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21 Refugee Reports 1 (2000)

handle is hein.immigration/refgrpt0021 and id is 1 raw text is: Refugee Reports A NEWS SERVICE OF THE U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES JANUARY 2000 Reversal of Fortune: Serbia's Refugee Crisis What a difference a year makes. Before NATO's bombs fell in late March 1999, Kosovo's ethnic Serb population-estimated at the time at about 200,000-enjoyed a position of dominance and privilege over Kosovo's 1.8 million ethnic Albanians. Today, the ethnic Albanian refugees have returned with a sense of triumph, and, all too often, a hunger for revenge. Most of the Serbs, Roma (gypsies), and other minorities have fled; those who remain in Kosovo are mostly concentrated in a few enclaves. Serbs and Roma are unsafe traveling between enclaves or going out at night. Speaking Serbian on the street in any of Kosovo's cities brings the threat of on-the-spot murder. Ethnically motivated disappearances and arson continue to be reported. In December, Refugee Reports traveled to Serbia and Montenegro to assess the conditions of the latest group to be violently displaced by the Balkan wars. Refugee Reports heard the testimonies of the Balkans' newest victims and reports on the impact of this, and earlier waves of refugees, on a besieged and wounded society. Numbers The Yugoslav government says that 229,600 people have been displaced from Kosovo into Serbia-proper (199,600, as of November 26, 1999) and Montenegro (30,000, as of January 28, 2000). This number is, however, open to dispute. The Kosovo Serb National Council claims that there are still about 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo. Added together, this would be a larger number than the estimated 200,000 Serbs living in Kosovo before the war, casting obvious doubt on the accuracy of the count, or of the pre-war estimate. Further confusing the numbers picture is the estimate that up to 50,000 Roma have fled Kosovo as well, and, by some accounts, that up to 25,000 are still living in Kosovo. Undoubtedly, there is some double counting of the displaced population. They have not remained still. Many have moved VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1 IN THIS ISSUE: Lead Story Refugee Reports editor Bill Frelick traveled to Serbia and Montenegro in December. He reports on the situation for refugees and internally displaced persons in Serbia ...................... 1 Boxes Roma: Caught in the middle of the war in Kosovo ......................................... 5 NATO bomb damage .............................. 9 Vulnerable groups in potential need of resettlement ...................................... 12 Double refugees in Serbia .............. 15 Displaced Serbs' accounts of the ethnic Albanian exodus .................................... 18 Updates .......................................................................... 1 8 Statistics .......................................................................... 2 0

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