RIGHTS-SERBIA: A Million Children Live under Appalling Condition

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Sep 20 2001 (IPS) - About one million children in Serbia live under appalling condition, requiring attention from the authorities, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“Out of some 2.3 million children in Serbia, 850,000 live on ‘the verge of existence’, while 130,000 live in extreme poverty,” said UNICEF after a two-day seminar in Belgrade last weekend.

UNICEF surveyed the condition of children — under 18 years of age — in the first six months of 2001.

Boris Stajkovac, advisor to the minister for Social Affairs, said “being the most vulnerable part of population, Serbian children suffered the most” in the past ten years.

“Even if it could help, the state obviously had no money for any substantial initiative,” said UNICEF.

In the 1990s, under Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia went through hell, following its involvement in wars in neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia. Unable to persuade Milosevic to stop the war in the Balkans, the international community imposed sanctions, destroying Serbia’s once stable economy.

Serbia’s industry and infrastructure were destroyed in the 11 weeks of NATO air strikes. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombed Serbia after Milosevic refused to pull out of Kosovo.

Milosevic fell from power last October.

Now the new government in Serbia is campaigning to join the European Union (EU). “Serbia wants re-integration with Europe, but how can we do that when, in average, there is less than one personal computer per school, and 20 percent of children do not finish elementary education?” Stajkovac asked.

A quarter of children aged 11-14 already smoke, while a third of 15 year olds have tried alcohol, according to UNICEF. More than 70 percent of the 11-15-year age group had some contacts with drugs.

“Both the society and parents failed to bring up children properly,” psychologist Ivana Zdravkovic told IPS. “The society was living through the decay of values, while parents tried to earn a living doing odd jobs, leaving the children to fend for themselves.”

The Youth Council of Serbia, an organisation that almost ceased to exist in the 1990s, is being revived with the help of the new administration in Serbia.

Its task seems gigantic. “In 1991, one could not find a drug addict in small towns. During our recent survey in (central Serbian town of) Gornji Milanovac, we were shocked to discover that 10,000 out of 80,000 young people could be described as drug addicts,” said Vladimir Stojanovski of the Youth Council of Serbia.

According to UNICEF, the most affected are 9,000 orphans and some 147,000 handicapped children, who need special care.

Before UNICEF and European Union granted 15 million U.S. Dollars earlier this year, the 36 centres for orphans looked like “graves of living children” said Stajkovac. “The negligence was total – windowless rooms, no covers on beds, no medicines.”

“This country will have no future if it neglects its children, like it did in the previous decade,” sociologist Ljiljana Lucic said. “We had an exodus of 400,000 young and educated people in the 1990s, we can not allow that to happen again. Circumstances have to be created for children and youth to believe that they can stay here and enjoy a quality life.”

Foreign aid, totalling 25 million U.S. dollars, is needed for assisting young people until the end of the year, according to local experts.

Besides calls for donations in food, clothes and toys, there is a programme called “Friendship for Life”, dedicated to the orphans.

Under the programme, rich families may identify a child that they may assist, sponsor his or her textbooks, field trips or sport activities. The programme was created after the number of children adopted fell by half in the past decade.

Only 250 children were adopted in Serbia last year, according to UNICEF.