Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-18-Speech-4-234"
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"en.19991118.11.4-234"2
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"Mr President, Hashim Thaçi, the leader of the KLA (the Kosovo Liberation Army), recently postulated: “I am the President of Kosovo. People who support my government are welcome in Kosovo. Anyone who creates hassle should leave.”
This misplaced display of power, deserving of condemnation to say the least, follows in the footsteps of the execrable oppression regime adopted by Slobodan Milosevic. This political line is just as diametrically opposed to pacification, let alone a social renewal process, within the legendary battlefield of Kosovo Polje and its surrounding areas. In fact, Thaçi’s words are inviting the remaining members of the Serbian minority to leave if they have not done so already. Words which have been reinforced in the past couple of months by downright acts of terror, committed by the victims of yesterday, by Albanian Kosovars.
Significantly, Albanian journalist Veton Surroi sharply condemned this reprehensible attitude as being “organised and systematic terror which can only be described as fascist”. The minority Roma group too suffered badly under a pogrom-like Albanian attitude. I would like to make a special appeal for the Kosovar Roma, one of the oldest communities there. Today, it is collectively paying the price for being a so-called accomplice in the Milosevic regime. After all, Belgrade gave Kosovar Roma the jobs which it no longer gave to the Kosovar Albanians between 1989-1999.
Mr President, thorough, unbiased historical investigation should show to what extent the Albanian allegations of atrocities carried out by Kosovar Roma in respect of their Albanian fellow citizens are true. One thing is for sure, from both a Christian and general, moral perspective: crimes do not under any circumstance justify new crimes!
Well now, those have definitely taken place since the arrival of the UN and KFOR in Kosovo on 12 June. What is more, they were already occurring in the Macedonian refugee camps. The outcome was obvious: an estimated 20,000 Roma fled from Kosovo, most of whom ended up in refugee camps in neighbouring Montenegro and Macedonia. However, according to my sources, these camps will be closing by the end of the year. If this information is correct, what does the EU intend to do to help these displaced Kosovar Roma?
In this context, I would also like to raise another pressing question. In Montenegro, large numbers of Kosovar Roma are falling into the hands of unscrupulous people smuggling refugees into Italy. What can the European Union, in close cooperation with the Montenegro authorities, do to stop this?
Finally, it was recently stated in a report in the Chechen weekly “Tyden” on “the covert Roma exodus” from Kosovo that Roma do not give much thought to their future. Why should they? After all, they do not have one, not a dignified one that is, “wedged between Albanian terror in Kosovo, dislike and discrimination within other countries and dwindling humanitarian aid within the central Balkans”. All the more reason why the international community should now join forces to protect the Roma who are still in Kosovo."@en1
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