Despite a slowdown in refugee returns, the Kosovo government said it is working to help those who were displaced in coming home.

Kosovo's bad economy, the absence of housing assistance projects and, at times, threats of violence, have all been factors in preventing returns. But, according to Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, the government will continue to offer financial support for initiatives for the return and reintegration of the minorities.

Summary: In September 2012 heavy rains and storms affected the refugee camp Konik I in Montenegro, near the city of Podgorica. Five tents collapsed completely and all the others were flooded, thereby damaging the personal belongings of the residents. As a result of the flooding, the living conditions in the camp worsened as the previously distributed blankets, mattresses, kitchen utensils, clothes etc. were destroyed by water or were washed away, leaving the population of the camp even worse off than after the fire that happened in July 2012.

15 January 2013

The fifteenth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review Working Group will be held in Geneva from 21 January to 1 February during which the next group of 14 States are scheduled to have their human rights records examined under this mechanism.

By Benoist Matsha-Carpentier in Montenegro

1999, Kosovo. The country has been in war for several years and recent attacks in the countryside have forced thousands of people to flee their country, seeking refuge in what was still at the time the country of Serbia and Montenegro.

GA/11301

Sixty-seventh General Assembly
Plenary
24th Meeting (AM)

Tribunals Helped Forge New Culture of International Accountability; Residual Mechanism Needs Adequate Resources to Preserve Legacy, Speakers Say

OVERVIEW

Natural hazards such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, wildfires, and extreme winter weather affect a range of countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia (EMCA). In addition, rapid urban growth and environmental degradation in some countries have led to overcrowding and settlement in hazard-prone areas. Protracted conflict and limited governmental disaster management capacity in many EMCA countries compound the risks associated with natural disasters.

Posted by Angela Rucker, USAID FrontLines

Read the latest edition of USAID’s FrontLines to learn more about how the Agency is engaging youth around the world and how it is embracing mobile technology. Some highlights:

Balkans: Thousands still missing two decades after conflicts

If I could know where my son Albion is, and if I could bury him and put a flower on his grave and I would be in a better place

Nesrete Kumnova, from Kosovo whose son’s body is believed to be among those transported to Serbia, and reburied there, during the 1999 conflict.

Some 14,000 people remain unaccounted for in the countries that make up the former Yugoslavia – nearly half of the total number who disappeared in the decade since war broke out in 1991.

07/25/2012 13:23 GMT

by Olivera Nikolic

PODGORICA, July 25, 2012 (AFP) - Some 800 Kosovo Roma, including children, were left homeless after a fire tore through a shantytown refugee camp on the outskirts of the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, officials said Wednesday.

No one was hurt and it is not clear what started the blaze in the camp, where the Council of Europe in February described living conditions as "inhuman and hazardous".

The fire broke out early Tuesday and quickly reduced the camp, which consisted of some 40 wooded shacks, to ashes.