[AMCC-News] MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN STUDENTS IN POISONING SCARE (Balkan Crisis Report No. 391)

[Mentor Cana]

IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 391, December 16, 2002

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200211_391_1_eng.txt

MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN STUDENTS IN POISONING SCARE

Parents vow to keep their children away from two Kumanovo schools after
hundreds of pupils inexplicably fall ill.

By Laura Papraniku in Skopje

There are fears a mysterious poisoning scare in a north-eastern Macedonian
town could undermine country's delicate inter-ethnic balance.

More than 200 ethnic Albanian high school students - the majority of whom
are female - claim they have been poisoned in their Kumanovo schools.  But
a number of medical examinations have so far failed to pinpoint the cause.

For the past fortnight, hundreds of Albanian youngsters have been kept at
home by concerned parents, who are refusing to allow their children to
return to school until the matter is resolved.

Meanwhile, the Macedonian media has accused the students of pretending to
be ill to score political points.

The case has implications for Macedonia's sensitive ethnic balance, and
has prompted comment from members of the international community.

At a press conference held in Skopje on December 11, European Union
spokesperson Irena Guzelova and NATO's Mark Laity described the case as
"full of speculation".

On the same day, Wolfgang Greven, a spokesperson for the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, said this was a "typical example of
manipulation to raise tensions and to destroy the agreement for (the)
stabilisation of inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia".

The scare began on November 30, when 84 students from the Bajram Sabani
school were sent to Kumanovo hospital showing symptoms of poisoning. While
the majority were later sent home, 24 were admitted to the Skopje state
hospital's toxicology department for further treatment.

At first, it was believed that the students were suffering from food
poisoning contracted from a fast food stall.  But fours days later, a
number of pupils from the nearby Naim Frasheri high school also started to
complain that they'd been poisoned.

"In the classroom, we noticed a pleasant smell like a rose perfume," Ilire
Islami, one of the affected students, told IWPR.  She said that she began
to feel weak and dizzy, and passed out shortly after,  "I remember that I
was breathing heavier than normal."

Medical staff told IWPR that the students had mostly complained about
headaches, dizziness and painful stomach cramps as well as vision
impairment and psychological instability.

However, the medical examinations carried out on the youngsters showed no
evidence of poisoning.  "The students have had blood and urine analyses as
well as brain scans.  Poisoning could not be proved in any of the cases,"
said Dr Jordan Dzimrevski, director of the infectious diseases department
at Skopje medical faculty.

The last 15 Kumanovo students were released from the city hospital's
toxicology department after their condition was deemed to have improved.

But local parents are still looking for answers.  Lulzim Ahmeti told IWPR
that he will not allow his children Sadie and Adile to return to school
until the type of poison allegedly used - and the people responsible - are
discovered.

Parents are also demanding a meeting with representatives of the
education, health and interior ministries, claiming that no government
official visited their school during the scare.

"What has happened in Kumanovo is very mysterious," said health minister
Rexhep Selmani of the Albanian Democratic Union of Integration party.  He
told the media that a group of experts from the World Health Organisation
was expected to visit Macedonia this week and would investigate the
alleged poisoning incidents.

"While there have been no positive results from any of the tests carried
out on the students so far, it is not always possible to detect every kind
of chemical agent in Macedonia," Selmani added, referring to the country's
old-fashioned laboratory equipment.

This is not the first poisoning scare to affect the Albanian community.

In 1995 and 1996, 100 students from schools in Tetovo complained of
similar poisoning symptoms.  At the time, medical examinations failed to
establish the cause of their illness.

In Kosovo in the late Eighties, when tensions between Serbs and Albanians
were rising, thousands of Albanian schoolchildren suffered health problems
and alleged that they had been poisoned.  Again, medical examination
failed to support their claim.

To this day, the Albanians continue to insist that the pupils' symptoms
were genuine and that the Serbs were responsible, while the Serbs believe
the episode was invented by the Albanians for propaganda purposes.

Laura Papraniku is a journalist at the Albanian language newspaper Fakti
in Skopje