During a visit to Helsinki, Kawczynski deemed “not acceptable” the international community’s argument that negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians were already difficult enough without adding another partner to the talks.

“From my point of view, the solution is not acceptable, the Roma are part of Kosovo and part of the solution,” the head of the European Roma Forum said. “We cannot keep them aside and wait for a solution afterwards.

“We have experience with negotiations from talks in Bosnia-Herzegovina where the international community exactly followed that road saying ‘first we have to stabilize the political situation and then we can start negotiating about minorities.’ And that actually was a failure,” he added.

Bosnian officials estimate that about 50,000 of the country’s 3.8 million inhabitants are Roma, who make up the largest minority. According to Kawczynski, 200,000 Roma had to flee Kosovo during the 1998-1999 conflict with Belgrade in fear of retaliation from Kosovo Albanians who viewed the Roma as partners to the Serb forces and Slobodan Milosevic’s regime.

Most Romas fled to other European countries. Germany presently has a Roma population of 45,000 people, while only some 10,000 still live on Kosovo territory. According to Kawczynski, the return of Roma refugees and the expropriations they suffered are issues that should be on the negotiators’ agenda.

The European Roma and Travelers Forum (ERTF) was established in 2004 following a Finnish initiative. It is an umbrella group consisting of Roma non-governmental organizations that defend the rights and interests of the 14 million Roma in Europe.
(Rom News Network)