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List: KAN-LNo subjectowner-kan-l at alb-net.com owner-kan-l at alb-net.comTue May 4 15:04:12 EDT 1999
[168.143.190.239]) by alb-net.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA03699; Tue, 4 May 1999 13:18:35 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtp-gw.vma.verio.net ([168.143.0.18]) by smtp-out.vma.verio.net with esmtp (Exim 2.10 #1) id 10einp-0004jj-00; Tue, 4 May 1999 13:16:17 -0400 Received: from bking.clark.net (bking.clark.net [168.143.0.150]) by smtp-gw.vma.verio.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA12434; Tue, 4 May 1999 13:18:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from majordom at localhost) by bking.clark.net (8.9.3/8.9.3/Debian/GNU) id NAA00487 for kosovo-list; Tue, 4 May 1999 13:14:51 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: bking.clark.net: majordom set sender to owner-women at wyrdwright.com using -f Received: from localhost (advocacy at localhost) by bking.clark.net (8.9.3/8.9.3/Debian/GNU) with SMTP id NAA00472 for <kosovo at lists.advocacynet.org>; Tue, 4 May 1999 13:14:12 -0400 Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 13:14:11 -0400 (EDT) From: The Advocacy Project <advocacy at lists.advocacynet.org> X-Sender: advocacy at bking.clark.net To: kosovo at lists.advocacynet.org Subject: [kan-l] OTR -- Kosovo Internet Monitor, Issue 1 Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.990504131211.469A-100000 at bking.clark.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from QUOTED-PRINTABLE to 8bit by bking.clark.net id NAA00483 Sender: owner-kan-l at alb-net.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: kan-l at alb-net.com **** Kosova Action Network Discussion List **** ====================================================================== ON THE RECORD: //Kosovo Internet Monitor//---------- ====================================================================== Your electronic link to civil society and the Kosovo crisis. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 6, Issue 1 -- May 4, 1999 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this issue: * Albanian Civil Society Survives Amidst the Carnage * Albanian Doctor and Student Activist Reportedly Disappears in Pristina * Civil SocietyÕs Three Answers -- Local and International * Kosovar Civil Society * The Roma -- Before the War * The Roma -- Since the Destruction of Kosova * Macedonia * Kosovar Media * Albania * Host Families -- UNHCR * Information Technology * International Support for Local NGOs ====================================================================== From the Editorial Desk ====================================================================== Albanian Civil Society Survives Amidst the Carnage by Teresa Crawford In March of 1998, six Americans traveled to Pristina, Kosovo at the invitation of the Independent Student Union of the University of Prishtina (USUP). I was part of that group. Our mission was to work with the students in their efforts to expand and extend their active nonviolent campaign. In the course of our stay, we met with ethnic Albanians and Serbs of Kosova, and began to develop a picture of their life in the province. After almost two weeks, we were arrested by Serbian authorities for failing to register with the police. We were tried, and then sentenced to ten days in prison. We were pardoned by President Milan Milutinovic after serving three days and were deported to Skopje, Macedonia. For me, the worst part of the experience was not being able to say goodbye. Upon our release, I was picked up from my prison in Lipjan, about 13 km outside Pristina. Lipjan is on the way to the Macedonian border. The men had already been collected from their prison in Pristina. We were driven to the border, given back our passports, with stamps inside forbidding re-entry for three years, and told to walk across no man's land to the Macedonian side. The people we met and the family we stayed with had opened their hearts and their homes to us. I did not get to say goodbye. I have strong memories of our all-too-brief stay. I have never had that much Turkish tea or coffee to drink in my entire life. We went from house to house, hearing story after story of the parallel society that had been created by ethnic Albanians. This involved ingenuity and creativity. The methods they used to survive did not happen in a vacuum. Kosovar Serbs employed many methods to survive in Kosovo also. I remember a Kosovar Serb restaurant owner -- a former Communist party official who had been fired from his job for speaking out when Belgrade revoked KosovoÕs authority in 1989. He opened a restaurant and employed people from all ethnic groups and used this as a legitimate front to smuggle gasoline, which he sold on the black market. Or the Kosovar Albanian professor in the technical faculty at the "parallel university," who devised a double-booking system of accounting which allowed Albanian businesses to hide their true assets from the Belgrade authorities, and so avoid taxation. Belgrade had levied steep taxes and fines on the Albanians when they declared an "independent" government in Kosovo, and the businesses were also paying taxes to the LDK (Democratic League of Kosova) to sustain the parallel institutions. So anything that kept their real assets hidden helped to support their parallel state. What they were able to accomplish individually was matched by what they were able to achieve collectively. The parallel political, medical and education systems were supposed to be temporary: an interim step to a political solution. But for ten years they served the needs of approximately 2 million people. This figure does not include those Kosovar Serb and Roma who received help from some of these parallel organizations. (for an expanded article on some of these structures, see Prof. Julie Mertus, Remembering Kosovo, <www.law.onu.edu/organizations/international/kosovo.htm>) These autonomous structures were developed by ordinary people, even if they were funded, in large part, by the Diaspora community. It meant that Kosovars began to see themselves in a democratic political environment. This helped to change the demands for a restoration of autonomy into one of independence. It was a crucial shift, although Ibrahim RugovaÕs passive non-violence was receiving much more attention -- and praise -- internationally. The crackdown against the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) in Drenica in early March was another catalyst. It served up images of dead women and children, and prompted many in the cities to affirm that they, too. were KLA. The province of Kosovo has always been a contentious space within the Yugoslav federation. Kosovo was an autonomous province under the Yugoslav Constitution of 1974, and it differed from the other provinces of Yugoslavia in that it could not secede from the state. During the late 1970Õs, demographic changes continued a trend that began in the decade following World War II. The ratio of Albanians to Serbs in Kosovo has gone from approximately 6 to 4 following World War II, to todayÕs ratio of 9 to 1. During the 1970Õs and 80Õs, Serbs submitted many concerns to the federal government about their safety amidst a growing Albanian population. In 1981, a series of large Albanian demonstrations against the Yugoslav government encompassed the entire Albanian community and made demands such as greater autonomy and better living conditions for Kosovo. The Yugoslav government reacted to these demonstrations with violence and heightened security measures. Meanwhile, Serb grievances to the federal government continued in the 1980Õs, until present-day Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic finally embraced their concerns in 1987. Milosevic was the first politician from Belgrade to acknowledge Serb grievances since the 1960Õs. He addressed their concerns by revoking the autonomy of Kosovo, a move met by support from most politicians in Belgrade. During and after the war in Bosnia he began to move in Serbian refugees from the Krajina, many against their will, to Kosovo in an attempt to reverse the ethnic make-up of the region. Of the six of us arrested last year in Kosovo all have continued our work on behalf of the Kosovars and somehow stayed connected to the region. Peter Lippman is writing for The Advocacy Project in Bosnia. His series of profiles on returning refugees will start going out to subscribers within the next few days. As for me, I have been moderating the Kosova Action Network distribution list, KAN-L on the <www.alb-net.com> server. This has meant that I get to see many emails about Kosovo, and people have been sending me fascinating notes about work they are doing or questions they need help answering. Whether it is "Shani" in San Francisco telling me about a Roma group in Skopje, or "Tova" telling me about a trip for Crabgrass, these messages display a deep commitment to a free Kosovo and an understanding of what it will take to achieve that. They also demonstrate that the spirit and courage which created that parallel society in Kosovo is still alive and well in the new Albanian Diaspora, and even the refugee camps. It has not been destroyed, in spite of the brutal events of the last month. We are learning of women helping other women. There is the woman who was blocked at the border for 24 hours before being able to leave Kosovo. Once in Macedonia, she contacted the local Macedonian Albanian Women's Organization. Within days, they had a clinic open. There are the two women from the United States, who rescued another woman's 84-year-old mother-in-law from the camps and paid for the rent of a clinic with money collected in the United States. There is the group of former women journalists who are organizing to go out and interview refugees in private homes in the south of Macedonia, and sell their stories to news services to avoid becoming dependent. There is the man in Tirana who is helping women organize within the National Albanian Farmers Union. There is the 24-year-old Albanian-American woman who (with her father) has started the "Kosova Humanitarian Aid Organization" and is sending two teams to Macedonia and Albania to distribute aid and register the names of refugees a database. Then there is "Women 4 Women," an organization that originally started working with women in Bosnia, and is now opening an office in Tirana. The Advocacy Project has decided to start issuing excerpts of this email traffic to our subscribers in the form of our Electronic newsletter (E-letter), On the Record. The Advocacy Project was established last year to help civil society with information. This, combined with the personal involvement of two of our members in Kosovo, makes this entirely consistent with our work. We hope you agree. This first issue starts with the disturbing news that Dr. Flora Brovina, a well known female activist in Kosovo, has been kidnapped from the apartment where she lived in Pristina and Albin Kurti, former leader of UPSUP and former secretary of Adem Demaci, was arrested in Pristina along with his father and two younger brothers -- proof of the terror that has been wrought against civil society in Kosovo. But it also illustrates the dynamism and determination of Albanian Kosovo. One can only be both inspired and appalled by what is taking place in the Balkans. The first issues will focus on civil society in the regions most affected by the influx of large numbers of refugees. The coverage will gradually be extended to areas, which have received less coverage in the mainstream media, such as Montenegro, Bosnia, Turkey, and other countries that have accepted refugees over the last year. We have also received reports of the work of civil society within Serbia and Montenegro itself. To the extent possible, we will also feature their reports, although there is a risk that too much publicity could make them more vulnerable to repression. They could be in acute danger if Milosevic is still in power once this conflict ends. Among the subjects to be covered: Albanian Civil Society; Macedonian Civil Society; Kosovar Civil Society reconstructed; Refugee centers in Montenegro, Bosnia, and Turkey; Serbian Civil Society; the response of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (this will include supporters like the Platform for Kosova, KHAO, Balkan Sunflowers, and the nongovernmental aid agencies that are members of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), a partner of The Advocacy Project); the international community (UNHCR, other UN agencies, NATO, and the OSCE); Women and children; the plight of the Roma; and possibilities for using the new information Technology. Teresa Crawford is a founding member of The Advocacy Project. She was among a group of peaceworkers arrested in Kosovo, by the Serbian authorities in the spring of 1998. ====================================================================== THIS LIMITED EDITION WILL BE SENT OUT PERIODICALLY IN THE WEEKS AHEAD. TO SUBSCRIBE send an email to: majordomo at lists.advocacynet.org with the words (in the message body): subscribe kosovo You will receive a confirmation notice shortly thereafter. The Project plans a second, more detailed phase of this work, beginning in May. Once we secure funding, we will conduct a detailed on-site profile of civil society efforts in the camps, in Albania, and Macedonia. The format will be similar to other issues of On the Record, in which we have mixed profiles with information. The series will conclude with a longer report and recommendations for donors. We hope that we will be able to provide additional information in subsequent issues about the progress and work of the groups mentioned in this first issue. Future issues of On the Record focusing on Civil Society and the Kosovo crisis will be issued as new reports are gathered. Back issues will be posted to our website <www.advocacynet.org>. Please feel free to forward interesting emails and postings about civil society and how it is organizing in the region. Additional contact information may be available for some of these groups and initiatives such as addresses, bank account information etc. Please contact <advocacy at advocacynet.org> if you are interested in more information. ====================================================================== ACTION ALERT ====================================================================== ALBANIAN DOCTOR AND STUDENT ACTIVIST REPORTEDLY DISAPPEARS IN PRISTINA According to Kosovapress, which is linked to the KLA, Dr. Flora Brovina, a well-known doctor and civil society leader in Kosovo, was kidnapped on April 22 in the ward known as Aktash, Pristina. Dr. Brovina was renowned for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of civilians. No further details are available, and the report has not been independently confirmed. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade issued the following report of Albin Kurti's arrest. On 28 April 1999, Albin Kurti, the former leader of the Albanian Students Union and spokesman to the former political representative of the KLA, was arrested in Pristina. Adem Demaqi. Albin's father and an official with the Kosova Parliamentary Party, was also arrested at this time, as well as Albin's two brothers, Nazmi Zeka, the owner of the house where the Kurtis were temporarily residing, and Nazmis son. Witnesses claim that the arrest was conducted in an extremely brutal manner. Twenty-four hours later, Albin's fifteen-year old brother and Nazmi Zeka were released; they both had visible signs of beating. The day before Albin Kurti was arrested, on 27 April 1999, the brother of a prominent soccer player Fadil Vokrri, Adil, was arrested. No information has been available about the destiny of the arrested persons. On 25 April 1999, Adem Demaqi was taken in for questioning. According to his account, he had been interrogated for two hours in relation to his attitudes towards the solution to the Kosovo issue. There are other developments in Pristina, which cause a feeling of insecurity among the remaining Albanians. The police make rounds visiting homes and compiling lists of Albanians with permanent residence in Pristina and refugees staying with them. A number of Serb shopkeepers refuse to sell their goods to Albanians. There are only a few Albanians in Pristina whose telephone lines have not been cut off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CIVIL SOCIETYÕS THREE ANSWERS -- LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL Our Internet traffic reveals three broad responses by civil society towards the crisis in Kosova. First, there has been the traditional aid agencies, coordinated by either UNHCR in Macedonia or NATO troops in Albania. They are trying to help the refugees, and like everyone involved in humanitarian aid, they have struggled with the immense numbers and isolated crossing points -- particularly in Northeast Albania. They have also been hampered by the ambivalence, and hostility, of the Macedonian authorities who refused to allow agencies access to some of the camps and communities housing large numbers of refugees. The Macedonians also moved thousands of refugees out to Albania and even Turkey under cover of night. No sooner is the humanitarian situation stabilized in one region, than another exodus is reported elsewhere. Montenegro -- which together with Serbia makes up the rump of Yugoslavia -- has received less aid and attention from the agencies, although aid could help to stabilize the delicate political situation there. The Montenegran police are loyal to President Dukanovic, but the army garrisoned there supports Belgrade. A second response has come from the international community in the form of ordinary citizens spurred by images in the media, or by local Albanian communities. They have rallied. One example of this is a large aid convoy, organized by the Platform for Kosova, which was scheduled to leave the United Kingdom on April 20 with aid for Kosovo. It was planning to pick up cars, vans and trucks along the way before trying to enter Kosovo itself. A third response has been underreported on by mainstream media. These are grassroots organizations in the region that are struggling for survival. Reports of their work has come through mostly via email on interconnected networks around the world. Like other major humanitarian crises, this one is also creating its own civil society. At present, the efforts are spontaneous, and individual. But this will inevitably evolve into something more systematic. Fron Nazi in Tirana reflects the sentiments of many in arguing that the generosity of ordinary Albanians in helping the Kosovo refugees contrasts starkly with the official complacency: "Fatmira Kruda is a cleaner with five children. Fatos Lubonja, is a writer and former dissident. Fatmira has taken in ten Kosovo refugees. Fatos has opened his home to 17 members of the Kryeziu family from Prizren. Fatmira's and Fatos's generosity is typical of the way in which ordinary Albanians throughout Europe's poorest country are rallying to help their ethnic kin fleeing Kosovo. This "spontaneous solidarity" as Fatos calls it, contrasts with official complacency in the face of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, a state of affairs for which Albanians have a proverb: 'Share your poverty but not your wealth.'" (from Taking Care of Their Own. In IWPR's Balkan Crisis Report, No. 19, April 14, 1999 contact: Anthony Borden <tony at iwpr.net>. website: <www.iwpr.net>) Where is civil society in Albania, in Macedonia? Where has KosovoÕs unique civil society gone -- has it disappeared completely in the destruction and killing? We hear very little about either. Yet the ability of ordinary Albanians to deal with the influx of refugees into local homes will make a crucial difference in their own communities as well as save lives. If anything does survive of KosovoÕs parallel society, it could provide the backbone for reconstruction. The work of women is especially significant in this traditionally patriarchal region. The Macedonian League of Albanian women is being mobilized to help activists from Kosovo. The Albanian Farmers League has a strong women's component. How are they mobilizing in a largely Muslim and traditionally patriarchal society? Macedonia alone has absorbed almost 150,000 refugees in the last few weeks, and that number excludes those who fled Kosovo over the last year. This has upset the fragile ethnic balance in Macedonia. Even before the influx there were disputes over census figures, and registration of the Albanian-language University of Tetovo. But the coalition government is still intact, for now. This could change if the situation gets worse, or drags on endlessly. There are estimated to be 60,000 refugees staying with 10,000 host families in Macedonia, and many local NGOs are trying to get aid to them and establish a registry. There are approximately 90,000 more in camps. Albania has absorbed approximately 360,000 refugees with large numbers of those going into private homes or dispersed quickly from Kukes to the safer southern region closer to Tirana. This burden has been borne quickly and without a lot of fanfare as NATO has been invited in. The OSCE has beefed up its presence, and a few aid agencies have ventured to the unsafe North. The border camps and villages are now at risk as Yugoslav shelling has invaded Albanian territory. Civil society tradition in Kosovo has historically been weak. But over the last 10 years a dense network of groups has formed. This has been helped by access to information technology, the break with traditional state structures and the development of a parallel society. Yet there has never been a clear separation between the local parallel government and civil society, or between the media and activists. For example, the LDK (ruling political party) in Kosova monitored human rights abuses against its own members, and issued reports. Koha Ditore, the main Albanian-language paper in Pristina, issued scathing editorials not just against the regime in Belgrade but the LDK. These criticized President RugovaÕs "obstructionist" policies aimed at the groups who called for more active non-violence in the wake of the Drenica massacre. The Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF), in Pristina, also catalogued abuses from their wide network of people in the villages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KOSOVAR CIVIL SOCIETY The Center for the Protection of Women and Children, co-founded by Dr. Vjosa Dobruna in Pristina, Kosovo, has been developing links with the international community for years. International grassroots support of her work and the Center has taken the form of money, publicity and even boxes of vitamins. A few days ago she got out of Pristina. After a difficult 24 hours sitting in a car waiting to cross the border, she has re-opened her Center in Tetova, Macedonia along with several of her former workers. Crabgrass, a women's NGO in San Francisco, CA has worked with the Center in the past. They have sent two people to Macedonia and Albania to see where help is needed. They paid half the first month's rent for the Center. They refer to themselves as "deportees," and the lucky ones who got to the border before it was closed. Vjosa is a mover and shaker -- already she had the local Macedonian League of Albanian Women looking for a new "Center for the Protection of Women and Children", and after our talk we went to see the building - excellent, with room for medical exams, a kitchen, a meeting room for support groups and trauma counseling, etc. We were able to come up with the down payment on the spot -- 500 German Marks. The rent will be 1000 DM/month for a huge space. The building has a patio for psychosocial meetings, and will have two examining rooms inside. It's across the street from a big, beautiful mosque. Vjosa has asked for people who can train local women in counseling, listening, and working with trauma to come to Tetova immediately. One trauma counselor from Croatia who speaks Serbo-Croatian is on her way. (reports made available by Crabgrass, an NGO-based in San Francisco that has done extensive work in the Balkans. Contact: <crabgrass at igc.org>; website: <www.crabgrass.org>. To contact Vjosa Dobruna and the Center for the Protection of Women and Children directly in Tetova phone: 389-91-630-578) One task groups like Vjosa's are undertaking is going door to door in Tetova visiting refugees staying with host families. Often 25 to a house; some times as many as 56. She and Aferdita Kelmendi, co-founder of the Media Project, a group that trained teenage girls in conflict resolution skills and journalism in Pristina, recently visited the US speaking with people in Washington and with the Albanian-American community who are starved for information from their friends and family in Kosovo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ROMA -- BEFORE THE WAR The Roma were among the hidden victims of the pre-war struggle in Kosovo, which invariably pitted Serbs against Albanians. Even the population statistics made the Roma largely invisible. Most reports put the provinceÕs pre-war population at 2.2 million, with 2 million Albanian and 200,000 Kosovar Serbs. Some referred to 200,000 as "others" without presenting any breakdown whatsoever. They include Roma, Turk, and Vlach. As relations between KosovoÕs Serbs and Albanians deteriorated, the Roma bore the brunt of the polarization and found themselves subjected to increasingly brutal treatment from both sides. The Serbs only paid attention when election time came around and the Serbs bought their votes, but provided them no protection. The Albanians felt they were too closely allied with the ruling Serbs and saw them as the enemy. This is typical of the situation the Roma have faced in Europe. In spite of their great needs, the Roma were virtually ignored by the international aid agencies. On February 5th, one Rom from Pristina and one American visited Kosovo with aid. Their report illustrated the mounting pressures on the Roma, even before the Serbian crackdown: Roma in Kosovo are having extremely hard times. (Just) in Pristina (capital of Kosovo-Serbia), 95% of Romani population are without jobs. Constantly weÕre hearing the news report that in Kosovo are 90% of Ethnic Albanians and 10% of Ethnic Serbs, that literally mean Roma do not exist. Only in Pristina are 35-40,000 of Romany population, that is almost 15% of population in Pristina. Kosovo has population of 2,000,000 people. Roma are 200,000-250,000 and maybe even more. I couldnÕt have the right statistic because many Roma escaped from Kosovo in western European Countries to seek Exile. Almost all of Roma that have sought political asylum present themselves as Albanian because if they say that theyÕre Roma nobody would accept them in Exile so; in the meantime, all Roma that are in Europe have to pay 3-4% fees for Albanians each month to support UcK (Kosova Liberation Army-KLA). Albanians are coming every month with their guns in Romani houses and get the money. In spite of the fact that European Authorities know about it -- does anybody takes any measures? Hell noÉ Now, of the NGOÕs giving humanitarian aid in Kosovo, all of the help is going to Albanians and Serbs, even though Roma and other minorities are often the poorest, most desperate for aid. Since last year in early spring when severe fights started in between Ethnic Albanians and Serbs, 25 Roma are killed. I canÕt provide the names but I did manage to get the names of those who are missing or have been kidnapped by the KLA. All these people that are listed were kidnapped by UcK-KLA. UcK are now going around towns and villages openly and threaten to Roma and harassing them all over the place, whether at the schools (Roma are now going to Serbian Education in the past was Albanian because Albanians ruled from 1969 till 1987 in Kosovo region), or in the streets, markets etc. The reason is that Roma have to come and fight with their Muslim brothers against the Serbian regime. On the other hand, the SerbianÕs are the ruling minority in Kosovo, 10% of the population, and theyÕre also committing some terrible atrocities against the Romani people. Being Rom in Kosovo is like nowhere, as my mother says: "Amen o Roma sijam ni andi havaja ni andi phuv"("We, the Roma are neither in the sky, nor on the earth"). This time (we) were there three weeks. We converted $8,500 into German Marks, thatÕs the currency that goes the best in Kosovo. We smuggled them and brought them to help my neighbourhood where I grew up. We had also 7 big suitcases of warm winter clothes, mostly for children. We managed to help 200 families with flour and from those families 50 of the neediest got one sq. meter of firewood; some people we helped with medicine. While we were delivering the flour and the firewood quite often we were asked; "when are you going to run for election, weÕll vote for you immediately" In my neighbourhood are living some Serbs, Albanians, and Turks, we also helped them. Many Romani kids we saw in the big garbage containers, a big number of them are sorting cardboard, plastic, and aluminium cans in order to buy a piece of bread. Every 4-5 minutes we saw 4WD cars UNHCR, UNPROFOR, RED CROSS-Geneva, Caritas-Zurich, World Vision GB, Doctors Without Borders and you just name it and does anybody help Roma? Hell no!!! We got to help them and a lot of beggars on the streets. Very successful mission. We had somewhere around $1,000 and some winter clothes for children left after distributing everything in my neighbourhood, so. We went to UNHCR and told them that we were interested to go with their vehicles into towns where actual fighting had happened and help people there, directly. The guy who worked in reception was Albanian and said it wouldnÕt be a problem. Then we asked him do they keep track of Romani people that they are helping? We told him that we would help also other people that are in need, but our main focus is on the Roma. He seemed surprised. He indicated that the UNHCR didnÕt keep any separate records of Roma in Kosovo, either as victims or as folks receiving aid. It seemed like he couldnÕt simply believe why someone from U.S. should come and help Roma. We also wanted to speak with some international official working there. He said that momentally nobody was there and our conversation ended without much hope of getting this stuff to Roma in other towns. Are Roma Really INVISIBLE ?????????????? (this message was sent to the moderated list of Kosova/o support group based in San Francisco. Questions about this list can be sent to email <robinb at socrates.berkeley.edu>) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ROMA -- SINCE THE DESTRUCTION OF KOSOVA A Roma group, Roma Community Center "DROM" Kumanovo, has issued an appeal for help via email. There are apparently no Roma-speaking aid workers in any of the agencies. Several news articles described that the Roma are harassed by the local Serb population in Macedonia if they do not participate in the protests that the Serbs organized against NATO bombing. They are harassed by Albanians if they do not join the KLA to fight. In other words, the pressure continues, even after the recent upheaval. The Roma realize that if there is a war, they will not be protected by anyone. DROM feels that once again the Roma are excluded. As for the number of Roma refugees, we can inform you that there are over 120 situated in Skopje. After insisting by Roma Community Center "DROM" Kumanovo and contacts with the representatives of the Roma organizations from Skopje, and with Roma Center Skopje about the information how many Roma families from Kosovo are in Skopje. It was said that 100 Roma are here, situated in the houses of their relatives but with one problem, they are not signed in the police as refugees, because of the large crowds of people. A meeting in Skopje is planned for tomorrow. The mayor of commune Suto Orizari-Nezdet Mustafa, is realizing the situation and making some decisions the situation and making some decisions about acting. Just as information, in Skopje the Humanitarian organization EL-HILAL is giving humanitarian help to Albanians from Kosovo. When the Roma asked for help they were said to go back in Kosovo and to fight. From such information we can predict the situation of Roma in the following period. These days I received some back-up information about my informing for some opinions that we, Roma, should be quiet, to get informed-to get together and to work with deeds in action, not words only. (Roma Community Center, "Drom" Kumanovo, Macedonia, phone and fax: 38990127558; Contact email: <drom at romanationalcongress.org> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MACEDONIA The Mother Teresa Organization in Skopje is working with people in private homes: There are more than 130.000 refugees that left Kosova and found shelter in Macedonia, from which aprox. 80.000 people are staying in camps while the rest of them are mostly sheltered in the houses of their Albanian brothers that live in the neighbouring Macedonia. Our concern is with these people that do have shelter but have not received any kind of help at all. Here, we're talking about people that came in with the clothes that they wore when they had to run, with no money and nothing but their souls that they could save. (Humanitarian Organization Mother Teresa in Macedonia; phone: 389 91 136 553; Contact: <mother.teresa at usa.net> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KOSOVAR MEDIA After being pronounced dead by NATO Koha Ditore editor, Baton Haxhiu has reappeared in Skopje. He has raised funds from European Union countries to begin publishing the paper again in Skopje to distribute to the refugees. They are so starved for information that they fight over the few newspapers that make their way into the camps. One imagines that the tenor of KohaÕs coverage in Pristina will be continued in this resurrected paper. As of April 22, 1999 the paper has distributed its first issue after waiting for the Macedonian government to approve the publication. There have been media difficulties in Macedonia in the past with little crossover amongst the different ethnic communities in language, issue coverage, and journalists. The Information Department of the government has been downgraded from a department to a secretariat. This position carries much less authority although they still grant permission for publishing. Tetova, the second largest city of Macedonia, with a substantial ethnic Albanian population, has become the base for refugees like Haxhiu, Dragaj, Shkelzen Maliqi, and other leaders of Pristina's intellectual and cultural community, now expelled from Kosovo by Serb forces. Haxhiu and other Kosovo journalists, artists, and political activists are trying to quickly mend their own war wounds to provide hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees with a desperately needed cultural lifeline: a new newspaper to be distributed for free to the refugees in their camps. They aim to provide not only news, but also a sense of community that has been overnight destroyed by their violent expulsion from their homes, towns, habits, and homeland. "No one slept two nights in the same place," he says. But after he was reported killed, "nobody wanted me to stay in their basements. They were afraid. Finally I found one basement. I didn't know what day it is. I didn't want any food. The only important thing was news. If not for the news, I would start to go crazy. (The Survivors: The Cream of Kosovo's Society Rebuild Intellectual Life and Community for Kosovo Refugees, by Laura Kay Rozen posted to the Justwatch discussion list. To contact author: <74003.2374 at compuserve.com>. To help support the relaunch of Koha Ditore, contact IWPR Programme Director Alan Davis at email: <alan at iwpr.net>) Several initiatives by journalists are in the works, including one by several women to document the stories of refugees and at the same time make themselves self-supporting by selling the stories to news agencies: Xheri and her journalist friends are organizing a project to document stories of refugees who are living in towns in southern Macedonia now. They need money for gas, tapes, per diems for expenses, and, I insisted, stipends for their work so that they will not be dependent refugees. The product will be invaluable professional documentation for print and broadcast. Hopefully they will be able to sell it to news organizations and libraries. If you know of anyone who funds this kind of work, let me or Xheri know. (report by crabgrass) Another initiative aims at ensuring that war criminals are eventually tried in the Hague for their crimes committed in Kosovo. One group of journalists hopes to document the stories of the refugees and send it as evidence to the ICTY. Virtyt Gacaferi, a young Kosovo Albanian journalist with Koha Ditore who also escaped to Macedonia after hiding in Pristina for weeks. Also feared dead, Virtyt appeared -- looking little worse for the wear, only a bit shaken -- in the Macedonian capital Skopje Tuesday. He only left Kosovo, he said, after the phones went dead and he couldn't file his stories anymore. "I was still writing stories every day," Virtyt said, over a coke Tuesday. "But with no place to send them, I was going crazy. I decided I had to leave." Gacaferi is planning to organize his fellow journalists to help take testimony from the refugees that can be used to document alleged war crimes for the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague. (The Survivors: The Cream of Kosovo's Society Rebuild Intellectual Life and Community for Kosovo Refugees, by Laura Kay Rozen; posted to the Justwatch discussion list. To contact author: <74003.2374 at compuserve.com> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ALBANIA Albania has no laws governing NGOs and their accreditation. This has not stopped Shefqet Meko and his organization, the Research Center for Rural Development (RCRD), from starting the publication of a newspaper "Albanian Farmer." It is one of the only methods of communication available to the rural population. Last year supported by ORT (a democracy network program sponsored by USAID) he compiled a survey of rural NGOs in Albania. This became the first directory of Rural NGOs. This network could be used by aid agencies, UNHCR, and other outside groups who are trying to work in rural areas with large numbers of refugees. One group, the National Albanian Farmers Union, has a very strong group of women who are organizing in the rural areas. Meko is a member of another network, the Albanian Center for Economic Research (ACER) which has set up a hotline and email address to deal with aid from the international community and coordinate the work of local NGOs. The NATO-run camps have their own refugees, and provide a structure for international NGOs. Local NGOs can cast the net more widely, because they can reach those living with families, but so many more refugees are now in private homes that these local NGOs risk being overwhelmed. In the town of Kukes just over Albania's border with Kosovo almost every family has turned over part of its home to refugees. Over morning coffee in Kukes's Adriani hotel cafe, the police debate how to make ends meet with an extra 10 to 15 people on a $100-a-month salary. They wonder how long this will last. One officer, who asked not to be named, said: "I am embarrassed to admit this but our own poverty will force us one day to turn them [the refugees] out on the street." Looking at his colleagues, he added, "I will endure until the end, but I hope to God that the end is not too far off." (from Taking Care of Their Own; IWPR's Balkan Crisis Report, No. 19, April 14, 1999; Contact: Anthony Borden <tony at iwpr.net>; website: <www.ipwr.net>) Meanwhile, Gazetta 55, a news journal published in Albania, reports that huge amounts of international aid are making their way to NGOs that are run by corrupt individuals who are themselves close to corrupt government officials. Thus aid is not making it to the refugees. Yet the government will not prosecute the individuals running the NGOs. What are the NGOs? Justification and protection of the state? They are nothing else by the stretched hand of the state and the thieves trained and well-exercised for aid plunder. How comes that no medical aid has reached the Kosovars? The Albanian host families buy even aspirins for the Kosovars they have hosed in their homes. Thus from the great amount of aid even the aspirin does not reach to the Kosovars. While chronicles are being reported from the Rinas airport or from the port of Durres where ships and planes with aid come in, there is no TV report about their final destination. Furthermore there is a very strange silence. The transparency with the aid is the most grave moral condition that falls on the present government, which by becoming very susceptible, even also incapable to cope with the influx of the aid that the world is donating is the only way that can save it from that disillusionment that can change to become the hatred of all the donors on it. (Mass Plunder of Aid -- Businessmen Are Being Bankrupt Because Aid Is Being Sold in the Market, by Musa Ulqini, Gazeta 55, April 15, 1999; Contact email: <gazeta55 at icc.al.eu.org>). Four NGO coordinating bodies have emerged in the last few weeks, although it is not clear to someone on the outside what the differences are and who is coordinating whom. Even an email to a local NGO in Tirana was unable to confirm the legitimacy of groups. He could only speak of those he had personal contact with: So, if you ask for having a real network in the districts, only Albanian NGO Forum has it already established. ACER -- my organization can offer one or more experts/fieldwork people, communications, etc. Also, Research Center Rural Development (RCRD) might be useful considering its contacts overall the country, etc. In more concrete terms, I don't have sufficient information about Mr. Culaj, but we can join forces to do something. This kind of cooperation will be also another impact of your work in Albania: helping people to cooperate, - to establish e workable network. (email from Shefqet Meko, Director of Local Albanian NGO, Research Center for Rural Development; Contact: <rcrd at icc.al.eu.org>, Zef Preci, Albanian Center for Economic Research, ACER, Tirana, Albania, website: <www.online.bg /acer>; new special helpline: email: <zpreci at adanet.com.al>, tel/fax: 355-42-29069 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HOST FAMILIES -- UNHCR There is an image emerging that the refugees living in private homes are missing out in terms of registration and aid. This is putting stress on local communities in terms of resources, but also in terms of perceptions by the non-Albanian population in Macedonia. It seems clear that there needs to be community outreach programs by UNHCR in all towns with a refugee population (translated into Albanian and Macedonian.) These programs would serve to educate the local populations about what they can expect, while at the same time making it safe for the refugees to come and register and get to know the agency. Agencies are overwhelmed at the camps but they have to get out into the community otherwise more violence is going to occur. This work cannot be restricted to the Albanians only. The Roma are being completely missed. The local radio, television and print in these countries needs to be commandeered by UNHCR in partnership with local journalists, to produce radio spots on the situation of the refugees. Make a call for them to come to a local center to be registered. Find out how many still have documents. Find out the accurate numbers but also do a public education campaign for the Macedonians about what the situation actually is. An Albanian language television station in Macedonia is already airing shows aimed at refugee children with special messages welcoming them and letting them know that they will be taken care of. Radio stations in Albania are being used to try and reconnect separated families by airing the names of people searching for family members. Questions that need to be addressed include: how long are these people projected to be here? What are their prospects? Are these kids going to be going to school? Answering these questions would serve to counteract the history that everyone is painfully aware of. Yesterday we met with Ted Herman's friend at the University, Ms. Slobodanka Markovska, and had good talk about the history of ethnic identities in this region, and why Macedonia feels so vulnerable about the Greater Albania concept. They report that friends and family in Serbia have suffered many bombings -- many civilian casualties in Serbia and all over Kosovo. Macedonians watch both Serb TV and CNN, and see propaganda on both sides, but their phone contacts tell them the bombing is very bad for everyone. Economically often factories produce different part of an item in different places in former Yugoslavia, plus raw materials come from elsewhere - so with the fighting many factories here are closed and people are out of work. Food grown for export can't get out, and is sold within Macedonia at very low prices. (report from Crabgrass). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Several different initiatives have been undertaken in terms of information technology. Although it could hardly be called civil society, the US governmentÕs information agency hopes to broadcast propaganda into Serbia and provide internet access to the camps. This could help families to reconnect with one another, if it is put to practical use helping the refugees as opposed to helping NATOÕs psychological war. Other groups want to provide training and Internet access to the refugees: USIA is hardly the only area of cyberactivity in the war. Individuals and groups across Yugoslavia have unleashed a torrent of e-mail about the bombing campaign, and hackers from Belgrade attacked NATO's Web site. Supporters of B92, which Milosevic shut in early April, have set up a Web site based in Amsterdam. None of the freelancers, however, can match USIA's resources in technology and personnel. The agency has assigned six people, for example, to monitor online discussions about the war and make information available to participants on the spot. And this week Spalter negotiated establishing Internet and e-mail access sites in refugee camps. (Washington Post, USIA Sets Its Sites on Yugoslavia, Web Used to Counter State-Run Media, by Thomas W. Lippman, Saturday, April 17, 1999; page a15) The work of the women mentioned earlier in this report is hampered by the cost of reconfiguring the cell phones they managed to smuggle out of Kosovo. The SIM card that Vjosa needs to reconfigure her cell phone will cost 250 German marks (135 US). The local League of Albanian Women of Macedonia would accept and guarantee the phone bills for the women from Pristina Center. Some internationals are letting refugees use their cell phones, but the calls are routed through Germany, thus jacking up the costs. Some of the American women have been accessing the web databases set up for finding refugees. <www.refugjat.org> has approximately 50,000 entries and people can search by name and city. Several other databases have been set up, and they are currently coordinating so that all information will be held in a central database. Access to these databases by families in other countries is important but so is setting up a computer center for more refugees to come and access the databases to find lost family members. Training will be needed to input the information and then provide access to refugees to come and check the database to see if similar information was input by a family member who was lost. It would also give them an opportunity to catalogue those who have died in their villages. It is interesting to note that the new information technology has allowed us to be in touch with Serbian civil society, and even some of the activists who remained in Pristina long after many others were forced out. Most of the early information on the situation of activists in Pristina came from emails from a Serbian women's group in Belgrade. They were able to get more phone lines into Pristina and report back on the situation of women they had worked with in the past. They put their contacts into an email and then sent it out to several networks. The website "Open Channels for Kosova" is an effort to keep the flow of information open, set up to publish accounts by independent journalists in the region: Since the war in Kosovo started independent media in the region are under tremendous pressure. All independent electronic and print media in Kosovo are closed down. For those journalists who still can give independent analysis and reports, Press Now -- with the support of other organisations -- started "Open Channels for Kosovo. Voices from the region". Reports, analysis and personal stories from independent journalists from Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia and other countries in the region will be collected and published on the website of "Open Channels for Kosovo" "Open Channels" has installed a special telephone system, where journalists from the region can phone in and leave their daily audio reports, reporting on the media and politics. (Open Channels for Kosova. www.dds.nl/openchannells ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR LOCAL NGOs Among those mobilizing to help Kosovars is the Balkan Sunflower project, begun during the Bosnian war as an initiative to involve international volunteers in the task of reconstruction. The new Sunflower initiative to help Kosovar refugees is in its infancy. But it has already sent a team of pathfinders to Albania and Macedonia to make connections for teams of volunteers. The needs will continue to be huge, even if sufficient clothing, food, and shelter can be provided. Refugees will also need information and companionship. The Balkan Sunflower project teams are organized to make this happen. Although the Sunflowers project sprang forth from the spontaneous initiative of one person (and is now the collected effort of a loose network), it is based on concrete earlier experiences. It follows up on similar initiatives that were successfully undertaken earlier in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (SunCokret) and in Serbia (My Neighbour). A few thousand volunteers traveled to over 35 refugee centers in the framework of SunCokret and their experiences can be built on now. (Our initiative) will bring in International Volunteers to live and do whatever may be needed in secondary life necessities: from playing with children to internet-workshops. The ideas are there, we need coalitions now, especially between grass-roots community worker and internet-communities. (Balkan Sunflower Initiative Contact: <wam at mir.org >; web: <www.ddh.nl/org/balkansunflower>) Two women from the US have discovered that a few well-placed phone calls can work wonders: Today's work was particularly rewarding and instructive for future work. For two days we had been hearing from Vera that there was no food in the primary distribution NGO, El Hilal, in Tetova, and there are at least 35,000 refugees there mostly staying in private homes. El Hilal is also primarily responsible for supplying people in the no-man's zone between Kosova and Macedonia. So today we decided to go to Tetova, meet with that group to see what the problem was. All day we were on the phone calling UNHCR, CRS, Mercy Corps and NATO trying to get food released. We worked in partnership with the Albanian NGO and our translator/friend (Vjosa's sister)Vera. We put our international skills to the service of people who couldn't figure out why no food was available for them. Jan's food background proved useful, but mostly it was a great partnership with the El Hilal staff and volunteers. We are leaving El Hilal with all the phone numbers and contacts so that they can take over this job themselves. (report from Crabgrass. El Hilal can be reached directly in Macedonia at 389 91 118 748; or in the US through the AAIC, Albanian American Islamic Center, 11702 122nd Street, Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158 email: <El_Hilal at theglobe.com>). The Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights WITNESS program is currently reviewing four applications for aid of video equipment to local initiatives that want to document human rights abuses. (LCHR email: <witness at lchr.org>; website: <www.lchr.org>) ====================================================================== ------------------------------------ Submitted by: The Advocacy Project <advocacy at lists.advocacynet.org>
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