In Ljubožda village, Istog/Istok municipality, the first Serbian house is being renewed. Thirteen families returned to this village after eighteen years. They are waiting for the reconstruction of destroyed houses.
KIM Radio reports that they are still the owners of the land in the village, and state that this is the reason why their return encountered resistance from neighbours.
One of the returnees said that she can only observe her house but that she cannot enter. She says that the house was usurped by an Albanian from the neighbouring village. She says she has still six hectares of land.
Another returnee says the man from Albania has built a cottage-house on his land. .
Returnees say they knew that they will encounter obstacles, but that they did not want to give up.
“We knew we would face obstacles, but we are persistent,” says one of them, Mirko Simić.
Every Serbian household owns several acres of land, but Albanians are using it, reports Kim radio.
Vesna Maliković from the Office of Returns and Communities in the municipality of Istog/Istok says to KIM radio that in the municipality of Istok lived 8700 Serbs and 17000 Montenegrins until 1999 and that not a one-third has returned.
Kosovo police continuously monitors the returnees to the village Ljubožda, and soldiers of the Slovenian KFOR visit them occasionally.
