Kosovo: Gypsies relocated by UN remain on toxic land 23. 4. 2009
Mitrovica, 14/04/09 - Displaced by conflict and stranded by bureaucratic inertia, dozens of Roma
families remain on toxic land 10 years after they were relocated there by the United Nations following
the Kosovo war. Osterrode Camp and Chesmin Lug Camp were established by the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999 as a temporary measure, when the 9,000-
member Roma or Gypsy neighborhood on the southern shore of the Ibar River was burnt down
by Albanians in the dying days of the Kosovo conflict. The Albanians had accused the Roma of
collaborating with the Serb army, a charge the Roma dismiss as unfounded. Whatever the truth
behind the charges and denials, almost everyone agrees that moving Roma families near the
now closed Trepca mining and smelting complex, onto land highly contaminated with lead, zinc,
arsenic and other metals, has resulted in severe health problems in the community. When the
World Health Organization tested the Roma's blood for lead in 2004, the readings for 90 percent
of the children were off the scale, higher than the medical equipment was capable of measuring.
Such children fall into the category of "acute medical emergency" and require immediate hospitalization.
Instead they have remained in the camps, ingesting lead through the air, the dirt they
play in and through their clothes dusted with lead tailings while drying on laundry lines. Even before
their birth, lead enters their bodies from drinking water consumed by their mothers. According
to internationally accepted benchmarks drawn up by the United States Center for Disease
Control, 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter causes the beginning of brain damage. The measurements
from the camps were much higher than in the surrounding population and at levels that
exceeded any region WHO had previously studied. Twelve children had exceptionally high blood
lead levels, greater than 45 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, more than four times the
amount that causes brain damage.
Full article on: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/europe/090414/gypsies-relocated-un-remain-toxic-land
http://erionet.org/site/upload/pubblications/enews/e-news,%2020%20April%202009.pdf
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