Germany ignores warnings to deport refugees to Kosovo

Germany is deporting tens of thousands of Roma refugees to Kosovo despite clear threats to their safety in the war-ravaged province and dire warnings from human rights groups that they will face "massive discrimination" on arrival.

The first of hundreds of planeloads of deportees will arrive at the Slatina airport in the Kosovo today, blazing a trail for up to 50,000 people who are to be sent back to the explosively unstable province.

Leaked documents obtained by The Independent reveal that the German government took the controversial decision to eject thousands of Roma refugees and other minorities in November of last year, regardless of the risks they may face on returning home.

At a meeting of German state legislators, officials made it clear to central government that the Roma were unwanted and should be deported as soon as possible, starting with those costing the state money in social welfare payments.

The confidential paper shows that a majority of state leaders "call on the interior ministry to enforce the quickest possible return of the refugees [to Kosovo]... It would therefore be in the interest of the public authorities, which are in a tense situation - to prioritize the return of those, who receive social welfare."

Once back in Kosovo the refugees can expect no aid either from Germany or the United Nations which administers the province.

Claude Cahn from the European Roma Rights Centre said that main motive for the mass deportation was racism against gypsies: "They don't want gypsies, it's as simple as that. These people face massive discrimination, limits on their freedom of movement and residence rights."

"German authorities have targeted the Roma on a racial basis," he added.

Roma, more commonly referred to as gypsies, were among the hardest hit communities when the long-term tensions between Serbs and ethnic Albanians spilled over into open war six years ago, following a crackdown by then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, which in turn led to a Nato bombing campaign.

Tens of thousands of Roma and other minorities joined waves of ethnic Serbs and Albanians in fleeing the restive province.

In the wake of the ceasefire, ethnic Serb and Albanian communities were separated with the former moving to enclaves guarded by international peacekeepers.

Over the past five years since the end of hostilities, and the imposition of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to administer the province, many ethnic Albanians, minority Egyptians and Ashkalis have been able to return home and reintegrate into their communities.

The same situation does not apply to returning Roma. Discriminated against and unwanted by either ethnic group in Kosovo, the Roma have endured a difficult existence on the fringe of Kosovo society.

During the war Roma were accused by many Albanians of collaborating with the Serbs and became the target of ethnic violence themselves with many thousands forced to flee their homes either into Serb enclaves in the north or into Serbia proper.

Hopes that intercommunal relations had improved were quickly dashed in March last year as thousands of ethnic Albanians rioted across Kosovo following the allleged killing of a teenager.

More than 4,000 people were forced from their homes and 19 people were killed in four days of fighting that targeted Roma and Serbs. As with so many violent episodes in the province's past, the spark to ignite the fighting came from the combustible northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica.

The conditions that await the returnees from Germany are clear from the situation in that divided town, once home to the province's largest Roma community.

According to a Yugoslav census carried out in 1991 in Mitrovica, the Mahala ghetto was home to 8,516 Roma. Today, the area on the south bank of the river is a ghostly spectre of the formerly bustling community.

All that remains of the hundreds of family houses are the concrete joists. Every brick, every tile, every beam and pane of glass were stripped off and taken away after the Albanian majority drove the Roma out of southern Mitrovica.

"It wasn't about collaboration with the Serbs," said a local UNMIK official, who preferred not to be named.

"That was just an excuse. It was pure racism. No one wants these Roma, it's a sad story," he said.

The few hundred Roma who remained in the area live in "terrible conditions" in a camp in the Serb enclave on the north side of the river. The bridge that links the two halves of the town is heavily barricaded and patrolled by K-For troops. It is unsafe for members of either the Serb, Albanian or Roma communities to cross the water.

At a donors' conference last week, in Pristina, none of the numerous foreign consulates or international organisations were willing to contribute a penny to reconstructing the Mahala, an official source who attended the meetings said.

- INDEPENDENT