Influx of Serb refugees seek return to ancestral homeland of Kosovo
BELGRADE, Serbia-Thousands of Serb refugees will gather next week at the boundary with Kosovo to tell a U.N. delegation visiting the contested province that they still hope to return to homes they were forced to flee after the 1998-99 war.
The visiting delegation is tasked with gathering firsthand information on the situation in Kosovo before the Security Council makes a final decision on a proposal by a U.N. envoy to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia but keep it under international supervision.
The Serb refugees want to show the diplomats, who are expected to be in Belgrade on Thursday and Kosovo on Friday, that they have been unable to return to the province, said Nenad Popovic, who leads a Serbian government body that deals with Kosovo. About 200,000 Serbs fled or were forced to flee during a period of revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians that followed the war between Serb forces and armed separatists. Only small numbers have come back and had their homes rebuilt. Some of the returnees have faced attacks.
Those Serbs remaining in the predominantly ethnic Albanian territory live in isolated enclaves under NATO protection.
Serbs, who oppose independence for Kosovo, are also concerned that minority Serbs in the territory will not have adequate security or rights and that there will remain no freedom of movement for them outside of their guarded enclaves.
Tensions between the two communities persist despite international efforts at reconciliation. Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. and patrolled by NATO peacekeepers since the end of the war.
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01571.shtml
http://www.serbiankids.com
http://www.savekosovo.org