A place to call home: the resettlement of refugees in Serbia and Montenegro.

• Author: Washenfelder, Chantelle
• Position: Feature Report on Canadian Lawyers Abroad

"Happy is the country that has no history."--Anonymous

The experience of Serbia and Montenegro shows this truth. The Balkans have been the political fault line of Europe where the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires faced off, major battles of the World Wars were fought and the Iron Curtain fell. Against this backdrop, the former Yugoslavia disintegrated, atrocities were committed on a scale unseen in Europe since World War Two and hundreds of thousands were forced from their homes.

Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro emerged from the conflict as a tenuous state-union with a failing economy and crumbling infrastructure. While joined in one country, Serbia and Montenegro have different laws on many issues and use different currencies. Montenegro's upcoming referendum on separation will decide the future of the union.

While the referendum is important, the negotiations over the province of Kosovo will determine whether the country disintegrates into conflict once more. In 1999, former President Milosevic was forced to pull out of Kosovo and the United Nations (UN) has governed ever since. Negotiations are currently being held to determine Kosovo's future status. The province is divided between ethnic Albanians who want independence and ethnic Serbs who want to remain within Serbia, and negotiations are further complicated by the province's historic and religious significance for Serbia.

Interning in Serbia

On September 2, 2005, I arrived in Belgrade, Serbia, to work with Group 484 for six months as an intern supported by the Canadian government. Group 484 was founded in 1995 by local people who wanted to respond to the influx of refugees from Croatia. A small staff provided legal, psychosocial and humanitarian assistance to 484 families. As the situation evolved for the refugees from the former Yugoslavia

and violence erupted again in Kosovo in 2004, the activities of Group 484 have changed and now include a significant focus on policy and advocacy. My task was to provide assistance to the policy unit because of my legal training. After facing nearly a decade of international isolation, Serbia and Montenegro is undertaking an unprecedented period of legal reform while negotiating agreements for stabilization and association with the European Union (EU).

One of the first things I noticed after arriving in Belgrade was the number of Yugo cars still on the road. Yugos were made by Zastava in Kragujevac, Serbia, the site of a massacre in...