U.N. urges Roma community to leave lead-polluted camps in Kosovo

U.N. urges Roma community to leave lead-polluted camps in Kosovo
Associated Press Worldstream - January 6, 2006 Friday

By: FISNIK ABRASHI; Associated Press Writer

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro - The U.N. mission in Kosovo urged a community of Gypsies to leave lead-contaminated camps in northern Kosovo and move to a former French military base.

About 560 Gypsies, also known as Roma, have lived for more than six years in three makeshift camps in northern Kosovo near an industrial area polluted with high levels of lead. The contamination poses a serious health risk to the 125 families living there, the World Health Organization said.

The U.N. and others have described their plight as one of the region's worst humanitarian problems.

U.N. agencies urged Roma community leaders Thursday to vacate the camps and move to the former French military base, several kilometers (miles) away in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica.

"After recent testing, WHO has concluded that the blood lead level of children in existing camps ... is at a critical level," a U.N. statement said.

The Roma fled to the site near the industrial area after ethnic Albanians attacked their homes at the end of Kosovo's war in 1999. Some of Kosovo's Albanians had accused the Roma of collaborating with Serb forces during their crackdown on the province's separatists.

The new facility on the former military base is to open next week. It will offer better health services, hygiene infrastructure and children's programs until permanent housing is built for the Roma, the U.N. said.

The United Nations mission, which has administered Kosovo since the end of war in 1999, has been criticized for not moving the Roma out of the contaminated camps sooner.