ROMA MAIN VICTIMS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN KOSOVO - JOURNALISTS
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 24, 2005

Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Belgrade, 23 June: The Roma from Kosovo-Metohija are the main victims of ethnic cleansing which occurred in the area. This is the assessment of participants at a journalist's conference - entitled "Ethnic Cleansing and the Suffering of Kosovo Roma" - held in Tanjug's International Press Centre.

Rajko Djuric, Tanjug news agency deputy editor in chief, said that according to estimates about 150,000 Roma lived in Kosovo-Metohija up to June 1999. This number is undoubtedly higher, bearing in mind the phenomenon of "ethnic mimicry", so it can be said that about 250,000 Roma lived in Kosovo, Djuric said.

He said that Roma lived in 21 of the 22 municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija, while according to the [Kosovo] government's own current information there are 18,727 in total.

Based just on this, it can be said that genocide was carried out against the Roma, Djuric said. He said that until June 1999, 24,000 Roma lived in Pristina, while now there are 2,750; in Pec there were 20,000, now 2,500; and Gnjilane had 7,000, their number now reduced to 850.

Djuric said that in Serbia there are about 60,000 Roma refugees and displaced from Kosovo-Metohija; 12,000 in Montenegro; a few thousand in Macedonia; and that many fled to other countries. In Germany alone, according to one of it ministerial departments, there are about 50,000 Roma from Kosovo-Metohija.

He concluded that based on these facts, Roma were the main victims of ethnic cleansing by [ethnic] Albanians and extremists.

A documentary film entitled "Without a Home, Without a Grave" by Pristina journalist Azir Jasari who after Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA, UCK in Albanian] members and Albanian extremists ran amok had his house demolished, following the arrival of international armed forces in Kosovo-Metohija was shown at the conference.

In the documentary filmed in 1999, Jasari shows shocking scenes of ethnic cleansing and killings of Roma, as well as homes and whole Roma settlements in Pristina and other places being destroyed and torched.

The journalist's conference was organized by Tanjug.

Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1926 gmt 23 Jun 05

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