Tirana 16 July 1999
Mirdita,
After we arrived in Tirana yesterday we had to run to be in time for the child friendly space meeting at UNICEF, we just made in time. From the meeting it became clear with what a rush all the NGO's ran out of Albania in the last two weeks. And that most of them were so focused on the refugee problems from the Kosovarian refugees that they haven't seen the problems in this country. Besides "save the children", the balkan sunflowers were the only foreign NGO on the meeting. All the leading NGO's have left. UNICEF however likes to continue creating something like child friendly spaces in Albania. The name will be different and the function also a bit, but basically they think that children and youth in Albania need it, maybe even more, as children and youth in Kosov@. When I talked with the volunteers who were here in Tirana the last week, they agreed, we have been shifting this last week our activities from refugee camps into working in children houses (basically children without parents, killed in 1996 civil war and broken families, and so). And they noticed the same thing. The 50 years of isolation and the last 8 years of almost permanent crisis has turned this country into a country wide crisis area, where children and youth grow up without perspectives for the future. It is a kind of shift in our work, since the children are not refugees, but in principle the type of work stays the same. In fact in a country so full of weapons as Albania a kind of peace building and learning that weapons are not the way to solve problems is as important as in a real war situation. As the people from UNICEF explained their partners from UNDP had a disarming project here, where a friend of us (a former Pakrac volunteer) was working, which was going alright. But had one major problem, not the adults came to bring the weapons, the children came to bring the machine guns and granates. And that is not really helpfull if you want to make clear to children and youth not to teach these killing tools. The aim of UNICEF is to create space for children and young people and young adults were they can come and play in safety, where they can learn how the world outside looks like and where this deadly circle of voilence is going to be broken. Nevertheless that happened yesterday today I was a bit later awake than normal, it was the sun who drove me out my bed by 8 o'clock, it makes you slowly melt out of your bed. Never the less I stayed on my balcony till 9 and read some more about the Albanian history. I still try to find some points of understanding. Why is this country the way it is and why does all those things happen. The book I was reading didn't give me answers on that one. It even brought new ones up. If I compare the history of Albania now with the history of Albania in the beginning of this century I can't understand why the history is happening again. Why has nobody learned from the past? Most of the day went by, by answering all the email of the last 4 days, and buying stuff for the volunteer house which were needed. And checking with all the organisations how the situation in Albania has changed in the last 4 days. Kashar will close tomorrow, the last families will drive to Kosov@ tomorrow. The other french refugee camp which is open til the beginning of the week still have nobody there. Kukes 2 will be closed tomorrow as well. The camps which I was talking about with UNHCR in Mjeda and Shkodra will or are already closed. Most NGOs in the Shkodra region are advised to leave the region as soon possible. It is absolutely not safe there for foreigners at this moment. Last night a secret weapon depot was blown up just a few meters away from the office of Handicap International Belgium. Mjeda, the transit camp, will be closed down also because of security reasons and UNHCR will stop the organised returnings. Not that there are many people to return left, but since Mjeda can't be used anymore what can they do. Basically I have to admit that all the work with refugees in Albania is stopped by tomorrow. Simply because there are no refugee camps left at this moment. Who would have thought about that a month ago. Times they are a changing, but faster as you think. That the refugees are leaving Albania doesn't mean that there aren't any in the area. Looking on the papers of the WFP they count with 0.8 million displaced people and returnees (without a house at this moment in time) in Kosov@, almost 350.000 displaced and refugees in Serbia (from Croatia and Kosov@), 450.000 displaced people in Bosnia, 40.000 refugees in Bosnia from Kosov@, 50.000 refugees in Bosnia from Croatia, 80.000 refugees in Monte Negro from Kosov@, 20.000 refugees in Macedonia from Kosov@ (also Serbian refugees) and 30.000 last but not least refugees in Albania still. And that won't change so fast. It is gone from the frontpages of the newspapers, gone from the TV news broadcastings, but the people are still there. The help is still needed. When I was thinking a bit about what the Balkan Sunflowers should do now and in the future, I was thinking that it is good when people would be able to travel in Serbia and Monte Negro now, to see how the refugee situation is there. I hope so deeply that we will be able soon to do there something as well. All those people who were so against these NATO bombardments some months ago, who went on meetings, demonstrations, signed petition after petition what happened with all of them. Is the peace movement now in big numbers going to Serbia and reconciliate with the people there? How is the contact with Serbia at this moment. About that you don't hear a thing around here. And we only see that the numbers of volunteers are going backwards, some are now coming to work in Kosov@, but not many like to work in Albania (that crisis is of course long forgotten and therefor not so alive anymore in the mind of people). I also am wishing that somebody would go from Serbia in Kosov@ at least in the Northern part, were the displaced Serbian kosovarians are living now. How is the situation there? It is so strange to realise it is all so close and still we don't know anything about it. Of course I can read the Sit(ution)Rep(orts) from KFOR, UNHCR and OSCE about it, and that is helpfull, but only to a certain level. The OSCE has of course a bit more contact to "normal" people as the other two, nevertheless I am interested in other things. For me reconciliation work in such areas is more building up contacts with the "normal" as first, not with the authorities, building up trust and friendship. And that only can be done if you have an intensive regular contact to people, not really working if you drive around in a white jeep. In the afternoon I had again a meeting at UNICEF. This time it was about mineawarness, especially in Albania itself. Not only the awarness that mines have been laid in the north, but also about the so-called hot-spots in the country, which are everywhere. Not only did people go into the police station and military barracks and stole all the weapons there, they also blew up some of them and this giant explosion made it happening that UXO's (grenate, bullets, shells) have been spread out over huge areas. Also the different groups and parties have been building up secret weapon depots everywhere. Besides that as said almost everybody has a machine gun at home. First we estimated the mine-awareness campaign for the returnees. It is clear that every returnee has got the information, most of them more than ones. I told the others that on my trip in Kosov@ I saw that people went on the fields, without KFOR having checked the area. The messages from Kosov@ are that the amount of accidents are growing. Problem is that the information is not collected centrally yet, so different sources have different information. Handicap International Belgium f.e. heard from a Belgium KFOR officer that at least 350 accidents took place so far. But the official KFOR reports are only reporting 160 accedents or so. And in every accident there are mostly more people involved. So UNICEF in Pristina should still put a bit more efforts in a mine-awareness campaign in Kosov@, the posters and leaflets alone don't help, at least not enough. Secondly we went into the activities in the north, UNICEF donated 5000 mine signs to the Albanian army to do the marking and Handicap International Belgium in their Kukes office has offered the Army to use their computer in the afternoon to make their reports. This already makes a bit clear where we are talking about. Just a five kilometer further on the other side of the border dozens of the most modern anti-mining teams are driving around. On this side the army doesn't even have got a typewriter available to write their reports where they have been and which areas they have marked and what they have seen there. Since the tension in the north, especially near to this area is getting higher and higher this area is declared as absolute off limit for international NGO's alone, without f.e. the Albanian army or a special police group it is not wise to go in that area. Simply you as well can give your car straight away to the bandites, since you more or less can be sure that they will rob you, you only can be happy if you come out alive. UNICEF was asking if we could assist in the north with a mine-awareness campaign, but I reacted that this unsecure situation is not really giving me the feeling that it is safe to send people up there. Already in Shemri a bit south of this region the safety was a big problem. And for the time being AFOR is not putting up more troops on the road to show presents. Then UNICEF asked us, the Balkan Sunflowers, if we aren't able to put up a kind of mobile information minibus driving around the country and visiting schools and youth centers to inform kids and youth about the danger of all those weapons which are around in the country. We discussed some more, since UNICEF wants to support this project heavily, so it can become some thing really special. I said that I would like to camouflage that project, so don't call it the anti-mine bus, but something like the activity bus or so, in which the mine- and weapon awareness is build into the rest of the activities. And that it should also aim on mentality changing, giving the information that a real man doesn't need to have a weapon. Anyway a nice project, which for sure needs some more thinking, but at least gives me for the next nights some thing beautifull to dream about....

wam :-)