1991 for an early, peaceful, orderly and tive practices with discriminatory goslavia at the Wright-Patterson had designated UNHCR to be the phased return of refugees and intent”; prevent incitment through Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, on lead humanitarian agency during displaced persons.” the media or other channels “of November 21, 1995, and signed in the developing emergency. Under ethnic or religious hostility or on of that year. Dayton, the refugee agency was  “All refugees and displaced hate”; protect ethnic minorities Under the terms of the treaty, again asked to spearhead efforts persons have the right freely to and their easy access to humani- the parties agreed to respect each to help millions of people return to their homes of origin. tarian organizations; and prose- others’ sovereignty, maintain a uprooted by the fighting to return They shall have the right to have cute, dismiss or transfer any official cease-fire in Bosnia, withdraw to their homes. restored to them property of violating the rights of minorities. military forces to agreed lines of Though the agreement was which they were deprived in the separation, approve a new consti- specific to Bosnia and Herzegovina, course of hostilities since 1991 and  The parties agreed to create tution and hold presidential and its political, military and humani- to be compensated for any “political, economic and social legislative elections. tarian impact was widespread property that cannot be restored conditions” to encourage return The capital of Sarajevo was throughout the entire Balkan to them.” and reintegration and, vitally im- reunified, a central government region. portant, a Commission for Dis- was established, but in one of the The humanitarian challenge  Returnees could go back “with- placed Persons and Refugees was most controversial points, two was spelled out in Annex 7 of out risk of harassment, intimida- established to adjudicate poten- separate entities were also the Dayton Accords and its main tion, persecution or discrimination, tially hundreds of thousands of recognized within the country points included: particularly on account of their property disputes and claims.

14 REFUGEES DP/22838•2005 DP/23922•2005 said Dayton “was a catastrophe that had to happen.”

Others remain caught in the crosscurrents of vet’ discrimination practiced in trying to obtain jobs, Life is extremely regional politics. When ethnic Albanians flooded back or a school place. tough for families into Kosovo in 1999 in the wake of retreating Serb mili- Many civilians, particularly returnees, are forced to returning to destroyed villages tary and police units, tens of thousands of Serb civilians eke out a living by subsistence farming where a single in central Bosnia. and other minorities panicked and went along with the cow or a patch of may be the only source of troops, fearful of potential reprisals by the Albanians. support. When an international field worker was Navenka Bodiroga, A small trickle of people has returned in the inter- recently asked how these people managed, she originally from vening years, but while the international community, shrugged and replied “They’re all magicians. We don’t Sarajevo, has Serbia and the Albanians wrangle over the province’s understand how they even survive week by week.” decided to stay in future—outright independence for the majority Alba- Security may have improved immeasurably, but Serbia. nians or within Serbia?—a quarter of a mil- there are still at least 10,000 known war criminals at lion civilians remain stranded in legal limbo as dis- large from Bosnia alone, among them Radovan Karadz- placed persons in Serbia proper, unsure and unwilling ic and Ratko Mladic, the alleged architects of the mas- to gamble their futures by returning to Kosovo. sacre at Srebrenica and other atrocities. There are other formidable problems shared across Even when minorities have returned, generally all the countries in the Balkans. Foreign aid has been only around half their prewar populations have gone sharply reduced and regional economies face two over- back to their original homes. And while these returnees whelming obstacles, trying both to recover from a dev- do live side by side with their former neighbors, and lat- astating war and to retool obsolete socialist-communist terly their enemy in the recent wars, they rarely live economies with more flexible systems. together as they once did. Unemployment is routinely 30 percent and as high “I went back to see my in Mostar one time,” a as 80 percent in some regions. Fifty percent of Bosnia’s woman who now lives on the outskirts of Belgrade said. population is on or below the poverty line, 50 percent “My old neighbor saw me and said ‘What are you doing has no health care and 18 percent no electricity. Bosnia’s here? For me you don’t exist.’ That is why I am never bloated bureaucracy—five presidents, two prime min- going back again.” isters, 13 education ministers to the various Former High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers warned power structures—swallows 60 percent of the country’s unhcr’s Committee in 2004 that all of the . loose ends in the Balkans will probably never be neatly If the most obvious forms of discrimination have tied back together again. “While continuing returns for been eliminated, there is still widespread ‘silent’ or ‘vel- all those who aspire to it, we should abandon the artifi-

REFUGEES 15 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

© SALGADO/SCG•1995 The flight from Knin in 1995. cial and counterproductive ambition to return all “Dayton,” she said, “was a catastrophe that had to remaining uprooted peoples,” he said. happen.” It may have stopped the killing, but for Serbs Some critics blame Dayton for the ills besetting like herself it was a long-term disaster leading to per- Bosnia and its neighbors. One Sarajevo university pro- manent exile. fessor described it as a “Frankenstein agreement” because it had legally solidified the war’s ethnic cleans- HOPES AND FEARS ing policy by dividing the country neatly into two enti- A recent journey through Croatia, Bosnia and Ser- ties—the Serb dominated Republika Srpska and the bia highlighted all of the region’s post-Dayton contra- Bosniak-Croat Federation. dictions—the hopes and concerns for return, the strug- Navenka Bodiroga fled Sarajevo at the start of the gle for survival, renewed friendships and ongoing war when she was many months pregnant and now wartime animosities and the fears about a still very helps to support her family by sewing small items in her uncertain future. in the town of Sabac near Belgrade. She cries In Croatia’s region, locals believe the scrub when she remembers Sarajevo where she was born. “I hills and deep valleys surrounding the principal town am so very homesick,” she said. But she decided recent- of Knin were the original birthplace for the series of ly to accept Serb citizenship and stay where she is. wars which ripped the former Yugoslavia apart.

16 REFUGEES Ethnic Serb returnees in Knin in 2005.

DP/20747•2005 “I began to cry the moment I came back. I am still crying. I cannot believe everything.” —An ethnic Serb who returned to Croatia, a newly rebuilt home and a new grandson.

DP/20795•2005

Croats still remember with a shudder one particular in turn forced some 250,000 Serbs into exile as part of meeting as early as 1989 when priests and other speak- an ongoing and confusing mass movement of different ers at a nearby orthodox church called St. Lazar, local populations throughout the Balkans. whipped an estimated 60,000 crowd into a frenzy of An estimated 40,000 out of 120,000 ethnic Serbs Serb . “We knew then war was inevitable,” have since returned to the Knin region, but today they one farmer said recently. comprise only 10 percent of the population compared At the time, the Krajina was the heartland of Croat- with 90 percent prewar. Nationally, Croatia’s Serb pop- ia’s ethnic Serb population which went on to declare its ulation fell from 600,000 to less than half that figure. own Republika Krajina (Krajina means borderland) in The reversal in ethnic composition and the modest 1991. number of returnees to regions where they now live as Unsurprisingly, a first mass exodus of civilians a minority of the population is part of a similar postwar began. With Serb soldiers and militias winning the pattern of change in many towns and villages across the ground conflict at the time, some 500,000 Croats and Balkans with still unforeseen future consequences. other non-Serbs fled Krajina and other parts of the And the personal stories of Croats, Bosniaks and country. As the fortunes of war changed, a resurgent Serbs here reflect both the successes and ongoing prob- in 1995 launched Operation Storm and lems of the region as a whole.

REFUGEES 17 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

DP/20853•2005 “After the war, we dared to say who we were, Croats. Now, we feel we are minorities again.” —A Croat in the Knin region of that country grumbling about continued Serb domination.

A Croat family When and Nevenka Stojanovic fled to Serbia in war communist system, he was guaranteed a govern- which fled Knin in 1995 their house was totally destroyed by Croat soldiers. ment apartment, but tens of thousands of people lost 1991 began a They returned two years later and though they lived in that privilege during the ensuing chaos. Trying to successful small- scale an adjoining stable for three years, abundant assistance provide people like Mijakovac with new, alternative business after their was available at the time to help them rebuild their accommodation is perhaps the biggest problem fac- return home. ancestral home—help which is no longer around ing Zagreb today, though some critics charged the in today’s more difficult economic times. government had persistently undermined the pro- Boris Petko’s home was also destroyed, but it is one of cess. Until the problem is resolved, Mijakovac con- an estimated 120,000 properties the government has tinues to commute between his mother-in-law’s been rebuilding since the war. Though his wife came home in the village of Ridjane and his home in exile, back several years ago, Petko, an ethnic Serb fearful of unsure whether to commit his future to Croatia or possible harassment by the majority Croats, returned Serbia. permanently from exile only recently. He was greeted Robert Konforta faces a different dilemma. As a not only with a new home, but also a grandson born a Croat, he fled in 1991, but returned in 1995 when his few hours after his return. The family survives, barely, Serbian neighbors boarded their and trailers on the sale of milk from four cows, but Petko is ecstatic and headed off into exile. Though he is now a member and told a visitor: “I began to cry the moment I came of the ethnic Croat majority, Konforta’s particular local back. I am still crying. I cannot believe everything. It is bizarrely is headed by a non-resident beautiful.” ethnic Serb whom Konforta blames for blocking the Dusanka Jolic was not so lucky. Since her return, the expansion of his small vegetable business. ethnic Serb has lived for five years in a small basement “After the war we dared to say who we were for the while only a few hundred meters away, an ethnic Croat first time—Croats,” Konforta said. “Now, we feel we are refugee from Bosnia has continued to occupy her three- like minorities again” – a potentially ominous under- storey family home in the village of Kovacic. The Croat current with the memories of war still so raw. had already dismantled part of the house for building And when the 10th anniversary of Operation Storm materials and every time Mrs. Jolic demanded the prop- was commemorated recently, it again underscored the erty back, he threatened to totally destroy it. “I applied to ambivalence, anger and the wide divide that continues get my house back first in 1998,” she said. “I am still wait- to separate so many communities. ing.” Croat authorities refused to intervene. Croatian Prime Minister termed the Perisa Mijakovac has neither a job, like the major- operation “a glorious liberation action, a turning ity of workers in Krajina, or a home. Under the pre- point in Croatian history,” but at the same time he

18 REFUGEES A Remarkable — But More Work to be Done Bosnia’sSuccess High Representative assesses 10 years of peace

BY P ADDY A SHDOWN on the long-standing tradition of metal working that is charac- teristic of this part of the country. IN JULY, I ATTENDED THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY of the mas- The company was investing because of a combination of sacre at Srebrenica. The killings perpetrated there taint the soul skilled labor, competitive wage rates, a stable currency, abun- of Europe still. But Srebrenica also inspires hope as well dant resources and proximity to markets. I pointed out that as fear and sorrow. more and more investors are likely to respond positively to this Every single man, woman and child who has returned to live combination. in that town give daily testimony to the fact that, in time, evil JOBS ARE KEY does not triumph. Those returnees are asserting a right that has never before been achieved in Europe: the right of refugees to MORE INVESTMENT will mean more jobs which, in turn, will return, not only to Srebrenica but to their homes across Bosnia mean higher living standards and this paradigm is at the core of and Herzegovina and the entire Balkan region. sustained refugee return in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1945, there were five million displaced people in Europe. We are not engaged in charity; we are engaged in maximizing Almost none returned to their pre-World War II homes. economic potential so that it can underpin the return process. In 1995, at the time of the signing of the Dayton Peace Jobs are the building blocks of prosperity and they are also the Accords, there were more than two million refugees and dis- building blocks of the ongoing return. placed persons from the . Since then, more than UNHCR continues to play a vital part in this story. The one million people have returned home, a degree of success agency set the pace of refugee return following the Dayton that was unthinkable during or immediately after the conflict. agreement and has ensured that the evolution of a modern At that time, the main obstacles to return were the trauma democratic society is predicated on the reintegration of com- of those who had been evicted and the continuing intimidation munities—not on their permanent division. of those who had evicted them. In a climate of lawlessness and The agency has demonstrated an impressive ability to mod- administrative chaos, local institutions—police, , ify its programs and strategy in constantly changing circum- social services—were politically indisposed to support return, stances. From providing physical shelter, it has moved through or were administratively incapable of creating an environment stages of removing legal and administrative obstacles to sus- conducive to return. tainable return, including the establishment of legal aid and in- Through a slow process of improvement, including the formation centers which have already helped several hundred removal of obstructionist police and municipal officers, the cli- thousand people. mate was systematically altered. Annual return figures THE STORY IS NOT YET OVER increased from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people at the start of the new millennium, though the trend has THE PRIORITY is to breathe economic life into returnee com- again slowed down recently. munities to make sure that the process is irreversible. Social We have entered a new phase where the biggest obstacle to breakdown and political mischief have had to be overcome, but going home is no longer political or administrative, but a lack of this struggle, too, continues today in many places. economic opportunity. Yet in how many other countries have so many victims of Recently, I spoke at the opening of a metal processing facto- war been able to reclaim their property on a scale that has been ry in Srebrenica, noting this was an intensely practical event, witnessed in Bosnia and Herzegovina? something that would put food on the table. I noted, too, that By any standards, the return process has been a remarkable the foreign investor hadn’t injected capital here for reasons of success, but it will not be complete until every single person altruism, but had made a hardheaded business decision based who wants to return has had the opportunity to do so.

REFUGEES 19 DP/23518•2005 DP/23440•2005 DP/23342•2005

DP/23387•2005 Sarajevo

Today DP/23371•2005

20 REFUGEES THE REBIRTH

Supermarkets,OF A billboards,CITY new high-rise buildings, trams and a vibrant street life.

DP/23457•2005 DP/23594•2005

DP/23351•2005

DP/23609•2005

DP/22603•2005

REFUGEES 21 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later

DP/21304•2005 DP/21310•2005 Rebuilding DP/21315•2005 in Republika Srpska. held out a conciliatory hand to ethnic Serbs by insist- Bosniaks have returned. If that overall figure is still dis- Lawyers from ing “We must separate it (the liberation) from the appointing, the Muslims who have gone back felt confi- Vasa Prava helping the needy shameful acts that followed against Serbs.” dent enough about the future, they have reclaimed the throughout Bosnia. At the same time, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav bodies of several hundred of their fellow Bosniaks from Kostunica said, “The column of the exiled, from Knin mass graves and mine shifts and reburied them in a to Belgrade, was the site of a horrible unseen crime, the local cemetery. biggest ethnic cleansing after World War II. Even ten The flow of returnees has dropped again in the past years later, there is neither justice nor acknowledge- couple of years and the enormity of the task to rebuild ment of the truth.” Bosnia may best be judged in a cramped lawyers office in nearby , the regional headquarters for a BOSNIA’S SERB HEARTLAND group called Vasa Prava (Your Rights). Across the border in Bosnia, Serbian forces totally Established as a country-wide network with the ‘cleansed’ the Muslim population from the town of help of UNHCR, the rights agency has helped at least and other nearby villages in 1992. They want- 300,000 persons, for free, to solve problems ranging ed to create a ‘pure’ heartland for their Republika Srp- from property repossession to repatriation to Croatia, ska centered on the nearby city of Luka. from divorce to obtaining a work permit. Thousands of local men were incarcerated in infa- “I may see 20 to 30 persons a day here,” says lawyer mous and murderous wartime concentration camps at Snjezana Cepic. “And our workload is increasing. and Keraterm. Others were murdered and Unfortunately, our services will be needed for years to their bodies dumped into the shafts of nearby mines, come.” from which some are still being recovered. and unhcr’s recent Representative in Bosnia, Udo Janz, were systematically destroyed. said the establishment of Vasa Prava was one of the best When Refugeesvisited Kozarac in 1999, it appeared and most important projects the refugee agency had that efforts to encourage Bosniaks to return were undertaken during its Balkan operations. “Vasa Prava doomed to failure because of the blatant resistance of has been indispensable to our efforts to bring hundreds local Serb zealots. of thousands of people home,” he said. “It has been an “Kozarac looks like a snapshot from the worst bomb- outstanding success.” ing excesses of World War II,” the said at the time. “Virtually everything has been destroyed. Wild THE HORROR. THE HORROR. vegetation threatens to overwhelm the ruins of this The religious and ethnic madness that became ghost town. Before the conflict, 16,500 relatively Srebrenica begins many miles from that benighted wealthy Bosniaks lived there. Five families have place. At a village crossroads leading into the Sre- returned.” brenica valley, religious zealots built a small orthodox Today, the picture is far brighter. Ninety percent of church in the front garden of a Muslim woman’s home the region’s housing has been rebuilt and some 7,000 in the waning days of the war, apparently as a deliber-

Religious zealots built an orthodox church in front of a The woman is trying to get the church removed, but

22 REFUGEES DP/21420•2005 In the name ate provocation. The woman is trying to get the enormity of the crime at Srebrenica and publicly of : church removed; but now she has been accused of fan- bowed their heads in shame for their roles in it. ning religious and ethnic hatred. Tens ofthousands of persons, statesmen, diplomats, Reburying the Muslim dead in It was at this same crossroads that Serb forces would the and the relatives of victims, con- Kozarac. separate Bosniak men and women, leading the males verged on the memorial site, opposite a disused battery away for execution in 1995. factory where the males were sorted from the females A disputed Further into the valley, workers recently rushed to under the hapless gaze of a handful of U.N. soldiers and orthodox church. finish a seven-meter high concrete cross to commem- sent to their deaths. orate the murder of 49 ethnic Serbs by Bosniak mili- More than six hundred victims were buried during Honoring the tias on , 1993, the Orthodox day. the ceremony as the world watched, joining 1,326 oth- Serb dead near “No one remembers the Serb victims,” one worker ers who had already been interred. Many other bodies Srebrenica. said bitterly in obvious reference to services planned remain unidentified or undiscovered. the following day to mark the mas- sacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica, a few miles up the road. And while the destruction of the bridge at Mostar became an immediate and convenient rally- ing point to denounce the atroci- ties of war, it was not really until this year—a decade later—that either the Serbian leadership or the international community at

large really came to grips with the DP/21762•2005 DP/21785•2005

Muslim woman’s home, apparently as a provocation. is now accused of fanning religious and ethnic hatred.

REFUGEES 23 The ‘miracle’ of

Dayton–10 years later DP/21960•2005 Hafiza Hodlic remembers a massacre. A obelisk at the memorial site speaks to the captured Srebrenica men, the first visual evidence of hopes such a massacre will never happen again: the atrocity. The family’s menfolk were not in the video, but the experience was still too much for Meri- May grievance become hope ma who was rushed to hospital for sedation. Weeks May revenge become justice later she is still in shock. May mothers’ tears become prayers “I just want to remember the life we once had here,” That Srebrenica her mother said after another abortive visit to the Never happens again local municipal office to try to get help to rebuild her To no one nowhere house which remains gutted. “I have nothing else to live for.” Many people are not so sure. Only around 4,000 Women and their children at the nearby Jezevac Muslims out of a prewar population of nearly 28,000 collective center have been a little luckier than Hafiza Bosniaks have returned. Hodlic. They have been able to recover and identify “For months I washed my face in tears,” said 58- the bodies of their ‘disappeared’ menfolk. year-old Hafiza Hodlic whose husband and two sons “At least we know where their bones are,” one wom- were taken away during the town’s fall and have never an said. “It’s better this way.” been seen again. “I don’t have any more tears left. But I But could they live comfortably with their Serb still hope that one day I will see my husband and sons neighbors again? “Never. Never. Never,” was an come walking back from somewhere.” instant chorus from all of them. “We don’t trust them Her daughter, Merima Mustafic watched a recent- and they don’t trust us,” one woman said. “How do you ly released video which showed Serb forces killing six think our young people will act when they know their

Looking ahead, ‘sustainability’

24 REFUGEES fathers were killed by the neighbors? They will always remember.”

SARAJEVO AND SUSTAINABILITY In Sarajevo, dilapidated trams once more rattle along the central boulevard which, during the siege, became known as Sniper’s and could only be used by armored . A stinking barracks for refugees has been rehabilitated as a sparklingly clean Coca factory. At night, thousands of families, tourists and lovers crowd the cobbled

walkways, restaurants and shops DP/23284•2005 in the old Turkish and Austrian sec- Sarajevo’s tors of the city or attend fashionable restored , photo exhibits at the world famous dinosaurs of the prewar era: the mines, power plants once the front line city library whose interior remains and brick factories which employed the bulk of the during the siege of the city. gutted. prewar workforce. Newly built hypermarkets are full, A few new industries have opened and agencies but a small at one busy like unhcrhave promoted many small-scale self-help walk-through reminds Sarajevans of projects. But the uprooted civilians who have already the city’s darkest moment when a returned and those still deciding their future were smashed into a group of shop- virtually unanimous that employment or the lack of pers in February 1994, killing 68 of it was now the key to the region’s future success. them and wounding 200 others. Seventy-one-year-old Franjo Majijevic, a Croat, In the surrounding hills, the Jew- returned to his old home in Republika Srpska in 1998 ish cemetery, which was part of the and though there are no security problems for minori- wartime front lines, is again quiet. ties he worried that, “When we talk about jobs, the Some repairs have been undertaken, future is bleak. The mines are closed. The smelt- but distressingly, the carnage is not ing factory has gone. This is a dying community.” quite over. Some grave sites have been Across the country, 69-year-old Vidak Dujkovic, desecrated by peacetime hooligans. an ethnic Serb, went back to his village near the Sarajevo was once a vibrant multi- town of Tuzla, but the fields he once farmed are cut ethnic city. Some Serbs have returned to outlying off by minefields, there is no telephone to the out- suburbs, but many others who owned downtown side world and running water is available only every houses and shops prefer to remain commuters, living second day. in Serbia or further afield, but visiting their old homes “Can we survive here?” he asked rhetorically. on occasion. “Well, there are no jobs and we cannot eat the walls Indeed, as travel restrictions have eased in most of and roof of our house.” the Balkan region, tens of thousands of people who Marjana Andzic and her family moved ten times remain uprooted, return briefly to see family, friends after fleeing their Bosnian home and recently bought and home and maintain a link with their past—a hope- a house in Croatia’s Knin area. Would she like to even- ful sign for the future, too. tually go home? “Of course,” she replied immediately. Looking into that future, ‘sustainability’ has “But there are no jobs for us and there will be no jobs become the new Balkan buzz word, underlining the for our children. We cannot go back.” need to strengthen and consolidate the progress If Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative in already made in the last 10 years and to resolve out- Bosnia, believes that that country has already standing refugee issues in most of the Balkans—Koso- achieved a “miracle” he is still realistic enough to vo is an exception—by the end of 2006. know that particularly in the current tough economic “A couple of years ago the overriding issue was climate which could undermine much good work security, security, security,” unhcr’s Udo Janz said. already achieved, there is a long way to go. “Today, it is the economy, stupid.” “We have lost touch with how long it takes” to Despite the massive rebuilding program across the patch war-ravaged societies together again, he said region, it remains scarred with the rusting industrial recently. “Healing is always measured in decades.”  has become the new key Balkan buzz word.

REFUGEES 25 KOSOVO A Progress Report THE TROUBLED PROVINCE FACES A DIFFICULT FUTURE

he bewilderment and plan, but fearful of retaliatory attacks by bitterness are still very raw vengeful returning Albanians, it was the emotions. turn of more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs “We had much hope and now we and minorities such as the Roma (see page have lost all hope,” says 37-year- 29) to flee the province. old Dragisa Petkovic. “We thought we A United administration T unmik would go back home in two or three days. ( ) was established to run Kosovo as But now we think maybe we will never go elections were staged, administrative and back.” political institutions were set up and the Danijela Stanojevic shivers. “Just recently displaced civilians urged to thinking about being back there brings a return home prior to a decision on the big fear into me,” the young mother says. province’s long-term future. But glancing around the one tiny room Thus far, however, Dragisa Petkovic she shares with her husband and two and his family, Danijela Stanojevic and children, she insists, “We need a lot of courage, nerves and patience to live like this. Sometimes we feel like animals.” A 21-year-old neighbor in the same collective center expresses her longtime anger and frustration: “People come here all the time. They ask questions. We fill in forms. They promise help. But what do we get? We are still here six years later and we have

nothing.” Her plight and that DP/24302•2005 of her neighbors, she said, “is all the fault of nato. nato is to blame for everything that has happened the great majority of Kosovo’s uprooted to us.” civilians—an estimated 226,000 people— In early 1999, after a year of mounting continue to live in a kind of legal limbo in civil unrest, nearly one million ethnic Serbia and Montenegro, unconvinced Albanians fled in panic or were forcibly they can safely return to an uncertain thrown out of Yugoslavia’s (since renamed future in Kosovo, but with few current Serbia and Montenegro) southernmost alternatives to begin life afresh any- province of Kosovo by troops and police. where else The international community “I have been back for a visit,” Danijela intervened and within three months, in a Stanojevic says. “But everytime I cross the stunning reversal of fortune, nato forces border into Kosovo, I lose my legs. I am so entered Kosovo, closely followed by the afraid.” majority of the displaced Albanians. Serbian forces withdrew from the GOING HOME province under the provisions of a peace Some 13,000 Serbs and other

26 REFUGEES Mitrovica’s Serb cathedral (above). Danijela Stanojevic contemplates an uncertain future (left). Kosovo’s children of war and their KFOR protectors (below).

DP/24406•2005 “We thought we would go back home in two or three days. But now we think maybe we will never go back.”

minorities have returned, but the Albanians comprise 90 percent of the political, economic and social landscape is population and, with the exception of daunting. Mitrovica, the Serbs have largely Like much of the Balkan region, abandoned urban centers. Kosovo is mired in economic stagnation The nascent ‘return home’ project and widespread unemployment. suffered a severe setback in March 2004 The province’s ethnic mix and when an estimated 50,000 Albanians distribution has changed dramatically. rioted across the province. At least 19

DP/24414•2005 REFUGEES 27 DP/24654•2005

couldn’t think of life without them,” he said. The have gone. There have been no incidents and Pavic works in a nearby town. But only a few dozen Serbs have returned and most remain suspicious of the uneasy peace. One 75-year-old farmer said: “Life in the village is quiet What does and I never leave the future here. Outside, hold for these things are not so young ethnic good.” Serb returnees? Major strides

DP/24869•2005 have been made since 1999 in trying to stabilize the Some 13,000 Serbs and other unruly province, minorities have returned to Kosovo, but far more needs to be accomplished. but the political, economic and The u.n. refugee social landscape is daunting. agency believes, for instance, the situation is still too unstable in many

persons were killed, thousands of Serbs rioting, the church was totally gutted. Four regions to allow it to DP/24533•2005 were driven from their homes and years earlier Slobodanka Nojic, the wife of actively and hundreds of buildings and churches were one of the cathedral’s priests had told officially encourage destroyed. Refugees: “I am too afraid to leave the displaced minorities to return. The region is still feeling the effects of church. And if we tried to leave alone, we The respected International Crisis the uprising. Marauders attacked the would be kidnapped or killed. To be sure, Group said in one report that government northern village of from three we would never return to this house.” institutions had to be strengthened directions. Nearby international kfor Her fears were justified. Today, all of the “otherwise Kosovo is likely to return to troops rescued hundreds of civilians, but priests and their families have fled and the instability sooner rather than later and the attackers burned down 135 Serb houses church is locked and forlorn. again put at risk all that has been invested in the ethnically mixed township. To gauge the pace of reintegration in in building a European future for the The government quickly rebuilt most another part of Kosovo, after an absence of western Balkans.” of the main structures, but only around four years a visitor recently returned to the At the core of any successful outcome is one third of the Serbs have returned and mainly Serb enclave of Slivovo, an area of the need to overcome a seemingly there is an uneasy truce between them and eight villages with the picture-postcard impossible dilemma. After years of ethnic the Albanians. “Our neighbors helped the beauty of . harassment by the central government, attackers loot and destroy our homes,” one While most of the villagers had left the majority Albanians have demanded farmer insisted recently after going back to after 1999, Miro Pavic stayed on his farm full independence. Such an outcome would his property. His family is still too afraid to growing wheat, corn and and tending probably preclude the return of many of stay overnight in the house, and should the his cattle. He described his existence then today’s uprooted civilians and possibly kfor soldiers leave “life would be very, as “life in a gilded cage. We are prisoners spark a further exodus. very difficult for us,” the farmer said. among our vegetables.” Belgrade favors what one humanitarian Another insisted, however, “I will never Slivovo was considered one of around official described as “something more than leave here again, whatever happens.” only a dozen areas safe enough to autonomy, but not full independence”—a In Mitrovica, Greek troops had guarded encourage minority return at the time and formula Albanians would likely reject. its orthodox cathedral located in the Swedish troops were stationed nearby to Currently, there are two outlooks for heavily Albanian southern section of the bolster security. Pavic insisted their the future, the official said: “A bad scenario city for several years. But during the 2004 presence was “absolutely essential. I and a worse scenario.” 

28 REFUGEES “Why aren’t they helping us? Why aren’t they saving our kids?”

The province’s minority Romany population just waits. DP/24503•2005 DP/24457•2005

UNCERTAIN TIMES FOR KOSOVO’S MINORITY ROMA

ell could look like this. A series sludge in the shadow of an abandoned town of Mitrovica has leeched into the of squalid huts have been brick factory and a toxic slag heap of lead. surrounding soil and water, creating what patched crazily together from Dust clouds coat everything—faces, teeth, international health officials describe as pieces of wood, cardboard, clothing, food and —with a deep an environmental disaster for some 500 plastic sheeting, tin and cinder grey-black grime. Roma living in nearby makeshift camps. block.H Rusting containers serve as toilets. For years, contamination from a The Romany community and the Children splash through fetid puddles of disused lead mine in the northern Kosovo closely related Ashkalijas and Egyptians

REFUGEES 29 Going home to Gnjilane. DP/24948•2005

have been part of the fabric of the Balkans “disgraceful” and the Roma themselves for centuries, but during the 1999 Kosovo were fearful and confused. upheaval, thousands were forced to flee “When I look at my child I feel like the province alongside more than dying,” one mother told newsmen at the 200,000 ethnic Serbs with whom they Zitkovac camp recently. “The dust is were accused of collaborating (see story killing her, she can hardly walk.” Habib page 26). Hajdini, the camp’s spokesman wondered Many escaped into Serbia proper and aloud: “How can we believe these studies? surrounding countries, but others were If the results are true, why aren’t they given shelter in what was expected to be helping us? Why aren’t they saving our temporary accommodation for a few kids?” weeks. Six years later, the majority of them are still displaced and for the URGENT RELOCATION Mitrovica Roma it has turned literally unhcr, among other agencies, has into a deadly waiting game. been urging for at least a year that this When the World Health Organization group of Roma be relocated immediately. (who) tested Roma children in 2004 for But through inertia, indifference, lead poisoning, the readings were so high changing political priorities and intrigue the equipment was unable to accurately nothing happened. measure them. Some children may have The Roma themselves were also already died with others possibly reluctant to move to anywhere other than suffering from memory loss, vomiting their original homes and for the majority and convulsions. Health experts that means a short trip of just a few described the situation as “shameful” and kilometers to a section of Mitrovica called DP/25004•2005 Roma Mahalla, until 1999 one of the largest and most reconstruction could begin within prosperous Romany months, but realistically it may take much settlements in the Balkans. longer than that to begin rehousing the However, during ‘the minorities in their old neighborhood. troubles’ all 6,000 Mahalla While the Mitrovica Roma wait, a few residents fled and vengeful others have returned to their prewar ethnic Albanians who had homes across Kosovo. The American abandoned their own homes Refugee Committee (arc) in late 2004 just a few months earlier, finished the first phase of a project in firebombed and destroyed Gnjilane township to rehabilitate the the entire enclave. Roma neighborhood of Abdullah Presheva Apart from the occasional and some 114 people from a prewar scavanger, Roma Mahalla population of 2,500 went back. remains empty, though there In the village of Radivojce, one Roma Mahalla remains destroyed and deserted. are renewed plans to begin extended family of 16 people ranging in age

DP/24574•2005 rebuilding. Optimistically, from 1 1/2 years-old to 74 returned in April.

30 REFUGEES “We have been welcomed back very warmly here. No problem.”

They are still living in a flimsy hut of wood and plastic sheeting provided by unhcr while a new three-storey home is built nearby. All of the family’s neighbors are ethnic Albanians, but the is optimistic and expects his work as a blacksmith to thrive in this rural community. “We have been welcomed back very warmly here. No problem,” he said as his entire family clustered around recently. “We didn’t do anything wrong, so why shouldn’t we come back. I’m clean and it’s our home.” That is a sentiment all of Kosovo’s Displaced children kill time as best they can.

Roma would like to share.  DP/24492•2005

REFUGEES 31 Sarajevo’s eternal flame to the war dead.