VZCZCXRO8239
RR RUEHIK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPS #0425/01 1371659
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171659Z MAY 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6117
INFO RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE 3391
RUEHVJ/AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO 0022
RUEHVB/AMEMBASSY ZAGREB 5316
RUEHSQ/AMEMBASSY SKOPJE 7164
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0886
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 PRISTINA 000425 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM/ECA, VIENNA FOR HOVENIER, BELGRADE FOR 
REFCOORD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREF SR
SUBJECT:  FURTHER CONVERSATIONS WITH RETURNEES TO KOSOVO 
 
REF:  PRISTINA 275 
 
Sensitive, but unclassified; please protect 
accordingly 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Serbs and others who have returned to 
Kosovo are more concerned about immediate economic 
prospects, security, and freedom of movement than the final 
status of Kosovo, though the future of the region is also a 
source of apprehension for some.  Many Kosovo Serb returnees 
are middle-aged, and although they now find themselves 
somewhat isolated in a land they once thought of as home, 
they generally consider that living on their own property in 
Kosovo is better than being a marginal exile in an 
unreceptive Serbia.  Subsidies will be necessary for 
sometime to maintain many of the IDPs who return to Kosovo. 
END SUMMARY 
 
¶2.  (U) During a visit to Kosovo, Belgrade-based regional 
Refcoord and PRM/ECA Desk Officer spoke with three returnee 
families, one in Vushtrri/Vuchitrn and two in villages near 
Pristina, who had been assisted by the International 
Catholic Migration Council (ICMU) with funds from PRM. 
Refcoord also visited separately two returnee families in 
Klina and one in Kos, a village near Klina in western 
Kosovo, whose returns had been expedited by the Danish 
Refugee Council (DRC) with funds from PRM. 
 
---------------------------------- 
A Roma family in Vushtrri/Vuchitrn 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U)   In Vushtrri/Vuchitrn, a large town situated on the 
main road between Pristina and Mitrovica, RefCoord and 
PRM/ECA desk officer visited an Ashkali family whose house 
had been destroyed during the March 2004 riots.  The house 
had been rebuilt and shared a narrow lot with another house 
rebuilt for the beneficiary's brother.  Both families had 
four or five children.  In the brother's family, a teen-age 
son was confined to a wheelchair.  In the beneficiary's 
family an eight-year old boy was mute because of a 
developmental disorder. 
 
¶4. (U) Both houses had several rooms and were reasonably 
spacious, though sparsely furnished.  (Note. RAE (Roma- 
Ashkali Egyptian) families generally eschew furniture, 
preferring to sit against the wall on low banquettes, or 
when eating, squatting or sitting on the floor around a low 
wooden table. End Note.)  A cheap TV flickered in the 
background.  The beneficiary expressed gratitude to ICMC for 
its help and for his reconstructed house. 
 
¶5. (U) The beneficiary said he had no work and depended on 
handouts from his brother and neighbors in order to feed his 
family.  ICMC had given him a small chain saw to help 
sustain him.  He said that he had lent it to a friend, as it 
was not the wood-cutting season.  (NOTE:  It was not clear 
whether the saw had been loaned or sold in order to buy 
urgent necessities.  END NOTE). 
 
¶6. (U) He said that he stuck fairly close to the mahalla 
(the traditional RAE quarter in towns throughout the 
Balkans), as he was still apprehensive about walking around 
town to look for work.  None of his children were in school 
because there was no money for proper clothes (especially 
shoes) and school supplies.  Nor was there any medical 
supervision available for the disabled child. 
 
¶7. (U) According to ICMU personnel, the Vushtrri/Vuchitrn 
mahalla was the only one significantly damaged during the 
March 2004 riots.  Numerous members of this family are now 
in Germany, where they have received or are applying for 
asylum. 
 
----------------------- 
A rural Serbian village 
----------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Priluzje is a small, quiet village located about ten 
kilometers northwest of Pristina and about two kilometers 
off the main road to Mitrovica.  Houses are one story and 
located on large lots.  They are relatively old and their 
pastel stucco exteriors contrast with the raw red brick of 
 
PRISTINA 00000425  002 OF 005 
 
 
the largely unfinished multi-story, multi-family houses that 
Kosovo Albanians are erecting everywhere in Kosovo, financed 
in many cases by foreign remittances. 
 
¶9. (U) ICMC assisted a woman and her daughter who had lived 
in a neighboring village to return to her mother's house in 
the spring of 2005.  She said she and her husband left in 
1999 and went to Nis with their twin children.  She said she 
left her husband shortly after arriving in Nis because of 
spousal abuse and returned to Kosovo in 2005.  Her husband 
kept the son, who she had not seen in nearly six years, 
though she is able to talk to him once a week on the 
telephone. 
 
¶10. (U) Her mother receives a small pension.  She receives a 
small salary from working part-time in a kiosk in the 
village and receives a small monthly stipend from a state 
enterprise for which she had worked.  ICMC bought her a 
sewing machine, which she uses to generate additional income 
as a seamstress.  Total family income is probably slightly 
under two hundred dollars a month.  Her twelve-year old 
daughter attends a local Serbian school. The house seemed to 
be in good shape, with shoes neatly lined up on the front 
stoop. 
 
¶11. (U) Priluzje has a peaceful air about it, though a 
feeling of being slightly run down and not fully populated. 
It is one of a string of interconnected, mostly Serbian 
villages around Pristina and does not seem to have suffered 
any major damage during the war or thereafter.  The 
beneficiary said she felt secure, though her life seemed to 
be somewhat circumscribed.  She said she knew a few words of 
Albanian, but could not really speak it. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
A visit to a mixed village near Pristina 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (U) Novo Selo is a mixed Albanian-Serb village near the 
aging power plant in Obiliq/Obilic, about eight kilometers 
from Pristina.  Kosovo's north-south rail line from the 
northern municipalities through Mitrovica and Fushe 
Kosovo/Kosovo Polje to the Macedonian border runs through 
it.  A railway signalman in his early fifties and his wife, 
both ethnic Serbs, have recently returned to their home 
here.  The railroad is far less active than before (although 
UNMIK currently runs daily passenger trains to Mitrovica and 
back to provide IDPs with a secure mode of transportation) 
but most of the previously Serb workforce has been replaced. 
He says there is little prospect for his reemployment, 
though he remains hopeful. 
 
¶13. (U) Nonetheless, he still receives a partial wage from 
the national railway administration in Serbia.  His wife 
also receives a partial salary from a state enterprise that 
no longer operates.  They have about an acre of land, which 
they plan to cultivate.  Their son is studying railway 
signalization in Serbia.  They claim that he would come back 
if there was the possibility of employment, but realize that 
his future probably lies outside of Kosovo. 
 
¶14. (U) The couple left in 1999.   An Albanian neighbor 
looked after the house, so it wasn't badly damaged. 
Nonetheless, a number of articles (stove, refrigerator) had 
been removed by unknown parties.  These had been replaced by 
ICMC.  Relations with Albanian neighbors were cordial (cups 
of coffee) but not intimate. They understood "some" 
Albanian, but could not really speak it.  They were not 
apprehensive about their security, but did not venture into 
Pristina. 
 
----------- 
Kline/Klina 
----------- 
 
¶15. (U) Kline/Klina is a large town about 60 kilometers from 
Pristina, about two-thirds of the way toward Peja/Pec.  It 
is a center of Kosovo's Albanian Catholic community, and the 
town is dominated by the high, modernistic spire of a 
Catholic church, an anomaly in a land dominated by minarets 
(many of them new) and Serbian Orthodox basilicas (most of 
them old).  To the West, behind Peja/Pec, lie the high 
mountains, still snow covered until the summer, that 
 
PRISTINA 00000425  003 OF 005 
 
 
separate Kosovo from Montenegro and Albania. 
 
¶16. (U) Because of various atrocities committed in western 
Kosovo, by Serb forces, the area had been unreceptive to 
Serb returnees.  Rame Manaj, the former mayor of Klina who 
is now an advisor to President Fatmir Sejdiu, however, had 
encouraged IDPs to return, even though he lost six family 
members during the conflict, most of whom remain missing. 
Returns to Klina town started in March 2005 and until now 32 
Serb families have returned.  Only one returned family left 
Kosovo again.  Some 181 individuals have returned to Klina 
municipality, making it one of the most successful in Kosovo 
for returns.  The municipality has also implemented its own 
project for return to Klinavac village.  Most of the 
families who returned to Klina town have been individualized 
returns supported by DRC with USG funding. 
 
¶17. (U) One Serb couple DRC has helped to return came back 
to a modest, older one-story house behind a larger, newer, 
damaged structure near the center of Klina.  The man, in his 
mid-fifties, had built up a successful business repairing 
automotive electrical systems in Klina for nearly thirty 
five years.  Indeed, the three-story structure in front of 
the house had served as his home and workshop.  Now he does 
repairs in the small yard beside his original house. 
 
¶18. (U) The beneficiary and his wife had fled to Nis in 
¶1999.  In 2001, they moved to Fushe Kosovo/Kosovo Polje, a 
large town now virtually a suburb of Pristina.  His 
intention had always been to move back to his property in 
Klina, and he did so in the fall of 2005.  His wife had 
worked as a school aide in a mixed community outside of 
Klina, but no Serbs had lived or worked there since 1999. 
 
¶19. (U) Business was not booming, despite two income- 
generation grants from DRC.  According to the beneficiary, 
many local Albanians were reluctant to patronize him for 
fear of what the neighbors would say.  He said that his few 
customers were KFOR personnel and Kosovo officials who did 
not have to care what their neighbors thought.  Any money he 
earned went to rehabilitating the larger building, but full 
rehabilitation will require reestablishing his customer 
base. 
 
¶20. (U) Nonetheless, he had several sources of income.  He 
received 100 euros a month from the Serbian government for a 
disability; his wife received 40 euros in social assistance 
a month, also from the Serbian government. With the aid of 
the municipality, he had regained ownership of two small 
commercial properties (kiosks, really).  In addition, he 
owned a sizeable woodlot outside of town.  He said security 
considerations prevented him from going there on his own, 
and that someone had already cut down all the trees. 
 
¶21. (U) The beneficiary's son lived nearby in Niksic, 
Montenegro.  The son wanted to return to Klina with his 
family, but there was no Serbian school in the town for his 
children.  The beneficiary spoke good Albanian, as did most 
Serbs who lived in towns in western Kosovo. (NOTE:  Serbs in 
villages in Kosovo with compact Serbian populations tend to 
be unilingual, while Serbs who lived as minorities in 
Kosovar towns often know Albanian.  END NOTE.). 
 
---------------------------- 
Kaffeeklatsch in Kline/Klina 
----------------------------- 
 
¶22. (U) The next beneficiary family, a woman and her 
unmarried son, lived next door, so our first interlocutors 
joined us there.  The beneficiary's husband could not return 
from Serbia with them because of various medical problems. 
A neighbor joined as well.  Coffee was served and a bottle 
of rakija soon appeared.  No one was under fifty except for 
the widow's son, who was in his thirties.  Like the first 
beneficiaries, they had returned in October 2005. 
 
¶23. (U) The house had not been greatly damaged and was 
sparsely furnished.  The family said that part of the deal 
in getting it back was to allow the Kosovo Albanian family 
that had occupied it illegally for a number of years to take 
the furniture.  DRC had helped replace some of the 
furniture, but the house continued to feel strange as a 
result.  Still, she said, living in your own house on your 
 
PRISTINA 00000425  004 OF 005 
 
 
own property was better than trying to pay a high rent in 
Serbia.  Serbia, she said, had done nothing to help her. 
 
¶24. (U) The family's sources of income were hard to 
determine, though they derived a rent of 50 euros monthly 
from a small store they owned.  The wife had taught in a 
primary school located fifty yards away from her house where 
her husband also had worked as a custodian.  The school was 
now completely Albanian; there was no place for her there. 
She said her husband had been shocked by the state of the 
school when he visited Kline/Klina. 
 
¶25. (U) Normally the municipality did not provide firewood 
to residents, but did because of this family's poverty.  The 
municipality had also replaced some windows in the house 
that had been broken in a stoning incident March 1.  The 
beneficiary reported occasional mild harassment when walking 
the streets of Kline/Klina.  After her neighbor, reportedly 
well off, had left following a long plaint about her 
difficulties in reclaiming additional illegally occupied 
property, she remarked bitterly, "The fortunate always 
demand more." 
 
--------------------------- 
Primitive Idyll in Kosh/Kos 
--------------------------- 
 
¶26. (U) Kosh/Kos is a mixed village of scattered homesteads 
in Istok/Istog municipality that straggle along a ridge and 
in the valley below.  Ethnic Albanians live in the valley 
and on the first part of the ridge.  In 2004 DRC assisted 
the return of some 38 Serb families (130 individuals); 
another 25 heads of families returned on May 9, 2006.  Most 
of the houses were extensively destroyed in 1999.  Thirty 
eight houses have been reconstructed and another 25 are 
underway.  Here DRC has helped a family with four school-age 
children return. 
 
¶27. (U) The family had been living since 1999 in a 
collective center in Kragujevo and had returned with DRC's 
help in August 2005.  The husband had a low-paying job as a 
boiler tender while they lived in the collective center, but 
did not make enough to move his family away from the center. 
The wife described conditions in the collective center as 
"not at all nice." 
 
¶28. (U) The other families in the village gardened, kept a 
few cattle, and survived on pensions, partial salaries from 
state enterprises, and other subsidies.  The father (absent 
during the visit) had the only paying job among the 
returnees, which was driving a school bus from Kosh/Kos and 
other nearby villages to Osaj/Osojane, where there was a 
Serbian school.  (There were only five other children in 
Kosh/Kos, though a sixth was on the way.)  The job netted 
the family slightly less than 100 euros a month.  Twice a 
week a KFOR bus assured Serbs in the area of safe transport 
to Mitrovica, about 50 kilometers away.  (COMMENT:  On May 9 
and 12 youth in the town of Runik/Rudnik in neighboring 
Skenderaj/Srbica municipality threw stones at two buses 
carrying Serbs from Osaj/Osojane to Mitrovica.  END 
COMMENT.). 
 
¶29. (U) The family owned an eleven-hectare woodlot, but most 
of the trees had been cut down while they were living in 
Kragujevo.  Consequently, the municipality had provided them 
with firewood as well as a small food allowance, which was 
being reduced.  The wife regretted that no one in the family 
spoke Albanian. 
 
¶30. (SBU) COMMENT:  Many of the Serb returnees are middle- 
aged and without children.  Most are glad to be back in 
Kosovo, but note they are lonely.  They hope for better 
times, and although they do not know what final status will 
bring, feel secure for the moment.  Because of their 
property, life for them in Kosovo is preferable than a 
marginal exile in Serbia.  What is striking is the intricate 
system of small support payments (pensions, social 
assistance, partial salaries), mostly from Belgrade, that 
help them survive, although RAE families have less access to 
them.  Should these payments be stopped for any reason, a 
lot of these returnees who already live on the margins could 
be in real trouble. 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000425  005 OF 005 
 
 
¶31. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release 
in its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
 
GOLDBERG