KOSOVO: ROMA CAMPS CONTINUE TO BE PROBLEMATIC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000734 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/05/2017 TAGS: PGOV EAID KDEM UNMIK YI KZ SUBJECT: KOSOVO: ROMA CAMPS CONTINUE TO BE PROBLEMATIC REF: PRISTINA 594 Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The lead-contaminated Roma IDP camp Cesmin Lug remains open more than three months after UNMIK committed to closing it (reftel). Funding is running out at Osterode, the alternate and safer camp, for services essential to preserving the health of Roma children vis-a-vis their lead blood levels. Media attention may soon be focused on the situation. Some Roma families are scheduled to move from Cesmin Lug to a new building in Roma mahala on October 15. This will open up space at Cesmin Lug which we are loathe to see re-filled with incoming families. It becomes ever more urgent that the entire camp be closed and demolished. Our understanding is that a suitable closure plan exists within UNMIK. It is not clear why action has not been taken. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Cesmin Lug camp in northern Mitrovica remains open, with an estimated 141 people inhabiting its dangerously lead-contaminated environs. According to CDC's June report, camp residents are exposed to lead from multiple sources, including highly contaminated soil and peeling paint. Our October 4 visit revealed no change or improvement in living conditions at the camp since June. ¶3. (SBU) Conditions at Osterode have deteriorated. Security enforcement to prevent hazardous lead smelting on-site is slipping, with new burn sites appearing within the camp. (NOTE: Camp manager Norwegian Church Association (NCA) was awaiting WHO test results on the sites as of October 4. END NOTE.) Camp premises, which should be washed down twice a month to keep play surfaces free of lead dust, have not been cleaned in almost four months due to lack of funding for water trucks. NCA also ran out of money for the UNMIK-funded, NCA-paid, WHO-trained Serb doctors conducting lead treatment in Osterode and lead testing in Osterode and Cesmin Lug. In the absence of the extra pay, local Serb doctors and nurses no longer test or treat children in the camps for lead exposure. As a result, Osterode's lead treatment clinic closed its doors October 1. While it is possible for families to visit the local hospital for lead testing, none have done so, and NCA, UNMIK and WHO view it as highly unlikely in the polarized political environment of northern Mitrovica. No one expects that Roma families would take their children to the local hospital twice daily as required for treatment. On the other hand, since no one has tested blood lead levels (BLLs) since June, it is impossible to know how many camp children are still in need of treatment. ¶4. (SBU) None of the BLL data collected over the past year and a half has been released, including the data from June. Anecdotally, both WHO and CDC believe the BLLs have decreased, but with no data we cannot confirm that treated and relocated children have safer blood lead levels. Since November 2006, WHO has told us their report on the results is "in the process of being completed"; in an October 4 meeting they told us the data is now in a clearance process with WHO deputy regional director Nata Menadbe in Copenhagen. We have reached out to UNICEF and Embassy Geneva to help us gain access to the WHO report. ¶5. (SBU) According to UNICEF, a team of German journalists visited Kosovo the week of September 23 to cover the Roma issue. Their focus was forced returns from Germany, and they spent an entire day in northern Mitrovica at Osterode and more time in the southern Mitrovica Roma mahala. UNICEF expects media coverage of the Roma situation in Mitrovica will be forthcoming and told us the team was led by "the German equivalent of Dan Rather." (NOTE: USOP's involvement with the Roma in northern Mitrovica began following a 2005 New York Times article calling attention to their disastrous living conditions. END NOTE.) ¶6. (SBU) The final apartment building in the first phase of Roma mahala reconstruction is set to open October 15. PRISTINA 00000734 002 OF 002 According to UNMIK, seven families from Osterode and four from Cesmin Lug (approximately 25 individuals) will move in. While this is excellent news for those families, it will open up space at Cesmin Lug which in the past has been quickly taken by new arrivals. As noted in reftel, this undermines efforts to close Cesmin Lug by increasing the number of its residents who are not eligible to move to Osterode. (NOTE: Osterode was designated for the original residents of three lead-contaminated camps: Cesmin Lug, Kablare, and Zitkovac; the latter two have been closed and demolished. Although in July it seemed that UNMIK would need to plan housing for 24 ineligible people when it closed Cesmin Lug, UNMIK now tells us that number has fallen to eight people and they will move in with extended family around Kosovo. END NOTE.) ¶7. (C) We have learned that UNMIK has a suitable plan for closing Cesmin Lug. Although it has gone through several iterations, the general design is as follows: First, UNMIK will begin an information campaign to notify Cesmin Lug residents of the necessity to relocate to Osterode and the imminent discontinuation of all services at Cesmin Lug. (NOTE: This would be at least the third time similar campaigns have been undertaken at Cesmin Lug; WHO undertook earlier efforts. Cesmin Lug currently receives free electricity and water from northern Mitrovica utilities. END NOTE.) Second, electricity would be cut. Third, firewood supplies would cease. Fourth, repairs to oft-vandalized shower and toilet facilities would be discontinued. Fifth, random health services currently supplied to Cesmin Lug by the local hospital would be removed. Sixth, the camp would be disconnected from the water mains. This is a last resort and UNMIK hopes the earlier steps will motivate Roma to move to Osterode, which is located just across the road. Finally, abandoned encampments would be immediately destroyed to prevent reoccupation. ¶8. (C) UNMIK DCA met with WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF, and NCA on October 3 to solicit their support for the closure plan, to commence on October 15 following the end of Ramadan. According to UNMIK, all but WHO gave their support. WHO believes that the above steps will not be sufficient to make residents leave Cesmin Lug and will simply worsen their living conditions. In WHO's view, which we have also heard from other sources, what actually caused the Roma to vacate the earlier Kablare and Zitkovac camps was word from informal Serb authorities that it was time to leave. Sources within UNMIK (protect) recently told us that these authorities now see themselves gaining valuable real estate from evacuation of Cesmin Lug, with plans allegedly underway to build a green market on the property. If true, this could exponentially increase the chances that Roma will actually move to Osterode. ¶9. (C) It is not clear that UNMIK itself is in agreement about moving forward with the closure plan. We have learned PDSRSG Schook verbally approved the above action plan for Cesmin Lug; however, it is not clear that UNMIK's regional office in Mitrovica has been instructed to comply with the plan. ¶10. (C) COMMENT: We are dismayed that Cesmin Lug remains open and inhabited. Roma at Osterode, who moved to the camp on international assurances that it would be safer, are increasingly doubtful as conditions worsen; this makes it even more difficult to persuade Roma at Cesmin Lug to move. Although UNMIK told us 50,000 euro in funding for Osterode is in the pipeline, we are disappointed at the long delays in high-level attention and assistance that have allowed the camp to deteriorate. UNMIK hardly needs the black eye of negative media coverage of Osterode and Cesmin Lug. Further, UNMIK Mitrovica's non-cooperation would seriously complicate Cesmin Lug's closure. We will urge UNMIK to ensure that the plan they committed to developing back in July be implemented as soon as possible. END COMMENT. KAIDANOW