Kosovo Refugees in Ulcinj

Return - Just a Dream

AIM Podgorica 14 June, 1998

The latest tide of refugees from Kosovo has swept Ulcinj the southernmost town on Montenegrin coast, populated mostly by ethnic Albanians. According to the data of the Commission for Refugees and Displaced Persons, there are at the moment two thousand registered banished persons, but this number is believed to be at least twice that big. The man who is lately the busiest in the municipality of Ulcinj, commissioner of the Red Cross, Xhok Skreli, says that they are mostly children, women and elderly Albanians. "In the past few days, on the average about 200 persons are arriving a day, which regardless of the hospitality and readiness of the residents of Ulcinj to help, is creating great problems", he stresses, discontented that the government of Montenegro is not more actively engaged in resolving this problem and that it is not regulating the legal status of these people.

Members of the Municipal Committee for reception of refugees and people from the Council of Banished Persons are offering great help in identification and accommodation of refugees, practically spending the whole day in the small office of the Commission which is on the ground floor of Ulcinj Municipality building.

Member of the Commission, Tahir Perazic, is complaining because of the very small help offered for the time being by humanitarian organizations. "Although experts of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently visited Ulcinj and saw for themselves that the situation is alarming, there is still no concrete Help", says Perazic.

It seems that the youngest are in the worst situation. According to the statement of the recently established Committee for Human Rights in Montenegro seated in Ulcinj, there are about one thousand children at the age up to seven. "They are threatened by hunger because neither their parents nor their hosts are able to provide necessary food for them", people in this Committee warn and appeal on international and Republican humanitarian organizations to urgently help the children.

Majority of the refugees in this region are from Decani, Pec, Klina, Srbica and Djakovica. They are mostly staying with their relatives and friends or in their own houses. They stress they were received well, but that they wish to return as soon as possible. They unwillingly speak about what they have experienced.

Arben Chitaku, 45-year old teacher from the vicinity of Klina, arrived in Ulcinj with his wife and three children. He is staying with his relatives at the Great Beach. "My village, Grabanica, is abandoned since 22 May, set on fire and robbed. Many have been killed, and they were not even buried. A large number of people disappeared, cattle are roaming the village", says Arben.

He stresses that since February, 60 elementary and secondary school teachers and about 200 pupils from Klina were tortured and imprisoned, and schools in villages Kpuz, Cerovik, Glarevo and Grabanica are heavily damaged.

"I arrived in my car and I was forced to pay 1,500 German marks to a Serbian policeman to let me come to the Montenegrin border. We were received well here. We have nowhere to return. I know nothing about my relatives who lived in the village of Cerovik".

In front of the office of the Commission, we meet 32-year old Lutvija from Pec. She came with four children and is trying to find a place to stay. "We had to leave the town. We did not dare leave the house for days. There is very little food and drugs, and the little that arrives is distributed among the Serbs and the Montenegrins, free of charge. They wouldn't even let us buy milk for our children. All the Serbs are armed, and the police and the soldiers are in a state of emergency. Terrible rumours are spread around the town, people live in fear of what the night will bring", says this former bank clerk, crying, and adds that should violence start in Pec, a large number of refugees should be expected in Montenegro. She is embittered by the behavior of her Serb and Montenegrin neighbours, with whom, as she says, they have until recently shared everything - the good and the bad.

Lutvija stresses that Serbian policemen maltreated her at the Savina voda point, with her children looking on. "Young men from our bus had an even worse time, because they were taken a few times to the forest near by, where they were tortured and where they threatened they would slughter them. Do these man have souls and children of their own", she wonders.

However, according to the words of Albanian refugees, the worst situation is in the region of Dukadjin, that is in the region of Decani. About 80 per cent of the houses have been demolished and robbed. About 50 thousand people have left their homes which were savagely devastated by all kinds of weapons, even by air-force.

"About one thousand members of the Liberation Army of Kosovo are offering resistance to Serb military, para-military and police forces. Our main headquarters are in the village of Glodjane", says 33-year old Mehmet who says he is a member of this organization. He has come to Ulcinj to bring his family to a friend's home, and now he wishes to return to Kosovo right away, in order to join the struggle.

"Young men and adults hold the frontline. We are armed with automatic rifles made in Serbia and China, and we also have two 80-mm antiaircraft cannons. There are quite a lot killed Serbian soldiers, but they don't inform the public about it, nor do they inform the public about mass desertion from their ranks. They are right to desert: there is nothing to oblige them to wage war for and die, because it is not their country. There can be no negotiations between us and the Serbs as long as they massacre our brethren every day. There can be no dialogue under fire of cannons, tanks and airplanes. The regime and the force of butcher Slobodan Milosevic can be stopped only by our general national resistance. He does not respect any agreements, any resolutions, adopted on any level. It is possible to talk to him only from the position of force. And that is what we will do. We will stop Serbian and Yugoslav state terror, even at the cost of great sacrifices. Morale, the international community and time are on our side. We will not leave Kosovo without putting up a fight, nor shall we ever agree to let Kosovo remain in the Yugoslav federation", says Mehmet in one breath.

"Our house in the village of Laus was shelled. Our youth is offering heroic resistance, and the Serbs will not enter this village and Drenica ever again. About 130 Albanians were killed and massacred in this region so far, more than 300 houses were burned down, and 500 are badly damaged. The village of the Jasharis is completely levelled to the ground, and Serbian police is attacking villages of Turicevac, Broj, Kopilic, Vojnik and Citak", says well-looking elderly Emin C. (70).

The Albanian refugees who are staying in Ulcinj look upon return to Kosovo as a dream after everything they have gone through. "I have no other wish but to kiss that land, to pass through it once again", Emin adds.

Mustafa CANKA

(AIM Podgorica)