UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — The vast majority of people displaced from Kosovo have not been able to return home, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told the UN Security Council Friday.
"The return to Kosovo and Metohija has been realized by less than five per cent of IDPs [internally displaced person]. According to UNHCR data, 12,145 persons returned to Kosovo and Metohija from the rest of Serbia. Only 1.9 per cent (about 4000 persons) have realized a sustainable return. 70 per cent of the returnees are not ethnic Serbs," Dacic said.
Physical insecurity evinced by continued attacks on Serbs and their property, and helped by an atmosphere of criminal impunity committed against Serbs accounts for the long delay in IDP returns, according to the minister.
Dacic cited a recent incident of the stoning of a bus with about 40 displaced Serbs from the Kosovo city of Dakovica on January 6. He stressed that the only minister in the Kosovo government who condemned the incident, Aleksandar Jablanovic, was dismissed.
The foreign minister also called on Kosovo leaders to continue the dialogue with Serbia, primarily in the interest of its population.
Kosovo and Metohija is an autonomous province in Serbia. Kosovo declared its independence in February 2008. It has been recognized as a sovereign state by over a 100 UN member countries.
