MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro — The United Nations authority here acknowledges it has failed to protect hundreds of Gypsies from lead poisoning, but it continues to resist immediate remedies, even though more than two dozen people may have died as a result of the health crisis.
“It is true that the internationals let this go on for too long,” said Laurie Wiseberg, the U.N. minority rights adviser in Kosovo, who reports to the head of mission, Soren Jessen-Petersen. “We should not have, and I think Soren Petersen has acknowledged that we haven’t moved fast enough on this.”
Despite this, the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continues to resist calls for quick action. Many aid agencies urge the immediate relocation of the Gypsies, or Roma as they prefer to be called, who were settled in refugee camps at the end of 1999 after Kosovo Albanians razed their homes during a bout of ethnic violence.
The three encampments were supposed to provide temporary shelter, for 45 days at most. But six years later, the displaced still live in the shadow of disused, industrial smelting operations, where, with every gust of wind, the big slag heaps sprinkle lead-laden dust on the camps.
The World Health Organization reported on the crisis last summer and has completed two further studies. An executive summary of the latest report, due out soon, says children, who make up about a third of the 500-plus refugees, are particularly at risk.
Lead poisoning rises
Among the WHO’s conclusions:
• In the Zitkovac Camp, 23 of 26 children under age 6 had lead levels greater than 65 micrograms per deciliter of blood, the highest level the on-site blood analyzer could register.
• Children suffering from acute lead poisoning, defined as above 70 micrograms per deciliter, don’t receive adequate medical care.
• Even the children with the lowest exposure have three times the permissible lead level in their blood, which is 10 micrograms per deciliter.
Dr. Rokho Kim, a WHO epidemiologist, visited the affected camps in February and contributed to the latest report. “Relocation is the only fundamental solution,” he said.
Four of Ashima Avdija’s eight children are suffering from life-threatening levels of lead poisoning. She wants to leave the Zitkovac Camp as soon as possible.
“The kids vomit, they walk like they’re drunk, and they are irritable,” said Mrs. Avdija outside her dilapidated home at the camp. “For the kids, it can never be good here.”
Paul Polansky, director of the Kosovo Roma Rights Foundation, has chronicled more than two dozen deaths in the camps. Though autopsies were not performed, he believes those under age 50 died of lead-related illnesses.
Among the victims was 4-year-old Djenita Mehmeti who died last summer. She was admitted to a Belgrade hospital with a blood lead level of 65 micrograms per deciliter, but was returned to the Zitkovac Camp and died a short time later.
Brain damage likely
“Every child conceived in these camps will have irreversible brain damage,” said Mr. Polansky. “If they don’t die by age of 4 or 5, they will be mentally retarded for the rest of their lives.”
UNMIK knew about the health hazard in 2000 when it confirmed the dangers, documenting lead in soil and locally grown food samples at more than 120 times acceptable levels. Further warnings came from a report by the French army health services, which found similar lead levels in the air, and a U.S. Army recommendation that NATO security forces limit the length of duty for soldiers serving in the area.
UNMIK responded to the report by doing virtually nothing, even though a U.N. resolution made it the ultimate authority in Kosovo until the province is able to administer itself, either as a semiautonomous region of Serbia or a sovereign state.
An ethnic flash point
Mitrovica, divided by the Ibar River, remains a flash point among Albanians in the south and Serbs and Roma in the north. Given the protracted ethnic tensions, aid agencies want UNMIK to separate the repatriation issue from the lead poisoning crisis.
But Miss Wiseberg continues to navigate a thicket of political, social and economic obstacles in the hope that 70 percent of the internally displaced persons will be able to return to their prewar homes across the river.
The Albanians insist that a housing project that was home to 8,000 Roma be rebuilt in three-story blocks, something the Roma, who have always lived in single-family dwellings, oppose. Miss Wiseberg’s plan, which she concedes is based on hope, is that if the rebuilding begins, the Roma will agree to move to the three-story buildings and donor concerns about funding the $10 million project will subside.
Feigning action
Meanwhile, critics say UNMIK is using a cosmetic makeover to create the impression it is taking action.
Since this spring, a UNMIK-backed plan has enabled the Danish Refugee Council to distribute low-fat milk and other calcium-rich foods to counter the lead poisoning. Kim Vetting, a project manager for the council, said such a program would be of little value unless the people were relocated.
“We are, basically, the scapegoat being put here for you [reporters] to say, ’Yes, but UNMIK is doing something,’ ” the project manager said.
Aid-givers at odds
Miss Wiseberg disagreed, insisting that dietary calcium intake will “absolutely” help reduce the lead levels in the Roma.
But Dr. Kim, the WHO epidemiologist, said calcium-rich foods alone are “not a solution to the problem at all.” Most of the Gypsy refugees have scant education and don’t understand much of the politics swirling around them. But they see the effects of UNMIK’s inaction.
“The children have lead poisoning,” said Dorija Hajdari, holding her 2-year-old son, Duskin. “At first it was 30 [micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood] and then it went up to 60. We would love to live in someplace clean — someplace where the children can go out and play.”
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