Dacic: Over 210,000 people have left Kosovo-Metohija due to ethnic hatred

GENEVA - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said in Geneva on Monday 210,284 people - mostly Serbs, but also other non-Albanians like Roma, Ashkali and Gorani - had been forced to leave their homes in Kosovo-Metohija due to ethnic hatred.

Addressing the UNHCR Executive Committee, Dacic said that, according to UNHCR figures, only 12,707 IDPs had returned to Kosovo-Metohija.

"Due to many obstacles, including threats and violence, sustainable return is even lower and is estimated at below 2 per cent," Dacic noted, adding that the small number of returnees in Kosovo-Metohija was disappointing.

He said that, under UNSCR 1244, the return of displaced persons was one of the main tasks of international presence and the interim self-government institutions in Kosovo-Metohija.

He said IDPs living in Serbia were unable to exercise their fundamental right to freely choose between local integration and sustainable return.

The reason for this is that, 20 years after the establishment of international presence in Kosovo-Metohija, the conditions for sustainable return have still not been secured there in terms of the necessary guarantees of personal safety and safety of property, rule of law, freedom from discrimination and respect of fundamental human and civil rights, he said.

"The Republic of Serbia treats creating the conditions for finding permanent and sustainable solutions for all displaced persons as one of the key issues whose resolution is what stabilisation of the situation in the region depends on. We would like to remind that, along with committed work on meeting the needs of displaced persons, their rights in their places of origin must not be neglected," Dacic said.