ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, August 22, 2004

Certain Belgrade news agencies and other media yesterday disseminated information that the Diocese of Raska and Prizren Info Services has denied that the Kosovo Government rebuilt 24 houses in Belo Polje near Pec.

The editors of the ERP KIM Info Service wish to inform the public at this time that it was not a denial but a request in the form of a letter to selected Serbian media for verification of information. The request was issued with regard to information which the ERP KIM Info Service in Gracanica received from Serbs in Belo Polje, according to which Vukman Arsenijevic, who was shown on Radio Television Kosovo on August 21 receiving the keys of a rebuilt home and kissing the hand of minister Bexhet Brajshori (sic!), is in fact not the owner of the rebuilt home and appeared in Kosovo only a few days ago to visit his relatives. This information was given to the ERP KIM Info-service by his son in a telephone conversation. Since the information regarding renewal of 25 Serb homes in Belo Polje needed to be fully verified, the Diocese of Raska and Prizren Info Service did not publicize it nor can it be considered the final position of the ERP KIM Info Service. An official statement was not issued due to lack of verified information.

The ERP KIM Info Service, therefore, called on the Serbian language media to establish direct contact with the Serbs in Belo Polje in order to verify this news and all the circumstances regarding "the house of Vukman Arsenijevic" and other houses in Belo Polje. The Info Service issued no official communiqué bearing the logo of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren to its regular distribution list.

Two nights ago the ERP KIM Info Service published news from UNMIK stating that in at least three houses in Belo Polje electrical cabling had been cut and water heaters and bathroom fixtures removed, as well as that the renewed community centers in Siga and Brestovik were damaged, which was confirmed by Anthony Thomson, the UNMIK representative for Pec municipality.

Since contradictory information is appearing in Albanian and Serbian media regarding the rebuilding of Serbian houses destroyed during the March violence, we believe that it is very important that official representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo institutions provide verified information and the official number of houses that have been rebuilt after March violence in Kosovo.