Return of displaced Serbs to Kosovo: 25 years of loud silence

Loud Silence. This is how, 25 years after the end of the war, the issue of the return of over 200,000 displaced Serbs to Kosovo can be described. Interviewees from Kosovo Online warn that the key reasons remain the same as in 1999 – unresolved issues of security and sustainable survival.

Written by: Arsenije Vuckovic

The epilogue of the 1999 war was absurd. About 800,000 Albanians returned to their homes within just a few months, while simultaneously between 230,000 and 250,000 Serbs left Kosovo.

Today, 25 years later, not only has the majority of these Serbs not returned, but no one even talks about the possibility of their mass return. The government of Kosovo established a special ministry for return exactly 20 years ago, but this process has been reduced to individual cases and the discouraging statistic that more Serbs have left Kosovo in the last three years than have returned in a quarter of a century.

It is concerning that this problem has become “invisible” even to international organizations.

The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Serbian Government warned last week that the recently published report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) completely omitted the most prominent and long-standing problem of preventing the return of displaced persons from Kosovo.

This issue can be read in the report only as an “appendix” and is Serbia's comment on the ECRI recommendations in which the problems of the return of displaced persons do not exist.

“In the state's comments, among other things, it was emphasized that the report omitted the most prominent and long-standing problem in the domain of human rights protected by international and regional human rights treaties, and that is the internally displaced population whose return to the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija is prevented by extreme intolerance,” stated the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Serbian Government.

Loud Silence

This is how the Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans, and Social Affairs of the Serbian Government, Nemanja Starovic, describes this problem.

“Some of the world's leading journals declared the term 'refugee' as the word that marked 1999, due to the enormous media attention devoted to hundreds of thousands of Albanian refugees from Kosovo, which, of course, justified NATO's aggression on the FRY. However, after the war ended, all Albanians, almost without exception, returned to Kosovo, followed by an exodus of Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, which the world press did not pay any attention to, and largely remains silent to this day,” says Starovic in an interview with Frankfurt News.

He also points out that, according to UN data, the rate of sustainable return of Serbs to Kosovo is below two percent, the lowest compared to all other post-conflict areas in the world.

“The small number of Serbs who managed to exercise their right to return after 1999 did so exclusively in isolated rural areas, while all urban centers still represent prohibited zones for Serbs,” Starovic emphasizes.

When asked why this problem is “loudly ignored” in Western media, Starovic says the reason is “unfortunately logical” because it is an unpleasant truth.

“If they started reporting on the lack of return of Serbs to Kosovo, the question of who is responsible for that would have to be raised, and ultimately it would certainly be the international sponsors of Pristina. But even if we leave the media aside, a special kind of hypocrisy is shown by large international non-governmental organizations that regularly shower Pristina with praise and declare it a champion of democracy and human rights, pretending not to see how the Serbian community in Kosovo lives as the most deprived people in modern Europe,” Starovic emphasizes.

The government of Kosovo established the Ministry for Communities and Return exactly 20 years ago, with the main task of returning the displaced population.

The current minister, Nenad Rasic, stated just a few days ago that there are currently 1,130 requests for return. However, out of so many requests, 90 have confirmed that they would return to Kosovo and are in the process.

Rasic says that 12 family requests have already been submitted to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and that the ministry plans to build 17 houses. Among those who wish to return to Kosovo are Serbs, but also members of other communities, such as Gorani.

“Of the 90 who are in the process with the Ministry for Communities and Return, 60 percent are Serbs,” Rasic tells Radio Kim.

He tells future returnees that they should know “they can count on institutional security, not just support in the form of house construction,” which, as he says, has been the practice so far.

Mechanisms of Return

Igor Popovic, Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija in the sector for legal protection, support to local self-government, and property-legal affairs, says that the key problem of return is precisely in that “institutional security” which has not existed for 25 years.

“When we talk about the return of Serbs and non-Albanians, or internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija, we see that 800,000 Albanians were quickly returned in 1999 from Albania, from North Macedonia, that there was a mechanism, an effective mechanism for their return to Kosovo and Metohija. However, when it comes to more than 250,000 Serbs from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, there is no mechanism. It is simply not talked about,” says Popovic in an interview with Kosovo Online.

He explains that the obligation for the return of the displaced was taken on by the UNMIK mission based on Resolution 1244, and then by the agreement between Serbia and UNMIK, the so-called Hakerup-Covic Agreement from November 2001.

"UNMIK took responsibility for the return of internally displaced persons to Kosovo and Metohija, but nothing came of it," emphasizes Popovic.

He adds that the result of such a policy is the fact that the return of Serbs, the internally displaced, is the lowest in the world.

"Less than two percent. Records show that there were over 250,000 displaced persons, and only 11,000 people have returned, of which 5,000 are Serbs. This is simply a very small percentage. We are talking about sustainable return, not about the number of formally registered returnees, but about how many of those people actually returned and stayed there to live. That is an extremely small, small percentage," explains Popovic.

He says that the small percentage of returnees is a result of procedures that, among other things, insisted on and enforced the individual return of Serbs to areas from which their compatriots had been expelled, instead of a collective return.

Another option, he mentions, were "balance programs": for every Serbian house rebuilt in a municipality, an equal number of Albanian houses had to be rebuilt. "The largest return after 2001 was recorded in the territory of the Istok municipality, Osojane, Tucepi, Saljinovica, Kos, Suvi Lukavac.... But people returned collectively to these areas, violating the rules," Popovic emphasizes.

He adds that the international community has completely failed in this segment when it comes to the return of the Serbian community to Kosovo.

"Neither is this mentioned in public, nor do they treat it as a problem," Popovic stresses.

He explains that returnees, those who have managed to return despite everything, are now facing serious security problems, particularly the theft of their property.

"For every threat to their property, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija addresses all the missions operating there: UNMIK, EULEX, OSCE, the EU Delegation... We detail every attack, describe the victims thoroughly, and provide all the information. They can't say they don't have the information because they have all the data. However, for some political reason, the return of Serbs is suddenly neither a problem nor a priority for them," emphasizes Popovic.

He says that this impression is reinforced by the actions of the UNHCR, which focuses more on integrating the displaced in central Serbia and Vojvodina rather than facilitating their return to Kosovo.

“The return to Kosovo and Metohija should ensure that these people have access to their property, that their homes are fully restored, that there is infrastructure, educational and healthcare institutions, and that they have opportunities for economic development,” says Popovic.

He explains that in practice, returnees face enormous difficulties, with security being the key issue.

“Huge thefts, property thefts, arson. If people go to central Serbia to visit relatives for a few days, everything will be stolen: livestock from the barn, agricultural machinery, furniture from the house... And all this is treated as ordinary crime, not as interethnic incidents meant to prevent return. Furthermore, these returnees are portrayed in the Albanian community as war criminals. We simply have forbidden cities for Serbs: Đakovica, Suva Reka, where, when people try to visit their cemeteries and abandoned homes during Christmas or the Feast of the Assumption, crowds gather and shout that they are war criminals who should be expelled. Unfortunately, arrests also occur,” Popovic emphasizes.

He recalls that Bogdan Mitrovic, an 80-year-old man, was taken off a bus in 2016 just because he was going to his village for the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

He spent six months in detention and was then released. He was neither guilty nor responsible.

“For them, all Serbs are war criminals, and that’s why we have such a situation where there is practically no security protection or protection from politically motivated criminal prosecutions. Secondly, there is the issue of property. Property has been usurped,” says Popovic.

He adds that Serbs are present in rural areas, villages, but face a huge problem with their agricultural land being usurped.

“For security reasons, people do not dare to cultivate their land beyond their homesteads, even though it is theirs,” he explains.

He adds that the situation is much worse in large cities, which have been practically devoid of Serbs since the March pogrom in 2004.

“In Serbian areas, in cities, there is practically no return. These cities have been ethnically cleansed, unfortunately since 2004. At that time, the last Serbian urban communities in Obilic, Kosovo Polje, Pristina, Gnjilane, Vitina were cleansed,” concludes Popovic.

Double Standards

Aleksandar Rapajic, Program Director of the NGO Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture from North Mitrovica, assesses that the process of returning the displaced to Kosovo practically no longer exists.

“Unfortunately, the process of returning to Kosovo has practically not existed for a long time. People who left Kosovo and now mostly live in central Serbia or elsewhere have started new lives there, and their children go to school there, work there... I think that the passage of time has made return no longer important,” says Rapajic in an interview with Kosovo Online.

He adds that the key problem initially was the overly complicated procedure that "killed the desire" of people to return to their homes.

“We had a problem in Kosovo where the return process was so complicated that it killed any desire for people who wanted to return. These procedures were long, requiring many documents, and the receiving community had to accept those returning, which was a lengthy process and practically discouraged people from doing it,” Rapajic emphasizes.

He adds that the biggest absurdity is that today the situation in Kosovo, especially in the north, is completely different.

“We now have a different situation in northern Kosovo, where houses for Albanian returnees are being rebuilt. Interestingly, the same standards that applied to Serbs are not being applied here. While the return of Serbs went through the Ministry for Return and Communities, the return of Albanians is now managed by the Ministry of Local Government, through a much faster and more efficient system, completing in a short time what took years for Serbs to achieve,” Rapajic emphasizes.

World Record

Miodrag Nedeljkovic, Executive Director of the Citizens' Association Initiative for Development and Cooperation (IDC), assesses that the process of returning Serbs to Kosovo is one of the longest refugee crises globally and is now in its "final phase."

“This is one of the examples of the longest, most prolonged refugee crises in the world. I think there is no case in the world where a refugee crisis has lasted this long, and the worst part is that it will remain in that status quo, and I think 99 percent of those people will not return because they have integrated, moved to other countries, or abroad. Young people are no longer attracted to returning there. So, unfortunately, except for some organizations and donors, few are trying to continue this process,” Nedeljkovic tells Kosovo Online.

His organization is among the few still trying to facilitate the return of the displaced through various international programs, but he admits it is very difficult, with many contributing factors.

“The return process is, unfortunately, in its final phase. There are many people, many factors, many different significant entities trying to keep this process alive. Various agencies, even state bodies, the European delegation in Belgrade, all are trying to keep this process from dying out. Unfortunately, we believe this project is near its end. Very few people are returning. We, the civil society organizations involved in return projects, are still trying to keep this project alive. But, apparently, it is not easy. Fewer people are interested, fewer people are attracted to it, and more people see sustainable living here, integration, and less reintegration back to where they came from,” says Nedeljkovic.

His organization has so far implemented several return projects, and he explains that the process is very difficult because it requires coordinating multiple factors.

“The process is very difficult because different factors need to align. It’s not just the decision of a person or family to return to Kosovo and Metohija, but you have to find a way to cross the administrative line with the things you’ve acquired for them, furniture, items to start their own business,” explains Nedeljkovic.

When asked where Serbs mainly return, he emphasizes that it is still exclusively to Serbian enclaves.

“In the Kosovo Pomoravlje region, it still seems possible for people to return. But unfortunately, over 90 percent of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija sees no returns, and those who have returned, I think many have regretted it,” admits Nedeljkovic.

When asked how much the authorities in Pristina (do not) contribute to the return, the IDC director says that politics should be completely excluded from the issue of return.

“Our mission is to connect all the people who influence this process. Even some Pristina institutions, the Ministry for Return and Communities which belongs to Pristina institutions but works for Serbs, honestly. Without them, without international organizations in Kosovo, without international organizations in Serbia, central, this process is completely impossible. Without administrative cooperation between people from the Kosovo side, the Pristina side, and the Serbian side, the return is impossible. So we often have to make compromises and cooperate with some who do not want to, to make the return successful. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer such cases,” concludes Nedeljkovic.