From the initial 180,000-200,000 Serbian inhabitants, only 30,000 remain. Every day between three and five persons are killed. In the first two months of the NATO occupation 250 died. That is far more than the number of casualties in the weeks before the NATO war began. However, when one carefully examines the reports from the various regions of Kosovo a very different picture emerges.
Ethnic motives are in many cases just an excuse for a ruthless re-division of property.
Returning refugees who have been rendered homeless claim homes once owned by Serbs, and evict the occupants by force. Albanians who were once evicted from apartments by Serb courts are now returning to reclaim their former homes from the Serb beneficiaries of the court rulings, only to find that another Albanian family got there first. The struggle for the flats and houses is no longer an issue of securing a roof over one's head. It has become a lucrative business. Even more profitable is the renting of flats and houses to NATO military personnel, members of the NATO-UN administration and relief agency workers.