Kosovo government ignores return issue

B92, Belgrade, July 27, 2005 21:21

PRISTINA -- Wednesday - Representatives of the minority communities in Kosovo are accusing the Kosovo government of ignoring the work of the Minorities Interest Council as well as the return effort.

Council President Randjel Nojkic said that the government is not showing enough readiness to seriously begin facing the problem of returning refugees to the region.

"The real question is, are those people calling for the return of refugees really interested in returning people to their homes or are they just spouting rhetoric, so that it would appear that standards have been implemented, but they will be fulfilled only at the moment where actual return efforts will be visible. For now, this is not the case." Nojkic said.

President of the Democratic Action Party of Kosovo, Numan Balic, said that the individual representatives of the minority communities who are participating in government coalitions are satisfied with the relations that the government is showing towards their communities so that is why not much attention has been paid to the work of the council.

"Five or six communities are not satisfied with their representation in the Kosovo institutions and parliament. That is the basis of our standard complaints. The Commission for Legal and Community Issues is not equal in importance to the rest of the parliamentary commissions, however." Balic said.

The press conference was not attended by council members from Albanian parties, or by the six plus group, which represents non-Serbian minority groups and is part of the ruling coalition.