Subject: NATO force in Kosovo needs to protect gypsies: community leaders
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 12:00:18 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BERLIN, Jan 23 (AFP) - Gypsy leaders Tuesday called on the NATO
peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) to do more to protect the
minority in the province following a rise in violent attacks.
In a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and
acting US ambassador Terry Snell, the head of the Sinti and Roma
Council in Germany, Romani Rose, said gypsies were increasingly
targeted for intimidation and murder in Kosovo.
Rose said only if the region was stabilized could the estimated
100,000 Sinti and Roma refugees in Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro
return to the province.
The head of the Roma Organization of Kosovo, Haxhi Zulfi Morgja,
added that in the city of Pec alone, 1,000 gypsy homes had been
burned down and needed to be rebuilt before their owners could
return to Kosovo.
He said that Sinti and Roma were being falsely accused of
destroying and looting Kosovo Albanian homes and raping Albania
women and that these allegations were being used to excuse violence
against them.
Morgja said that before the Kosovo war, 150,000 lived in the
province. Today the figure was about 50,000.