Leaden Bureaucracy

Roma in Kosovo are in danger from a deadly combination of a toxic environment and bureaucratic stalemate.

In November 1999, in the aftermath of the war in Kosovo, about 200 Roma, driven from their homes by ethnic Albanian extremists, were placed in refugee camps near Trepca, one of the largest lead-and-zinc mines in Europe. Last June, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted blood tests on 75 Roma adults and children in the camps; 44 proved to be massively contaminated by lead. The camps have still not been evacuated.

Refugees live "the life of animals," says Agron Qosa, who forages for food on the dumps near Trepca. "We were told this would be our settlement only for 40 days. Now, six years after that promise, we are without any fundamental support," Roma representative Elizabeta Bajrami says.

Last week Kosovar Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi pledged $257,000 for the relocation of the Roma and for pollution control. The United Nations hopes the problem will be solved by the end of the summer but, says Gyorgy Kokuk, the spokesman for the U.N. mission for northern Kosovo, "The Roma refuse to move anywhere but their original homes in Mitrovica, and these are all burned down."