-Caveat Lector-
>From Int'l Herald Tribune (www.iht.com)
Paris, Saturday, May 15, 1999
Tired Refugees Loath to Pull Up Roots
Kosovars Resist Efforts to Move Them From Overflowing Border Area
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
By John Ward Anderson and Molly Moore Washington Post Service
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
KUKES, Albania - They wait here, tens of thousands of them, in the
dusty, dirty tent cities of this overcrowded border town, hoping to
be reunited with family and friends who were forced to stay behind,
wanting only to remain close to home, to Kosovo.
But in the curious logic of the relief effort here, where the
psychological needs of refugees do not always coincide with the
practical demands of international aid agencies, these refugees are
being asked to move farther south in Albania. And they do not want to
go.
Seven weeks into Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II, aid officials say
they now expect hundreds of thousands of the people who have fled Yugoslav forces in
Kosovo to remain in Albania for at least another ye
ar.
The prospect is a daunting one for Albania, the poorest and most backward country on
the continent. Nowhere is the problem greater than in Kukes, transformed over the past
two months from an impoverished backwater of 24,0
00 inhabitants into a refugee encampment overflowing with more than 100,000 people.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the government say that Kukes, already
suffering water shortages, rising crime, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient
schools and hospitals, cannot cope much longer. On top of t
hat, they fear the camps here make tempting targets for Yugoslav artillery positions
just over the mountainous border about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) away.
But with more people arriving from Kosovo every day, officials are approaching a moral
dilemma: how to move traumatized refugees, who have already been pushed around too
much, to the Albanian interior if they do not want
to go.
The aid agencies say they will not order the refugees to resettle farther south, but
they began an information campaign Tuesday to try to persuade them to move
voluntarily. As of Thursday, fewer than 3,300 had agreed to g
o. If this campaign does not work, the Albanian government is considering ordering
them to move.
When they think about forcing people to go, though, they are confronted by stories
like that of Sabrije Haliti, whose daughter was killed and son severely wounded in
Kosovo last month when Yugoslav forces tossed a grenade
into a crowd of people they had corralled in a field. Mrs. Haliti's 17-year-old
daughter-in-law and 11-month-old granddaughter were marched away during the incident,
and soldiers prevented her husband from accompanying h
er or their wounded son on a bus to Albania. Now he is hiding in the mountains, or so
she hopes.
Mrs. Haliti and her son are safe in a refugee camp, and the thought of being uprooted
again is frightening. ''If all the other people go, I will go with them,'' she said.
Although nearly 300,000 refugees have already been relocated deeper inside Albania,
Kukes is beginning to feel like home to many.
Some are waiting to be reunited with families or friends. Others claim relatives in
the Kosovo Liberation Army, which is fighting for independence for the Serbian
province.
Others are simply too fatigued, traumatized or demoralized to move again.
In addition, thousands of refugees fled with their Yugoslav-made farm tractors, which
sell for about $6,300 each. That is almost a life's savings for people who have
already had their houses burned and livestock slaughter
ed; they do not want to abandon their last asset. Officials are exploring the idea of
storing the tractors in a guarded parking lot.
''Most have been here several weeks, and they've put down roots, and they don't want
to leave,'' said Ray Wilkinson, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency.
That problem was vividly illustrated this week in Macedonia, which has been pressing
relief organizations to move some of the 231,000 refugees there to the West or Albania.
The government is alarmed at the mounting cost of accommodating the refugees and fears
their continued presence could upset Macedonia's delicate ethnic balance.
NATO officials have talked of transferring 60,000 people to Albania, but few have
opted to leave.
In Kukes, the dilemma faced by officials is even more complex. The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees forbids placing refugees near unsafe borders, and Albania's
border with Kosovo is anything but safe. ''The KLA is active
in this area,'' Mr. Wilkinson said, adding, ''all it takes is one shell'' from
Serbian artillery to create a horrific tragedy in a camp.
Seven refugee camps just outside Kukes have grown into small tent cities, some quite
well equipped.
In fact, some relief workers have privately expressed concern that
refugees might be reluctant to move after settling into comfortable
camps.
''We couldn't find better conditions anywhere, and I want to be with
my family close to the border so we can go home soon,'' said Arafet
Kamberi, 64, a retired school custodian. ''If they force us to leave
the camp, I'll go, but not happily.''
International officials say there are 426,000 refugees in Albania,
out of the 741,000 who have fled Kosovo since late March. More than
half of them are living in private homes. Of the rest, most are in
sprawling tent camps.
All of this is creating new pressures on public services that barely
support Albania's own citizens.
''This is diverting their own development efforts,'' said Zephirin
Diabre, associate administrator of the UN Development Program.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Via www.zoran.net/afp (Academy For Peace)
May 15, 1999
Early this morning, students in ChengDu, a Southwestern city of
China, sent an apology letter to President Clinton and the American
people for the accident of burning down US consulate in that city
days ago:
Dear Mr. President:
We, the students in ChengDu, hereby sincerely express our deep sorrow
to the US goverment. We were participating in a rubbish-cleaning
campaign in the last few days, and wanted to burn some trash. But
because of outdated intelligence, we burned your consulate by
mistake. The city map of Chengdu of 1972 shows that your consulate
location was a trash dump. This accident was caused by inaccurate
information and false operation. Please trust us, it was not our
intention to burn your consulate. We will look forward for a good
relationship between us in the future.
However, we still have to carry on our rubbish-cleaning campaign in a
deeper order. We will try our best to avoid such accidents happen
again, and we appologize for this terrible mistake, we are deeply
sorry. This is abolutely a tragic mistake.
Sincerely,
Chengdu student representive
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From IrishTimes
Saturday, May 15, 1999
Fame, celebrity with dash
of hope, for Kosovans
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The mammy of them all came to Stenkovec yesterday, in a long line of
the famous, writes Kathy Sheridan on the visit of Hillary Clinton
<Picture>
Surreal. There's that word again. Hey, isn't that Bianca Jagger
crossing the lobby? And look - that chap with the thin patch on top
and the blonde. Can't be Roger Moore, can it? And oh lord - what is
that awful caterwauling? Vanessa Redgrave. Singing. As if the poor
children of Stenkovec haven't suffered enough, muttered someone
predictably. And here, remind me, is this Tibet or was that Richard
Gere under that baseball hat?
Yup, the traumatised refugees baking in the camps of Macedonia have
seen them all. Elizabeth Dole, wife of Bob Dole, and Queen Noor of
Jordan came calling in the early days. The Finnish delegation
couldn't get out to Brazde last Monday, because the President of
Italy had practically closed the country down for several hours for
his photo opportunity with the Italian airlift. Macedonians clucked
as the President of Slovenia stopped traffic a couple of days later.
And that was just before - or was it after? - the slew of Mercedes,
BMWs and Audis bearing the German Interior Minister, Otto Schily,
squealed into Stenkovec II.
Tony and Cherie Blair have become the stuff of legend - he for
closing the crucial eight-mile route from Skopje to Blace (which
includes two huge camps and the main border crossing) for an hour;
she being the butt of an ongoing debate as to whether those were
really tears or vulgar sweat.
The French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, came to call on the same
day as 21 US legislators. Though his 15-car convoy virtually collided
with a less impressive turn-out for the Canadian Foreign Minister
hurtling the other way, the Canadian brought more money in his - $35
million compared to a $8 million from France. At least four US
congressional delegations have trooped through . . . It goes on and
on. With all these security details, it's no wonder the government
here is complaining about running out of money.
Yesterday, however, the mammy of them all came calling. Looking sharp
in a tailored black suit, crisp white shirt and shades, Hillary
Clinton landed at Stenkovec I refugee camp, armed with sympathetic
smiles and serious promises.
The entourage struck just the right note. She arrived, not in the
usual convoy of shiny limousines, but in a few Suburban jeeps. And
despite the fact that the visit ended well before the two hours
scheduled, it seemed respectful and unhurried.
The refugee with whom she lingered longest, Fetie Pronaj, a 42-year-
old mother of six, described how she and several of her children were
separated as the Serbs harried them onto a train at Pristina. Six
weeks later, three of them are still missing, presumably in Kosovo -
13-year-old Fatime, 11-year-old Sami and eight-year-old Lavdim. Her
husband is a KLA man and is uncontactable.
When Mrs Clinton made her way to the media corral shortly after,
surrounded by excited young refugees chanting "NATO, NATO" and "UCK",
she told Fetie's story, in dramatic and moving words. "Think about
those trains," she said, comparing the the ethnic Albanians' flight
to the films Schindler's List and Sophie's Choice (where a mother is
forced by Nazis to choose between her two children). "Think what it
means to be driving people from their homes, separating families,
loading them onto trains, at the end of this violent century that we
should have learned something from."
Fetie had done the best she could with what she had to greet the
First Lady: donned her best gold necklace and earrings for the
occasion; slipped on a loose, green top with an ill-matching pair of
tracksuit bottoms and dusty worn sandals. But within minutes of her
famous "guest's" departure, all she wanted to borrow was a mobile
phone to make a call. (The dearth of camp phones means a three-hour
queue for three minutes talking time). Her eyes filled as the voice
at the other end told her there was no news - again - upon which a
wizened old woman emerged from several tents away to tell her
basically to buck up and stop crying while there were journalists
around.
Did she mind being questioned by us? "Oh no, I want to speak to
journalists," she answered. "Maybe, somehow through one of your
papers, my children will find me . . ."
So did Hillary Clinton offer hope? Oh yes, indeed.
When she promised Fetie and others repeatedly that they would all be
together with their familes and back in Kosovo, they believed her
wholeheartedly. "She tells the truth," said Fetie's cousin. "America
has helped us before and this time they will help us too".
But the truth is that for all of the people interviewed, this was the
best thing to happen to them since they landed here. So far, they
have no sense of being used as a backdrop for someone else's photo
opportunity. And so what if they are? Most of them are savvy enough
to see that it helps the cause and cheers them up.
Unlike them, the rest of us have the luxury of being able to scoff.
How we laughed at Richard Gere's earnest request to be allowed to
spend a night at the Cegrane refugee camp. "Oh, yes, indeed, Mr Gere,
we'll just fling one of these poor, traumatised families out in the
rain so you can have a tent . . ." we mocked.
But to be fair, he spent six days in Macedonia, unlike Tony's or
Hillary's few hours. "You can't do it in one day . . . or two days",
he said . "I'm in my sixth day and I'm barely scratching the
surface." (He spent two of those six days at a lakeside resort about
100 miles from here but he still made all the big news shows and
pushed the cause.)
Bianca Jagger is no Jill-come-lately. She was in Bosnia six or seven
years ago, has spoken to many refugees here and done her homework.
She acknowledged that photo opportunities were an integral part of
her round. "Absolutely. But it is important to remind celebrities not
to come for only a few hours, without going to talk to the refugees
and getting a profound assessment of what is going on . . . Then they
could become real advocates".
Roger Moore left his cigarillo at the bar to grace us with his
relaxed, urbane presence. He has been here since Wednesday as a
goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. So was this all in aid of the image?
"My image is getting rather old and frayed round the edges. I don't
think I have to worry about my image", he said coolly. "I've been
with UNICEF for eight to nine years . . . This is about awareness."
For the first three weeks, the papers were full of this tragedy, he
said. "Then it began to slip back to page 2, then 3, then 4 - to the
point where the front pages now are worrying about what cleavage is
being shown in Cannes. And if we can get it back on the front pages,
then that's why we're here . . ."
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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