ROMANIES TO RALLY AGAINST SEIZURE OF LAND IN DIVIDED KOSOVO TOWN
BBC Monitoring International Reports - April 25, 2005

Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 25 April

[Announcer] The chairman of the Roma Community for Kosovska Mitrovica, Skender Gushani, today told Kontakt Plus radio that a rally would take place in Sumadija Square tomorrow at 1200 [1000 gmt].

[Gushani, in Serbian] There will be a rally tomorrow, on Tuesday [26 April], when all Romanies from four [refugee] camps will gather. They are dissatisfied with the seizure of their plots of land and the forcible signing of an agreement which no Roma [word missing, signal poor] attended.

We will gather in order to tear up the signatures of those who signed this in order to take away our plots of land so that they can build some park or something. This [agreement] is no good for us because everyone will lose their house, so we will gather to voice our disagreement, raise our voice against UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo], which wants to take away from us what we had before 1999.

[Announcer] Skender Gushani said that around 8,000 Romanies lived in Romska mahala [Roma district] in the southern part of [ethnic Albanian] Kosovska Mitrovica prior to 1999. He added that they did not accept the plan under which Kosovska Mitrovica municipality in the southern part of town proposes to take plots of land from the Romanies and move them elsewhere, and then construct buildings on the site for the needs of the municipality.

Romska mahala is where Romanies used to build their own houses well before 1999, and this is where they have lived for years, Skender Gushani said.

[Gushani] Mitrovica municipality wants to take our houses from us, houses which, they claim, are on the municipality's land. They are now taking these over. They are constructing parks for themselves, so that they can have a recreation, a vacation area or something, perhaps swimming pools.

We will not accept this. Eight thousand people cannot starve somewhere against their will, in some other place so that some other people can build parks for their own needs and chase away all the Roma inhabitants who live there.
 

Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1400 gmt 25 Apr 05

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