Subject: 800 gypsies killed or missing in Kosovo: Romany union
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 15:10:10 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BELGRADE, Jan 17 (AFP) - Over 800 Romany gypsies have been
either killed or abducted in Kosovo since the UN took over in the
region in June 1999, a Romany spokesman said on Wednesday, according
to the Tanjug news agency.
Jovan Damjanovic, president of the Union of Romany Associations
in Serbia, claims to have detailed information on 150 gypsies he
said were killed by the former Albanian separatist militants, the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
He said that the fate of a further 530 Roma who had been
reported missing was still unknown and expressed his concern over
the future of refugee return programmes rehousing Romany and Serb
refugees in Kosovo.
Despite the presence of 46,000 international peacekeepers, he
said that Kosovo was a living hell where "those who are not Albanian
fear for their lives and their property".
Over 200,000 Serbs and non-Albanians have fled Kosovo since June
1999 fearing violence at the hands of the Albanian majority,
according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
Meanwhile Belgrade claims that over 1,000 Serbs have been killed
or are missing in the breakaway province since the UN moved in at
the end of NATO's bombing campaign, which ended the conflict in
Kosovo in June 1999.