Budapest, Hungary. 

The European Roma Rights Centre filed today an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on behalf of 184 Romani residents of camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Kosovo.

Our letters to United Nations officials in Kosovo are having the desired effect! After six years of inaction, the U.N. mission in Kosovo just now opened a camp where 125 Roma families can live while awaiting construction of permanent housing. The Roma families are being relocated from three U.N.- administered camps for displaced persons, where they have been exposed to constant and severe lead contamination since 1999.

MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Kosovo Roma living in lead-contaminated camps since their homes were razed by Albanian mobs six years ago rejected an offer of temporary housing in a former French barracks on Monday.

The European Roma Rights Center sent a letter to the United Nations and Kosovo officials protesting the recent violence against the Roma by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The letter, which presents evidence documenting the destruction of approximately 70 Roma homes, urges authorities to investigate the violence and punish those responsible.