Dear Minister,

We should like to draw your attention to the situation in the IDP camps in Kosovo and request you to give this matter your personal attention so that the inmates can be helped as soon as possible.

According to the latest reports received by the Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker / Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), there has been since Kosovo declared its independence in February 2008 no improvement in the situation of the Roma and Ashkali living in the IDP camps of Česmin Lug/ Česmin Lukë in North Mitrovica/North Mitrovicë. All 638 residents of the camps, among them 324 children (including 217 under the age of ten) remain exposed to very high levels of heavy metal contamination (including lead, arsenic, antimony, cadmium and manganese). There have been 78 deaths attributed to heavy metal toxicity and women have suffered miscarriages.

A USAID (United States Agency for International Development) initiative providing for the resettlement of 50 of the 141 families, which was announced at the end of 2008, will be carried out on the ground by the humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps. The funding being made available for this project (approximately $US 2.4 million) falls a long way short of the amount required to carry out a full evacuation of the refugees and pay for the necessary medical treatment. In the absence of medical supervision the refugees are suffering irreversible damage to their nervous and immune systems along with impaired bone and blood development. If they are not given the help they need, the EU and all those responsible for this tragic situation will be blamed for the casual and irresponsible way in which they have acted.

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) is deeply concerned for the health of the camp residents and we are appealing to you to ensure

-The immediate closure of these camps and prompt resettlement of all residents in suitable accommodation on an uncontaminated site acceptable to the Roma community, in addition to the reconstruction of the Roma neighbourhood in South Mitrovica/Mitrovicë

-Immediate medical assistance and immediate evacuation for medical treatment in a western country if necessary

-The establishment of a specialist environmental medicine treatment facility at a safe distance away from the contaminated area in the vicinity of North Mitrovica/Mitrovicë, with the provision of expert environmental medical care will be provided as well as standard medical treatment

-Of the security forces deployed in Roma communities and estates two thirds should be recruited from the Roma population

-The inclusion of the Roma in all future discussions relating to the resolution of this problem

Dear Minister, please do all in your power to make sure that these people receive help quickly. We should be grateful if you would inform us of the steps which have been taken as soon as possible.

Many thanks in advance for giving this matter your attention.

Yours Truly,

Tilman Zülch

President of the GfbV-International

Background infromation

Lead poisoning of Roma in the displaced persons camps (IDP camps) of

Osterode and Česmin Lug/ Česmin Lukë in North Mitrovica / North Mitrovicë

(Kosovo)

A team of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in Kosovo has since 1999 been reporting regularly on the human rights situation of the Roma, Ashkali and "Egyptians" living there. The miserable conditions under which these people have to live have been documented in detail. The Society forThreatened Peoples is extremely disturbed concerning the high contamination with heavy metals of the Roma and Ashkali in the displaced persons camps (IDP camps) in North Mitrovica / North Mitrovicë. Their health and lives are threatened by creeping lead poisoning.

At the end of the Kosovo war 130,000 of the former 150,000 Roma, Ashkali and "Egyptians" living in Kosovo were forcibly driven out of their homeland. Returning Albanians tore down 14,000 of their 19,000 houses and completely destroyed 75 of their estates and villages. The overwhelming majority of the Roma, Ashkali and "Egyptians" fled from Kosovo. Only some 300 of the destroyed 14,000 houses have to date been rebuilt.

For the few Roma and Ashkali who did not flee and suddenly became homeless the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and its executive partner Action by Churches Working Together (ACT) in North Kosovo established the four camps of Česmin Lug/Lukë, Žitkovac/Zhitkoc, Leposavić/Leposaviq and Kablare/Kablar in North Mitrovica/North Mitrovicë. Regardless of the warnings of various experts, among them the World Health Organisation WHO, the camps were built on highly contaminated barren land. The surrounding hills are made up of deposits from an abandoned smelting works, which give off poisonous dust which constantly permeates the refugee camps. Information provided by WHO show that 88 percent of the land on which the camps were set up are not suitable for habitation since the lead values in the soil exceed by four to six times the level permissible for human health.

As a result the 744 Roma, Ashkali and "Egyptians" have taken in great quantities of lead either through the respiratory tract, through food or via the placenta as a foetus. Five years after the setting up of the camps the WHO in 2004 ordered an investigation into the health risks caused by the environmental conditions in the soil of the camps through poisoning by

lead and other heavy metals occur. Particularly alarming were the results of the WHO investigation on small children aged between 24 and 36 months. In the camps Česmin Lug/ Lukë and Žitkovac/Zhitkoc 58 of the 150 children in this age-group were examined. In 34 of them lead-values were found over 9.99 microgrammes per decilitre. The maximum permissible value recognized by the WHO for lead in the blood is 10 microgrammes per decilitre, which indicates that the lead values of 58.6% of the children are above the tolerance level. In the case of 12 of these 34 poisoned children the values were particularly high, i.e. higher than 45 microgrammes per decilitre, 6 had lead-values which according to

the criteria of the registration office of the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) correspond to a medical emergency. They were higher than 65 microgrammes per decilitre.

Since then the camps of Kablar/Kablare and Žitkovac/Zhitkoc have been closed and their inmates in the year 2005 moved to the previous military base"Osterode" of the KFOR soldiers. This former military camp is only 50 metres from the heavy metal deposits. The intention was to remove the top-soil, which was contaminated by lead, and to cover up the lower levels with a concrete cover, thus reducing the health risk at the Osterode camp. An alleged improvement in the conditions with improved medical care and food provisioning and satisfactory sanitary facilities was supposed to make a significant improvement in the living conditions of the Roma. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) considered it a scandal

that the UNMIK administration and its partner organisation UNHCR abided by the transfer of the refugees to this camp and undertook no measures to move them into anon-contaminated area and treat them there.

The GfbV sent at the end of October 2005 one of the most renowned specialists for heavy metal poisoning, the medical scientist specialising in environmental matters, Klaus-Dietrich Runow, with a fact-finding mission to

Kosovo. Mr Runow took blood-samples and 66 hair-samples from the Roma in the camps. The lead values of the refugees exceeded in all hair-samples the permissible level by at least twenty times, in the case of several children 1200 times. In many samples there were very high cadmium and arsenicreadings.

The test results for lead in the capillary blood of the children in the remaining refugee camps, ("Osterode" and Česmin Lug/ Česmin Lukë ), by the Institute of Public Health in Kosovska Mitrovica (Zavod za javno zdravlje) proved to be highly disturbing. They confirmed the fears of the GfbV that the lead values would in the case of the children in the "Osterode" camp (children were tested up to the age of 16 years) lie far above the permissible level and so could have dangerous consequences for their health. This means that all 638 inmates of the camp, among them 324 children (217 of them younger than ten), continue to be exposed to a severe contamination with heavy metals.

The GfbV has drawn attention since 1999 to the extreme situation threatening the Roma and Ashkali living in the camps. The dangerous consequences of lead on the brain have been known for a long time. However it is only now that two US research-teams published in a longitudinal analysis in an on-line journal "PLoS Medicine" that a high lead concentration in the case of babies not only retards brain development, but increases the risk of violent behaviour in grown-ups. Lead attacks the nervous system and destroys it in the case of long time exposure. Children are the first ones to become ill when their blood is contaminated by lead. They remain retarded in their development, suffer from cramp-like attacks and constantly fall into a -sometimes fatal - coma. For adults also lead poisoning is very dangerous.

Experts from ATSDR and the WHO have proved that lead poisoning which lasts for a long period affects the functioning of the nerve system in such a way that a lead value of 10 to 12 microgrammes per decilitre of blood decreases the IQ by 2.6 points. Extreme lead poisoning can seriously damage the functions of brain and kidneys and cause miscarriages.

Experts of several health and environment organisations were aware of the danger in which Roma, Ashkali and "Egyptians" are situated and have spoken out for an immediate move of the camp residents as a first step towards avoiding the loss of a whole generation of young people.

These bitter facts are the background to the appeal of the GfbV to you for the immediate evacuation of the IDPs and the protection of the human rights of the Roma and Ashkali.

If prompt help is not forthcoming the EU and all those responsible for this tragic situation will be accused of acting in a careless and irresponsible way.

We would be grateful if you would inform us of your actions in ending this tragedy.