EXODUS OF KOSOVO ALBANIANS TO MONTENEGRO

Dirty Policy and Ethnic Cleansing

In the first days of this week, after a whole year, a tide of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo has flooded Montenegro again

AIM Podgorica, 1 April, 1999

In just first two days of this week, Montenegro has crossed the critical point of 10 per cent of refugees in relation to the local population again. In fact, about 12 per cent are already mentioned, which means that there are about 70 thousand banished persons in the smaller Yugoslav republic. This figure consists of the "old" refugees from the Bosnian war, about 25 thousand of them, Kosovo Albanians who arrived last year the census of whom has not been completed yet, but it is established that there are more than 20 thousand of them, and there is the latest tide which has brought almost the same number.

The most threatened Montenegrin municipalities are the ones populated mostly by the Albanian and Muslim population: Rozaje, Plav, Gusinje, Tuzi, Ulcinj. A small town in the north of Montenegro, Rozaje, which has only 12 thousand inhabitants, about 15 kilometres from the border of Kosovo, witnessed a terrible human drama in the past few days. About a couple of kilometres from the town, on the road leading straight into the Kosovo war hell, a check point of Montenegrin police was set up where the first registration of these unfortunate people is organised. The road was crowded by an endless column of tractors and vehicles, mostly with Pec licence plates, swarmed with people, women and children, with tired and alarmed faces.

They set out towards Montenegro because they had heard that this road was safer. According to their testimonies, the whole territory of Pec with its surroundings has completely been "cleansed" of its Albanian population. Some of them have set out, like last spring, towards Montenegro over the mountain passes on foot. The other way leads via Djakovica towards Albania or Macedonia. The banished claim that on the point of leaving Koovo, Serb police often demands money, hundreds of German marks per capita, and deprives all the adults of their passports as a measure aimed at prevention of their possible return.

Their testimonies are dramatic. They speak about their neighbours, Serbs, who took up arms overnight. Most frequently they are the ones who warned their neighbours - ethnic Albanians - that it was impossible for them to continue living in Kosovo and that they should move, anywhere. In some places Serb police, especially reinforced by Milosevic in the past few years, played this role. Psychological pressure on native Kosovo Albanians has increased because of numerous murders and massacres committed in Kosovo by paramilitary units such as Arkan's "Tigers" which acquired an additional impetus from nationalistic euphoria intensified by the bombs of the Alliance. Fear of the paramilitary is much greater than that of members of the Army of Yugoslavia.

"They set houses on fire, bring bulldozers to tear them down. Serb neighbours have armed themselves overnight and told us to leave the village in a coule of hours", says sister Graciela who served Catholic services in the village of Glavicica near Pec, while waiting for Montenegrin police control near Rozaje. She is sitting on a tractor trailer with another 15 odd persons. On the road, a few young men from the village of Vragolac, also near Pec, tell us similar stories.

Majority of the refugees are Muslim ethnic Albanians, but there are Catholics as well. "They gave us the deadline of six hours, or else, they said, they would slaughter all of us. Our neighbours with whom we have lived together for a hundred years. They told us that there was nothing over there for us any more. They hoisted the Serb flag on the Catholic church and said that it was Orthodox as of yesterday and that it would not be ours ever again. The Albanians have left Prizren and Dragas, too. In Glavicica, a village 13 kilometres from Pec, I left my house and everything I have, a fortune", a man tells us. Serb police came to the priest, they say, and ordered him to set out to Albania with the villagers, Albanians, or wherever he pleased. All the villagers spent the night before the uncertain voyage in the local church together with the parson.

The stories of the banished persons differ only by the place where they took place. Uncontrolled hatred exploded at the same time as missiles of NATO. A drama according to the already known scenario of ethnic cleansing escalated. The roar of American bombers created "ideal" conditions for dirty "cleansing" of enormous proportions.

Chief of police station near Rozaje warns the journalists not to go to the border in Savine vode, at the Haila mountain pass, because news arrived that some foreign journalists were arrested by Serb police there. A policeman confirms that Pec, Istok and surroundings were abandoned by the Albanians, several ten thousand of them.

It is no exaggeration to claim that what could be seen in the north of Montenegro was similar to the Bible scenes of exodus. On Monday Rozaje was completely blocked by cars and people. Hundreds of them were walking in the rain around the bus station waiting for the others who had lagged behind or to continue their journey. Where to - they did not know. The police had a very hard time regulating the traffic. Many of them who had arrived the previous day spent the night in their cars. The old and the newly established crisis staffs distributed a piece of bread and a can of food to each one of them. Shops that sell food were emptied in just a couple of hours. It was na opportunity for local profiteers who sell food at prices according to their choice, which also makes this situation a great test of tolerance and benevolence for the local inhabitants. The three bakeries in the town work day and night. It was impossible to enter the local post office because of the crowd.

The new refugees differ from those who had arrived last spring. A big number of them are city folk from Pec. They arrived in Montenegro by road in cars which have overnight become their only possession and their homes. There are also those who are arriving on foot, across Giljevo Polje, like last spring. On the road from Podgorica to Rozaje we have passed by about 200 cars with Pec licence plates which were headed towards southern Montenegro. On our way back, just a couple of hours later - lines of more than a hundred vehicles, one at the entrance to Berane and the other at Turjak, were passing the second, more thorough police control. It is a great humanitarian catastrophe, but also a significant test and challenge for local security. Many of them have no identity papers.

Some of them wish to go to third countries. We met a young man who wished to join his parents in Switzerland. Many wish to go to Albania, because parts of their families had gone there. The press writes about opening of a corridor at Bozaje or elsewhere along the Montenegrin-Albanian border, but it seems that this will have to wait until the presence of international organisations is provided. Those who wish to leave will have to confirm this in writing in their presence.

In the first days of this week, the decision was suspended of the government of Montenegro reached in September last year on the ban of further entrance of displaced persons into this Republic, with the explanation that it was not applicable in the newly created situation.

Where will they be accommodated, how will they be fed, what they will be medically treated with? Mosques and some factory buildings were opened in Rozaje, private homes were put at their disposal in Tuzi, negotiations are going on in Ulcinj about opening of some hotels.

The situation is further aggravated by the fact that before the announced bombing, foreigners left the local humanitarian offices. Only the local staff remained. There is little aid left in storehouses. The main storehouses of the most significant international humanitarian organisations, such as UNHCR, are in Belgrade and communications with it are deteriorated. Besides, in the situation of the current anti-Western disposition among a part of Montenegrin public, their work has become very difficult, even if there had been the necessary equipment and food.

Responsible persons claim that this time Montenegro will have to take the entire economic burden of refugees. Stocks from state reserves are already used to meet the needs of the local population, there are no drugs in pharmacies, because many people have made stocks when the bombing was announced. New stocks are not arriving from Serbian factories, because transportation communications are very difficult. The situation is alarming because it is not any better when other commodities are concerned.

A new tide of displaced Albanians from Kosovo is a great challenge for Montenegro. They are not just a great economic burden for the completely closed and devastated Montenegrin economy, but also a great trial for Montenegrin ethnic and religious tolerance. During bombardments, chauvinist factions and xenophobia are spreading, and the war and its neighbourhood affected by the war are reduced to poverty. In such conditions, victims of this dirty policy and ethnic persecution in many hungry minds may become the culprits for their troubles.

Gordana BOROVIC (AIM)