Still over 200,000 IDPs from Kosovo living in central Serbia

The Serbian Ministry for Kosovo yesterday concluded the registration of the IDPs.

Assistant to the Minister for Kosovo Bojan Andjelkovic said that very few of those who were forced to leave had returned to the province.

He added that the number of IDPs is the same as the one obtained in 2001, and that it is also the one used by UNHCR.

Andjelkovic stressed that while this UN agency claims that some 16,000 Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians had returned and stayed in their homes in the past ten years, "our numbers are significantly smaller, only five, or less than five thousands people".

A total of 1,212 IDP families, or 3,200 persons, have applied for return to Kosovo, Andjelkovic told a news conference in Belgrade.

Registration of applicants was carried out from March to mid-August this year and was limited to the internally displaced persons accommodated in collective centers and those who had already expressed their desire to return, he explained.

The registration did not apply to persons living in private accommodation or to Serbs and other non-Albanians who were expelled from their homes but remain in Kosovo.

Of the total number of registered, about 10 percent, or 100 families with over 400 members, are members of Gorani, Roma and Muslim minorities, he said.