By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 22/07/11
More than 150,000 vehicles cross the Gazela Bridge a day. [File]
The Gazela Bridge, part of the European Corridor 10, is one of the major thoroughfares in Belgrade. It was built 40 years ago and has not been rebuilt or reinforced since.
As more than 150,000 vehicles cross it every day, some experts have warned that without reconstruction, the bridge could collapse.
The city administration took a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the reconstruction of the route, which many consider to be the main artery of Belgrade's road infrastructure. The entire project is worth about 60m euros.
However, the effort, which kicked off last year, has unexpectedly turned into a matter of human rights and of how much authorities are capable of abiding by international contracts.
For years, nearly 170 Roma families lived under the bridge in a slum without electricity and water. Authorities had to displace them in order for the bridge reconstruction to start.
As the money for the reconstruction was taken from the EIB, the government had to meet the bank's conditions regarding displaced families. But some of those conditions were too draining on the Serbian economy, which is facing economic crisis and unemployment topping 20%.
Andrea Colak, of the NGO Centre for Minority Rights, says the EIB's conditions for the displacement of families in the projects they finance are very clear.
"When displacement is carried out, the priority concern is the dignity of those who are to be displaced, adequate accommodation, especially if the groups in question have already been exposed to some form of discrimination," she told SETimes.
Thus it was planned for the Roma living under Gazela to be moved to solid material houses, as well as for adult family members to be given jobs and their children to be given free elementary education.
The Roma are now living in five Belgrade municipalities and Centre for Minority Rights representatives say that just 12 families have been given accommodation in newly built social apartments.
In early July, Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas told reporters that the payment of a 25m-euro installment of the EIB loan had been put in question, because the bank was dissatisfied with the situation regarding the Roma families.
Djilas said that because of that a loan would probably have to be taken from domestic banks, but added that Belgrade authorities did not plan to stop aiding the displaced families.
"We will continue to fight as much as we can for those fellow citizens of ours and to provide them with accommodation and education, but one cannot accept to grant someone -- who had taken up a portion of land -- 7.5 square meters of housing space per family member and jobs for all adults," Djilas said.
Zika Mitrovic of the Roma Heart NGO was a member of the co-ordinating body that worked on planning the resettlement of Roma families.
"Many are wrong in thinking that the focus is on the displacement of the Roma. But we can settle them in a five-star hotel, and yet we have not solved the problem of how those people will live and how they will get their education. That is why I think it is key to resolve the issue of employing and educating these people, so that they can become financially independent," Mitrovic told SETimes.
Source: SETimes.com
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