Some Serb refugees have no choice but to sleep outdoors in a city park with no shelter or sanitation VIDEO Now that Kosovo's Albanians have returned to their homes, CNN's Matthew Chance says Serbs have become refugees. Windows Media 28K 80K

'Can't the international community do more?'

August 31, 1999
Web posted at: 7:21 p.m. EDT (2321 GMT)

From Correspondent Matthew Chance

KRALJEVO, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Displaced from their homes in Kosovo and now existing as unwanted refugees in their own country, more than 300 Serbs and non-Albanian Kosovars have been crammed here together for three months amid complaints of poor sanitation and scarce humanitarian supplies.

They are among some 170,000 Kosovar Serbs who have fled the province since the end of the war and now live lives of desperation.

"Albanians from Kosovo get all the attention, but we are just ignored," says one refugee. "We are not evil people. We don't deserve to be treated like this. So why can't the international community do more?"

At a primary school turned makeshift refugee camp here in central Serbia's Kraljevo, conditions are poor and steadily deteriorating.

As if things were not bad enough for these people, the authorities now say they need this school building back so the local children can start their new school term.

With no alternatives offered, and too frightened to return to their homes in Kosovo, the refugees say simply they have no choice but to stay. That angers local parents.

City authorities blame the central government for inaction, saying Kosovar Serb refugees have become a liability for Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

More than 300 Serbs and non-Albanian Kosovars have been living crammed together, afraid to return to their homes in Kosovo

"Milosevic is afraid of those people. They are (resigned). They are very angry, very frustrated for losing everything they have. They feel all consequences of the Milosevic policy," Kraljevo City Council President Zvonko Obradovic says.

Sleeping in city park

Some Serbs are paying a high price.

Forced out of the schools, some refugees are now sleeping outdoors in a city park just a few kilometers away.

In the park, there is no shelter from the weather, no sanitation -- just thoughts of survival.

"I'm so worried about the approaching winter," a refugee says. "Things will get worse for us. I dread to think what will happen to the children."

The youngest among them may seem blissfully unaware of what lies ahead, but most of the adults know only too well that the first snowfall is only two months away.

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