July 05, 2007 8:16 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -Piles of garbage, dirt and mud are everywhere. There is no running water, no electricity. Yet, Mica Tulipovic and his family have no other home.

"Rats here are as big as cats!" the 37-year-old man tells a visitor. "This is no life."

The Tulipovics, Mica, his wife, Biljana, and their six children, aged 2-13, are among tens of thousands of Gypsies, or Roma, living in the Belgrade slums, or "the cardboard settlements," as they are called here.

The Gypsies, one of Europe's most segregated and neglected ethnic groups, are the sole residents of these makeshift enclaves, perched alongside fancy hotels or first-class residential complexes in the Serbian capital. The Belgraders mostly turn their heads from these settlements, regarding them as "tumors" in the body of their city.

What's worse, the enclaves are targeted by skinheads and other extremists who often come in the middle of the night to attack the slums' beleaguered residents.

The Gypsies have occasionally organized their own guards and nightwatch to defend themselves since there has been no systematic response from the state to protect the slums, despite pledges by the police to hunt down the attackers.

"This is true hardship," Tulipovic says. "I just wish it would end sometime."

The deplorable situation of the Belgrade Gypsies has come into focus recently as Serbia strives to reconnect with mainstream Europe following years of wars and international isolation.

There are no exact figures for the number of Gypsies living in Serbia. The numbers vary from 100,000 to 500,000, as the Gypsies often stay out of the system, failing to register themselves or their children.

As part of pro-Western reform, the Serbian government approved a national strategy in 2005 to integrate its Gypsies into the society and provide for their basic needs, such as health and social services. Earlier this year, a Roma representative was elected in the Serbian parliament, in what is considered a significant step in the community's efforts at better positions in the society.

Tulipovic says all this means little to those most in need.

"We don't have money for anything, we pick food from garbage containers, we fight the rats during the night," he goes on. "This is no life."

One look at Tulipovic's "house" says it all. It consists of pieces of tin, old carpets, cardboard or anything that can be put up to serve as a wall or a ceiling.

On the floor, directly on the sticky black mud, are more old carpets, a stove, stinky mattresses that serve as beds for the kids and the rest of the family. Nearby, naked children play in the dirt amid a swirl of flies hovering above piles of garbage.

Dogs and cats roam around. A man is making a pitiful attempt to clean around his "home" with an old broom. A child comes running, holding a ragtag toy.

"Who are you?" the black-eyed girl asks, unaccustomed to visitors. "Would you like to sit down with us?"

Her name is Serijana, and she is 10. Like many Gypsy children, Serijana does not go to school, does not know how to write or read. Together with her parents, Serijana picks up leftovers from garbage containers to survive, or sells old paper.

"We are waiting," her father, Ilija Jovanovic, 40, says. "You all know we are here, why don't you help us?"

The Belgrade city authorities in the past have tried to move the Gypsies from some of the slums to other residential areas, but have faced strong protest from local residents rejecting the Gypsy company in their neighborhoods.

The conflict triggered criticism from human rights organizations, amid warnings by the Roma groups that such segregated lives deprived their people of basic rights, such as those to health service or education.

Dr. Oliver Petrovic, from the UNICEF mission in Belgrade, agreed that the position of the Gypsies in the slums, particularly the children, was alarming.

Petrovic said that a UNICEF study, conducted in 2005-2006 on about 10,000 women and children from the settlements, showed that most of the Gypsy children suffered from "chronic malnutrition," which leads to bad health and "three times higher mortality rate than the national average."

About 80 percent of the Gypsy children enroll in the obligatory primary schools, but only 20 percent actually graduate, Petrovic said, adding that the Gypsy children "slip out" along the way, a trend that must be halted.

"We must stop that vicious circle," he said. "It is all tied to their lack of education, their ignorance."

Back in the slum, Mica Tulipovic says he does not have the money to buy books and proper clothes for his children to go to school. And he fears his children will face rejection by other children and teachers, who often treat the Gypsies as outcasts.

"There is nothing I want more than to live normally and have my children go to school so they can become clever," his wife adds.

But with a ramshackle shelter and not so much as a good meal in their bellies, what hope is there for a better life?