Building intended for Serb returnees destroyed in Obilic

JOINT SERBIA-MONTENEGRO AND THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
COORDINATING CENTER FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

June 17, 2005 - This morning the Coordinating Center received official notification that late Wednesday night-early Thursday morning, a recently restored housing building in the center of Obilic intended for Serbian returnees was destroyed.

"The white building", as the complex of 12 apartments was referred to by the local residents of Obilic was previously set on fire and destroyed on March 18, 2004 (during the March 2004 pogrom).

The building was uninhabited due to a multitude of minor technical details (for example, the lack of a lighting rod on a multistory building) and until recently was protected by a security team. However, the security team was withdrawn upon order of the local authorities after provisional institutions and UNMIK assessed that it was in a so-called "blue" or safe zone where standards for Kosovo and Metohija had been partially fulfilled.

This building intended for returnees is now once more unusable. The carpentry, locks and sanitary fixtures have been destroyed, vandalized or simply removed. The electric meters have also been stolen as well as all things that could be removed from the apartments which were, despite technical shortcomings, habitable.

Associates of the Coordinating Center Office for Obilic municipality confirmed that this latest act of violence has caused disappointment and bitterness among the few Serbs remaining in this municipality, who have been skeptical of the veracity of the claim that standards had been fulfilled sufficiently to allow them to return to their homes and resume a normal life.