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First Group of Serb Refugees Return Home in Kosovo
The United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped male members of 45 Serb families return to their homes in Kosovo, a Yugoslav official for refugee affairs said Wednesday.
This was the first group of Serb refugees who were able to return home after they had been driven away following the Kosovo war in 1999.
The Yugoslav official, Slavissa Ristich, said that the refugees returned to their homes in Istok on Monday and Tuesday.
He saw the first organized return of Serb refugees as significant although the number was a bit low. If they could regain a normal life in Kosovo, their families will return to join them and more returns will be possible, the official said.
These refugees has to face great difficulties as their houses, the nearby schools and hospitals, were burned down and ransacked following the end of the 78-day NATO bombardment and the subsequent clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
The UNHCR has promised to provide the refugees with building materials for rebuilding their houses. The government of Yugoslavia and the Serbian government are going to give necessary help to enable them to resume a normal life as early as possible.
According to the figures released by Yugoslav authorities, some 300,000 non-Albanians have fled Kosovo since June 1999 when the war against Yugoslavia ended and NATO troops entered Kosovo to keep "peace."
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