UNMIK/PR/1541
PRISTINA - Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) Søren Jessen-Petersen and the Prime Minister of Kosovo Agim Çeku today participated in the Ground-breaking ceremony at the Roma Mahala in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica. The ceremony marks the start of the reconstruction of this neighborhood as part of the Return to Roma Mahala Project. Two apartment blocks (for 24 families) and 57 houses will be built in the first phase.
The SRSG called this project “a lasting sustainable solution for the Roma to return to their homes. Today we are literally paving the way for the return in freedom, in safety and in dignity of many Roma who have been displaced for far too long.”
The SRSG underlined that “it is up to individuals to exercise their right to return. I believe that the decision on the status of Kosovo will bring the clarity that every displaced person needs to have. Returns will be a key part of the status settlement.”
In 1999, Roma Mahala was home to some 8,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, many of whom are living either as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) in Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, or abroad. The Return to Roma Mahala Project represents the largest urban return project in Kosovo.
After the ceremony in Mitrovica the SRSG together with the Prime Minister visited Svinjare/Frasher. The Serbian part of this village - more then 150 houses - had been destroyed during the March riots in 2004. Immediately after the riots reconstruction was started and several months later it was almost completed but due to lack of financial resources a support infrastructure is still not in place.
“People want to come back and some of them are back already. Here is a place where people would return and we see that security has improved, there is no doubt about that. The will is there, but the resources are not and this is a major drawback,” said the SRSG.
