UNMIK/PR/728
PRISTINA-UNMIK and UNHCR officials today briefed representatives of donor countries on their assessments and plans for facilitating the returns of non-Albanian displaced persons to Kosovo.
“Respect for the right of Serbs and other minorities to return and to remain is a key benchmark for the development of Kosovo society, and for entry into Europe,” SRSG Michael Steiner said in opening the donors’ briefing. (The SRSG’s speech is published in an accompanying press release.)
SRSG Michael Steiner and Werner Blatter, UNHCR’s regional coordinator for South East Europe, emphasized the role of individual choice in the decision to return. Neither organization would sponsor “politically driven” returns, they said. It is the international community’s duty to provide information and stable living conditions to those minorities who have remained in Kosovo as well as those who wish to return, they said.
“Our whole approach must be based on the voluntary and informed choice of a displaced individual or family to come back home,” said SRSG Michael Steiner. “People must be able to assess for themselves the situation on the ground.”
UNHCR’s Blatter told media that about 3,000 non-Albanians (740 families) who fled Kosovo have indicated that they wish to return this year, and that 3,600 have returned over the past two-and-one half years. These prospects, however, must be contrasted with a continuing departure of non-Albanians from Kosovo, which Blatter said had slowed recently. Returns cannot take place without stabilization and integration of existing communities, he said.
Returns envisioned for this year will require donor assistance of euro 11.7 million for housing reconstruction and socio-economic integration, he said. UNHCR and UNMIK are seeking 4.4 million euros for those who have already returned on their own and are in need of immediate assistance.
Andrew Whitley, director of UNMIK’s Office of Returns and Communities, which co-sponsored the briefing, said the new initiative is part of a long-term process to which the international community is fully committed. “Hopefully we will see larger-scale returns next year,” he said.
The momentum to encourage larger-scale returns will be provided by returnees who report back to other IDPs that life in Kosovo is all right, speakers said: donor resources are needed to help spark that momentum.
UNMIK and UNHCR officials, along with KFOR Commander General Marcel Valentin, described the security situation in Kosovo in general as improved but far from ideal. They noted an improved political climate with the commitment of the new Provisional Self-Government to support returns and improved freedom of movement in some areas, but warned that poor job prospects remained an obstacle.
Dialogue between communities and the engagement of local authorities, along with confidence-building measure and economic incentives were seen as crucial to promote returns and sustainable livelihoods of minorities. Speakers also noted that restoration of property rights must be accomplished before many could contemplate returning.
Besides shelter and services, SRSG Michael Steiner said, sustainable returns will depend on “both communities shouldering responsibility for the future of Kosovo. “I have laid out two tracks to the future,” he said: “multi-ethnicity and integration.”
Blatter added that, “linked to the return process is normalization and an increase in the opening of the enclaves with a view that eventually we will not talk any longer about enclaves but simply about communities. And if the enclaves disappear, more returns will become a reality.”
