http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4080048.stm
BBC News
June 13, 2005
Toxic camp angers Kosovo Roma
By Matt Prodger
BBC News, Mitrovica
-After visiting the camps one world authority on
environmental health described them as "shameful" and
"a disgrace" that "would not be tolerated anywhere
else in Europe".
-Opinions vary as to how many people the lead has
killed.
Most of those who have fallen ill have been treated in
hospitals in Serbia, and human rights groups have had
difficulty obtaining their medical records.
-Several kilometres from Zitkovac is the settlement
where the Roma once lived. It used to be home to 9,000
- one of the biggest Romany settlements in the
Balkans.
It has been a ruin since ethnic Albanians destroyed it
after the war.
-Claude Cahn from the ERRC said: "This is an extremely
grave situation which the authorities have been aware
of since 2000. We are in the process of taking legal
action against both Unmik and the local authorities in
the area."
Roma rights groups are preparing legal action against
the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (Unmik) over its
failure to evacuate several hundred refugees from
camps contaminated with extremely high levels of
poisonous lead.
Ever since their homes were destroyed during [that is,
after] the war six years ago, more than 500 Roma
(Gypsies) have been living in makeshift camps set up
by the UN next to a disused - but contaminated - lead
smelter in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the
situation as an environmental disaster, but the
refugees have yet to be moved.
The worst affected is Zitkovac, one of three camps
mostly containing children, which is located close to
the old smelter. Wooden huts lie within a few hundred
metres of a toxic slag heap. The wind whips
contaminated dust through the camp.
Rukije Mustafa is eight months pregnant and worried
about her unborn baby; her four-year-old daughter
Cassandra suffers from blackouts, lethargy and like
most of the children born in this camp, her teeth are
etched with the telltale grey lines of lead deposits.
"When I look at my child I feel like dying," her
mother says. "The dust is killing her, she can hardly
walk; she's only got the strength to crawl."
The United Nations created this camp and two others in
1999 to house Roma who, in the wake of the war, had
been driven from their homes in neighbouring Mitrovica
by ethnic Albanians who saw them as collaborators with
the Serbs.
It was a makeshift arrangement meant to last only
weeks, but they have been here ever since.
When the WHO tested the Roma's blood for lead in 2004,
the readings for 90% of the children were off the
scale - higher than the medical equipment was capable
of measuring.
'Shameful'
According to internationally-accepted benchmarks drawn
up by the United States Centre for Disease Control,
such children fall into the category of "acute medical
emergency" and require immediate hospitalisation.
Gerry McWeeney, a British epidemiologist working in
the three camps - Zitkovac, Cesmin Lug and Kablar -
says the situation is "critical".
"It's what we would call a child environmental health
disaster area," he said.
"We don't have any literature or documentation
anywhere that has shown this kind of situation before.
They need to be moved.''
Other health experts are more critical. After visiting
the camps one world authority on environmental health
described them as "shameful" and "a disgrace" that
"would not be tolerated anywhere else in Europe".
In fact Unmik, the organisation in overall charge of
the province, has known about the lead poisoning for
at least five years. An Unmik report commissioned in
2000 recommended relocation of the camps because of
it, but was never acted upon.
A WHO report published in June 2004 said the same,
describing the situation as "urgent".
Opinions vary as to how many people the lead has
killed.
Most of those who have fallen ill have been treated in
hospitals in Serbia, and human rights groups have had
difficulty obtaining their medical records.
The WHO believes at least one child has died from lead
poisoning, but others put the figure higher. Paul
Polansky, an American who heads the Kosovo Roma
Refugee Foundation, counts 27 dead.
Several kilometres from Zitkovac is the settlement
where the Roma once lived. It used to be home to 9,000
- one of the biggest Romany settlements in the
Balkans.
It has been a ruin since ethnic Albanians destroyed it
after the war. After months of prevarication there are
now plans to return the refugees (or Internally
Displaced Persons - IDPs) to this area. But at the
moment there's nowhere for them to live.
Unmik officials say the Roma have been offered
temporary accommodation in less contaminated areas but
turned it down.
'Difficult group'
But the man in overall charge of Kosovo, Unmik head
Soren Jessen-Petersen, says he thinks "we all have a
share of the responsibility" - the local authorities,
the international community, Unmik and all the
agencies, "all those who have been involved".
"There might have been - let's be very clear - there
might have been a lack of co-operation on the ground.
We are dealing with what we all know is a particularly
difficult group. But that would not serve as an excuse
for not addressing an acute health problem."
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in Budapest is
in the process of preparing a lawsuit against the
United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
Claude Cahn from the ERRC said: "This is an extremely
grave situation which the authorities have been aware
of since 2000. We are in the process of taking legal
action against both Unmik and the local authorities in
the area."
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