KOSOVO SERBS ANNOUNCE MASS EXODUS FROM TWO VILLAGES AFTER KFOR ESCORTS STOPPED
SRNA - October 18, 2003

Klina - Serb returnees to the villages of Grabac and Bica, near Klina, have announced that they will move out en masse tomorrow because Kfor (Kosovo Force) has stopped providing them with an escort.

A total of 60 Serb returnees, who returned to these villages at the end of June this year, blocked local roads through Bica this morning, requesting that the Italian Kfor command provide buses for their safe passage out of the village. The reason for the fresh exodus, as SRNA was informed by Bica resident Dragoljub Perunicic, is that the Italians cancelled the escort of a convoy to Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursday (16 October), explaining that they apparently did not have enough soldiers.

However, the Spanish Kfor representative informed the inhabitants this morning that the escort had been stopped, and that if Serbs wanted to travel to and from Kosovska Mitrovica, they should do this without being escorted by a convoy of Kfor combat vehicles.

The inhabitants of Bica and Grabac returned in the middle of this year after Kfor and UNMIK (UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) promised them constant security. In spite of this, Zoran Doncic was wounded a month ago in one of the villages, and Albanian extremists have on more than one occasion fired on the returnees' only recently renovated houses.

A letter was sent to the Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija today, asking for assistance with displacement, that is, a move back to central Serbia.

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1042 gmt 18 Oct 03

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