Returning Serbs pose Kosovo challenge FEATURE 06/01/2010

Returning Serbs pose Kosovo challenge

FEATURE 06/01/2010 AC — They simply couldn’t wait any more for officialdom to catch up. When the opportunity arose, Dragan Paralovic and 25 other Serbs quit their refugee center in Serbia and returned uninvited to Zac, their home village in Kosovo which they had fled 11 years ago. In doing so, they have become an awkward test case for how Kosovo handles the return of those dislocated by the 1998-1999 separatist conflict that led, eventually, to its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. Their reappearance triggered suspicion and anger among Zac’s mainly ethnic Albanian residents, leading to protests and accusations that some of the Serbs coming back — and there will be more — were involved in war crimes. For now, Paralovic’s home is a UN tent pitched next to the burnt-out shell of his old house in Zac, around 50 kilometers (41 miles) west of the capital Pristina. “We had been dreaming about returning home all these years. One day we just decided to pack our things and go back to our village,” he told AFP. Yet because of the lingering tensions, police patrol round the clock, and Nato peacekeepers call by daily. While the international community and Kosovo authorities are in favor of reintegration, the situation here is a sharp reminder how much is still to be accomplished on the ground. Kosovo’s population is mainly Muslim and ethnic Albanian, and to avoid any spike in tensions, normal procedure is for local officials and international agencies to pave the way for what can be a sensitive repatriation process. That can involve anything from rebuilding abandoned or destroyed homes to securing the green light from their neighbors. Paralovic, a 52-year-old farmer, and his group didn’t want to wait after 11 years of “suffering” in refugee centers across Serbia. Their tents are pitched beside the smoke-scarred, overgrown walls of their former homes, they live mostly on canned food and get power from generators. “It is difficult. It really is,” said Nebojsa Drljevics. “But it was more difficult in refugee centers in Serbia. “We will stay here despite the conditions, whatever happens.”... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100601com7.html

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