Since the beginning of this year, only one Serb family has returned to Kosovo. This disheartening situation is mainly the result of the uncertain safety of the returnees, frequent physical attacks and robberies, as well as the irresponsible attitude of the Pristina authorities toward this process. Minister of Return in the Kosovo Government, Dalibor Jevtic says that his ministry cannot solve all the problems on its own, so he asks for the more active participation of other ministries and international organizations.
In the last one month there have been ten or so assaults on the Serb returnees. Their safety is one of the biggest problems in the entire process of return, and also the central reason for its merely symbolic results. According to the Kosovo Ministry of Return and Communities, over the past 15 years barely 10% of the displaced people have returned to Kosovo, including all national communities. Minister Jevtic points there are numerous problems that this ministry cannot tackle. He added it turned out that the change of the strategic approach to the process of return did accomplish some things. The houses built over the past few years, unlike those in the previous period, are full.
“We wish to share the responsibility for the return with other institutions, in line with the Kosovo laws, so they could help us in the realization of the process. I have initiated the establishing of an inter-ministry group, a body that would deal with the process of return, because the line ministry cannot solve the problem of safety or find the perpetrators of the attacks on the returnees. Also, we cannot deal with the issue of the usurped property, hence the need for the assistance from other institutions,” Jevtic explains.
He has stressed that in the past there were lot of problems, primarily in coordinating the tasks, for which the ministry itself has to take part of the responsibility. “It is my duty to point to all the omissions, so they would not happen again, and to insist on the joint approach to the problem. The fact of only one Serb family having returned to Kosovo since the beginning of this year is discouraging,” Jevtic stressed, adding that it is directly related to the political instability in the Province, but also the result of the failure of the Ministry of Return to operate in its full capacity. It also shows that other institutions in Kosovo, both local and international, are doing nothing in that regard.
Jevtic expects better days for the persevering ones who intend to return to Kosovo, and says he has commenced the talks on certain projects, with greatest expectations from a project financed by the EU, and whose managing board will meet soon. According to him, this project envisages the return of 60 families.
The budget of the Ministry of return has been cut in half this year, and having in mind some of the earlier obligations, there is almost no money to finance any new projects. Jevtic notes, however, that even in such conditions there must be a way to do something, and he also lays hope with the rebalance of the Kosovo budget, which could fix this injustice. “And if that does not happen, we grow hopes about some international organizations that we are negotiating with, while also important is the support of Belgrade, as without it we could hardly speak of the return whatsoever, and even more so about the Serbs’ survival in Kosovo,” concluded minister Dalibor Jevtic.
