Humanitarian Business

AIM Skopje, 28 May, 1999

In the past few days, minister of finance in Macedonian government, Boris Stojmenov, repeated a few times that should it be established by inspection which is in progress that under the guise of humanitarian aid for refugees and banished persons from Kosovo commodities are imported which actually find their way to local marketplaces and that as part of humanitarian aid even alcoholic beverages were imported (presumably to keep up high spirits of humanitarian workers temporarily working in Macedonia), the government would abolish its decision on exemption from duty and taxes commodities intended for Kosovars who are in Macedonia.

From the very beginning of the exodus of Kosovo Albanians, there were clear signs that there are people who wish to profiteer on their misery. During the developments in Blace (border crossing with Kosovo where a few ten thousand refugees and banished persons for several days stood and waited in the rain and the cold on no man's land between the Yugoslav and the Macedonian border), certain individuals started renting out mobile phones. Kosovars who had relatives and friends in Macedonia did not hesitate to give up to a hundred German marks for short phone calls of a minute or two to contact and inform them where they were and ask them to appeal on the local politicians and humanitarian workers to get them out of the muddy hole in which they had spent days. Of course, it was impossible to prove that getting them out of there had an additional price for the wretched Kosovars to the benefit of those who "helped" them.

When the issue of reception of the banished was resolved, when an agreement between the government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was reached and the first camps were built into which the tide of people flowed, "capable" persons appeared again who found ways to make a profit from the suffering of others. Smuggling of cigarettes flourished - the worst brands of Macedonian cigarettes reached the price of 50 German marks a carton. And nothing to say about alcoholic beverages. Business with issuing permits for erecting kiosks in camps began, where in the first days it was possible to buy food stuffs at slightly higher prices than the ones in marketplaces in Macedonia.

Then wheeler-dealers, alleged humanitarian workers, appeared who at first charged fees for "pulling out" the poor people from the camps, and then there were those who set a price for putting them on a waiting list for departure to a third western country. And it is not by accident that a team of UNHCR workers has recently arrived from Geneva to verify the rumours that the persons who decided who of the Kosovars would continue their life of refugees in some of the third countries charged for the "service" in foreign currency which these unfortunate people did not spare, only if they had anything left after the "filters" of Serbian policemen, soldiers or para-soldiers they had passed through, just in order to arrive at any destination in the West. It is a completely different issue whether this UNHCR team will in its investigation be able to determine the fact which is common knowledge that this was and still is practised.

Finally, in addition to smuggling, prostitution appeared also in the camps. Yesterday, the police deported a few women from Romania who made their living by practising the oldest profession in the famous Stenkovec camp. How had they got there, who had let them in, who had "employed" them? Answers to these questions are simple and complex at the same time - although it is clear how this had happened, it is difficult to believe that any investigation can pinpoint the main protagonists.

It seems that this is just the tip of the iceberg in the sea of suffering of the Kosovars who were forced to leave their homes. "Humanitarian business is like any other business", one of those who had arrived to Macedonia in order to do something for the refugees and the banished from Kosovo frankly declared. He also stated that everyone who has come to the region to help the persons in distress has its percentage of the money they draw from various sources for relieving humanitarian suffering, which is automatically paid to the account of the organization for covering its expenses. According to him, these percentages vary. For some organizations it is between 7 and 10 per cent (for the smaller ones), while for the highly bureaucratic international organizations it reaches up to 25 per cent.

In Macedonia, according to local newspapers, there are about four thousand foreigners (not counting NATO soldiers, members of OSCE and other representatives of the international community) who are in one way or another taking care of the consequences of the war in the region and humanitarian catastrophe which is its result. There are at least two thousand foreign journalists a day. Local journalists, interpreters and taxi-drivers profit the most. The price of services of all three categories is a hundred dollars a day.

A man who had before the beginning of the great tide of people from Kosovo which flooded the region worked for one of the great (highly bureacratic) international organizations and who made 1,500 American dollars a month (which is very much for Macedonian conditions - for example, it is twice as much as Macedonian president or prime minister earn) says that well paid local staff (Macedonian citizens) may earn up to 33 American dollars an hour. As concerning how the foreigners engaged on the same jobs are paid here are just two examples.

First, one of them claims that those who are paid according to criteria of the UN are best paid. A head of a "small" mission with a staff of up to 20 persons, according to these criteria earns between 120 and 144 thousand American dollars a year! For the sake of comparison, Monica Levinsky's first salary at the White House was 25 thousand of the same green banknotes. And second, in Macedonia among the unemployed, and there are more than 350 thousand of them (the figure which increases because numerous enterprises which lived off cooperation with Yugoslavia are forced to shut down), there is a large percentage of graduated physicians. But, so far none of them were engaged by any of the international humanitarian organization which is offering medical services in refugee camps. Moreover, the only Macedonian physicians who are on duty in the camps are those employed at local medical centres and clinics because it is their working obligation, and foreign doctors who are coming from Europe, even from other continents, are paid like in their countries (at least ten times more than the local doctors), but they also receive a bonus for war conditions and all their expenses are covered. Among other, this includes apartment rent and in the past two months rent has gone sky high - depending on the quality of what is offered, it ranges between one and several thousand marks.

A couple of days ago, Macedonian government banned import of food products which can be purchased in Macedonia for humanitarian purposes. A strict control for expiry dates of drugs and food and other products which will be flowing into Macedonia as humanitarian aid has also been announced. No wonder people say that one man's loss is another man's gain.

AIM Skopje

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