Forest Dwellers near Kosovo
et in dc (prop1@prop1.org)
Sat, 17 Oct 1998 08:10:39 -0400
These folks seem to have the physical comforts of Rainbow gatherings.
Maybe they could use a dose of that cheerful spirit, too. European
Rainbows - are you out there?
et in dc
-------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Kosovo-Forest-People.html
October 17, 1998
Kosovo Residents Want To Go Home
By The Associated Press
KISNA REKA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- With the damp, cold
night descending outside, Florin Garoj sat on the
blanketed floor of a refugee hut and recalled the moment
more than nine years ago when life changed, perhaps
forever.
Then he was an engineering student in his final year,
preparing to make his own way in Kisna Reka, his
family's village along the tree-covered mountains about 18
miles southwest of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo
province.
But President Slobodan Milosevic revoked the autonomy
of Kosovo and its ethnic Albanian majority in February
1989. Many here say that launched an era of repression
and inevitable rebellion. Today, the province is on the
verge of NATO airstrikes.
``With the loss of autonomy, every single Albanian
person could see they were losing their rights,'' Garoj said
Thursday night, his chin resting in his right hand. ``From
that day, normal life for Albanians ended.''
As if on cue, two dull thuds of tank fire sounded outside,
far away from the woods where Garoj and hundreds of
other refugees survive off international aid, resolve and a
deep-rooted sense of community and order.
Despite assertions by Milosevic that the Kosovo
crackdown his forces launched in February was against
Kosovo Liberation Army rebels, most refugees camped
on a hillside seemed to be villagers hoping for peace and
the restoration of their political rights -- not hardcore
revolutionaries.
In this makeshift refugee camp, people have little faith in
the political agreement Milosevic signed with NATO, nor
with the 2,000 international verifiers who will be brought
in to make sure the Yugoslav president keeps his word.
The refugees keep abreast of the news on
battery-powered radios.
Despite reports that Serbian forces are withdrawing as
required by NATO, things around Kisna Reka look the
same to them.
``The situation is as it was a week ago,'' said Ramadam
Nuhaj, 25. ``Nothing has changed.''
Their homes are just a few miles away, but all the refugees
except for a few older folks -- including Garoj's parents --
sleep in the ragged camp, fearing further attack from the
Serbian security forces who drove them off earlier this
year.
``My parents are very old and they are attached to the
place and the house,'' Garoj explained. ``They've decided
that if they have to die, it will be there.''
For the most part, life in the camp is far better than for
tens of thousands of other refugees scattered throughout
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the main part of
Yugoslavia.
There are four faucets that pipe in spring water, courtesy
of a British aid agency, and well-made cylindrical huts of
tree branches covered by plastic sheeting, blankets and
carpeting. Some people have wood stoves for heating and
cooking, and food and clothing supplies from aid
agencies arrive every few weeks.
Camp life is communal, with the clan-based families
sharing supplies and taking in others from overcrowded
huts. When new relief goods arrived Thursday, the
residents waited patiently for their names to be called to
collect their allotment.
``We have nothing, but we still have an ordered life with
everyone having their role,'' said a man who only would
give a nickname, Malesory, which is Albanian for ``man
of the forest.''
But children still tramp through cold, muddy patches in
mismatched, ill-fitting shoes, many without socks. While
daytime movement is relatively free, the scattered
shooting and shelling still heard at night shows the danger
continues.
With temperatures already dropping below freezing at
night, the oncoming winter threatens to bring widespread
sickness, starvation and death.
``We've always said that if they don't go back to their
homes, there will be a catastrophe,'' warned Fernando del
Mundo of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Going home will require the complete withdrawal of Serb
forces from the area and international guarantees of
safety, said Nuhaj, who lives with his wife in the camp.
``We need the international community, because in 24
hours, the Serbian forces can come back,'' he said.
After sunset, with most families asleep in their huts, Garoj
and other men gathered in Nuhaj's hut to share tea served
from a pot and drank from glasses salvaged from a village
house.
``Now we have turned into being forest people,'' Garoj
sighed. ``I'm an engineer. One day I hope to return to my
profession and continue the normal life.''
_______________________________________________________________________
* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________