"When we returned here two years ago, we received many promises, almost none of which have been kept. Except for newly built houses on the foundations of our old ones, we have received little else. And we have less safety than anything else. The village has come under gunfire repeatedly, we live in a completely Albanian environment, and without the protection of the Italian soldiers who escort us we do not dare leave the village. Another big problem for us is that we have been largely forgotten," Stojan Doncic of Bicha tells "Novosti" and continues:
"Most of the younger people have already evacuated their children to Serbia proper. All that remains is a few old people whom we have left food so they can survive. While the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija was operational, we received humanitarian aid once a month. Now those responsibilities have been transferred to the government and the aid is not arriving. On the feast of St. Demetrios (Nov. 8) we conveyed our disappointment and bitterness to representatives of UNMIK and Kfor, and the administration of Klina municipality, and we announced our collective departure.
The situation is hardly better in neighboring Grabac.
"Our biggest problem is heating fuel. Even if we had money we could not purchase it because those Albanians who would be willing to sell to us dare not do so because of their extremist compatriots. We have barely enough food left for the next few days. We have firmly decided that if Bica leaves, we go with them. We have to get back to Serbia proper. We know that once there we will end up in collective [refugee] centers. But at least we won't die of cold and hunger there," says Radonja Magic, representative of the village of Grabac.
The return to Bica and Grabac two years ago was hailed as a pilot program for the return of displaced persons to Kosovo and Metohija. Apparently, it has failed the first test because it appears that the 79 homes that have been rebuilt here are going to be left empty. No one living in them had a job. They did not dare to farm their own land and even less to venture into their own nearby woods to fetch firewood.