THEY HAVE TO LEAVE THE SETTLEMENT
Kurir, 6th of march 2006
The inhabitants of the unhygienic settlement in Novi Belgrade (in Block 70) have received an order from the sanitation inspection of Novi Belgrade to leave the settlement by March 8th! The representatives of the settlement, mostly Roma, as well as the members of several nongovernmental and international organizations, appealed on Friday for a postponement of the dislodgement because the city authorities haven't provided any alternative accommodation for the inhabitants of the settlement.
The city authorities, however, say that the Roma have made an agreement with the investor (who is to build on the location) to provide them with money to pay for private accommodation.
Petar Antic, executive director of the Minority Rights Center, says that 26 internally displaced families from Kosovo (with a total of 103 members, most of them children) are living in the settlement.
"We regard this act as inhuman, because it is unacceptable to leave homeless such a large number of families with so many children without providing them with adequate accommodation. According to this organization's records, in March 220-260 families will be moved out of similar informal settlements in the same way. Besides, none of them have received any money from the investors", Antic says.
Zivojin Mitrovic, coordinator of the city Roma Integration Center, emphasizes that the city authorities have no temporary solutions for the inhabitants of the informal settlements, but they are working on providing permanent accommodation for this social group in the coming period. "According to the General urbanistic plan, the city plans to build apartments for socially vulnerable persons on 58 locations over the next 5 years. Apartments on 4 locations in Belgrade are under construction at the moment, but I can't say where exactly because of possible 'political protests' of the inhabitants of the neighbouring settlements. The best example was last year's protest of the inhabitants of Dr Ivan Ribar settlement in Novi Belgrade who were against placing temporary containers for Roma in Dr Ivan Ribar, so the city gave up the plan", Mitrovic said.
Kurir, 6th of march2006
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