Serb refugees: Out of sight, out of mind
Agence France Presse - December 5, 2003

By: ALEKSANDAR MITIC

PANCEVO, Serbia-Montenegro- Dragana Vitosevic, a nine-year-old Serb girl from Kosovo, has spent almost half her life in a refugee centre in Pancevo, a grim industrial town near the Serbian capital Belgrade.

She is just one of around 700,000 Serbs, those who fled or were driven from their homes during the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Now they make up about 10 percent of Serbia's population.

It is a burgeoning underclass which Serbia cannot afford to support, and now even the United Nations is looking for an "exit strategy" so it can focus on new crises such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The problem is donor fatigue. Donors believe that after eight years the humanitarian crisis is ending here and they are turning to other hot spots," Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for Serbia-Montenegro operations of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), told AFP.

He said the "trend of lower (aid) budgets will continue," noting that the UNHCR had managed to raise only 12.8 million dollars for its Serbia-Montenegro operations next year compared to 18.9 million in 2003.

"This does not mean an end of all UNHCR aid operations, but rather an exit strategy from the humanitarian crisis situation," he said.

Paul Emes, the Belgrade delegation chief for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that by the end of the year aid distributions from the World Food Programme and the UNHCR will have "ceased."

"There is also no funding foreseen for soup kitchens from international donors after the end of April," he said.

The Red Cross of Serbia and Montenegro distributes international aid to 56,000 refugees and provides food to 12,500 others in soup kitchens every day, he said.

"The government of Serbia and Montenegro clearly understands that these poor, vulnerable and hungry people are its responsibility, but despite its commitment lacks the resources to finance these humanitarian assistance operations fully," Emes said.

"As such, there is a real risk of hunger and increasing vulnerability. The Federation therefore calls upon the international community to support the government to assist its most vulnerable people."

For Dragana, there was no birthday cake or candles when she turned nine last week in the tiny room which she shares with her family.

Crowded in by stacked beds and a small refrigerator, there is barely enough space for the oven where Dragana and her mother, Ankica, prepared their favorite meal: "Kosovo pie" with cheese and cabbage.

"This is not life, this is a fight for survival. My smile is not a smile, it is a grimace of hopelessness," said Ankica, who worked for 25 years in the textile industry in Kosovo before the family fled the war there in 1999.

They receive no more than 30 euros (36 dollars) per month in foreign aid, and even that may disappear next year.

"The announced international disengagement is premature. These people should not be forgotten," said Vesna Milenkovic, the secretary of Serbia's Red Cross.

More than a decade since the fall of communism in Serbia, the benefits of capitalism are not trickling down to ordinary people. Two thirds of the population live on less than 160 euros a month and more than one million people are unemployed, out of a population of 10 million.

Industrial production actually fell this year, according to government figures. Political instability following the ouster of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 has stymied foreign investment.

Analysts say the poverty and hopelessness is good news for a new breed of nationalist politicians. Opinion polls last week showed the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party will emerge as the strongest single party in the country after general elections on December 28.

Milan Skoko, a senior Red Cross official based near Pancevo, said the wealthy nations of Western Europe should be ashamed of the poverty in their own backyard.

"The situation is catastrophic. If the international aid runs out of steam, people will begin dying of hunger. It will bring shame to Europe in the 21st century," he said.

SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, General News

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