More than 200 villages and 41 Serb churches have been destroyed in Kosovo since Kfor peacekeepers entered the province in June, according to Bishop Atanasije Rakita, who has accused Albanians in Kosovo of "systematically destroying" Serb villages and places of worship.
"Serbs who stayed behind in Kosovo are being killed, tortured, kidnapped or mistreated" by ethnic Albanians, the bishop said, adding that "the most worrying aspect . . . is that these crimes are being committed in the presence of Kfor". Bishop Atanasije Rakita also told the daily newspaper Glas that more than 200 Serbian villages had been systematically destroyed in the southern Serbian province.
Asked if he saw any hope for Serbs in Kosovo, which they regard as the cradle of their culture, he replied: "The Serbs will gradually return to Kosovo, regardless of who controls it."
The flight of thousands of Serbs from Kosovo was a "tragic replay" of what happened during the forced exodus of ethnic Albanians months ago, the UNHCR's special envoy to the Balkans, Mr Dennis McNamara, said in Pristina.
He was speaking to journalists after returning from a two-day tour of the areas sheltering the Serbs, and from talks with Belgrade officials.
In one case, he said, the sight of a 90-year-old Serb grandmother crying about what happened to her life reminded him of an identical exchange between the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, and an elderly ethnic Albanian woman in Macedonia during the flight of refugees from Kosovo.
Some 120,000 Serbs have fled the province since the entry of the NATO-led Kfor peacekeepers on June 12th, leaving fewer than 50,000 Serbs in Kosovo, according to Mr McNamara.
Most of the Serbian "internally displaced persons" were living in cramped conditions with host families in Serbia proper, particularly in the central Kraljevo region. Some 30,000 of the Serbs from Kosovo were in camps, schools or community centres. Another 520,000 Serb refugees were already in Yugoslavia after fleeing the conflicts which earlier ravaged Bosnia and Croatia.
"A handful" of humanitarian organisations were looking after them all, compared to nearly 200 such organisations looking after the needy in Kosovo, he said. A German soldier protecting a Kosovo town was shot at early on Sunday but escaped injury thanks to his body armour, Kfor officals said in Pristina. The soldier came under fire when his patrol encountered three men armed with rifles and a grenade launcher about to attack the town of Zjum, near Pristina.