YUGOSLAVIA: AS THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS IN SERBIA, SERB REFUGEES FROM KOSOVO LIVING IN CENTRAL SERBIA CANNOT ATTEND THE SCHOOL

Record ID: 274780

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: AS THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS IN SERBIA, SERB REFUGEES FROM KOSOVO LIVING IN CENTRAL SERBIA CANNOT ATTEND THE SCHOOL
  • Date: 2nd September 1999
  • Summary: RATINA, NEAR KRALJEVO, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA (SEPTEMBER 1, 1999)(REUTERS) 1. SLV/MCU VARIOUS OF REFUGEES IN SCHOOLYARD IN RATINA WHERE REFUGEES FROM KOSOVO ARE PLACED (3 SHOTS) 0.16 2. SV/CU CHILDREN SITTING UNDER A TRACTOR (2 SHOTS) 0.24 3. LAS FAMILY WALKING THROUGH SCHOOL CORRIDOR 0.34 4. SLV OF REFUGEES IN CLASSROOM 0.42 5. MCU
  • Embargoed: 17th September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RATINA NEAR KRALJEVO, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA798H6D5K5EOPL8X5S6FXPX5Q5
  • Story Text: The school year has begun in Serbia, but not for two
    eight-year-old pupils.Serb refugees living in a school in the
    central Serbian town of Kraljevo, they cannot however attend classes.

    Teachers, aid workers and parents said on Wednesday
    (September 1) that the local education authorities in central
    Serbia were told by the government not to accept pupils from
    Kosovo to encourage their parents to go home.But many parents
    are scared of revenge attacks on their children by their
    ethnic Albanian neighbours to go back.

    "It was terrible, watching children from Serbia, preparing
    for school, while our children can only dream of that," said
    one refugee.

    She comes from Klina, further south.The order to go to
    northern Kosovo indicates both a recognition by the
    authorities that many refugees will not be going home and an
    attempt to keep at least part of Kosovo under Serb control.

    The refugees' living conditions are luxurious compared to
    those faced by most of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic
    Albanians who fled Kosovo before NATO troops entered the
    province in June, but they are far from enviable.

    They are packed in to the classrooms, most sleeping on
    the floor, have no showers and poor food.

    Stoves, blankets and laundry litter the building and their
    tractors clutter the yard.In a surreal touch, an old MIG 21
    jet fighter is there too, which the children playing on.


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