Pictures from Kosovo Roma !

Roma from the camp Krusevac near Obilic considering the bad situation in

the camp started with preparations to leave the camp on Monday ,20.09.1999.

A group of over 500 Roma went toward the Macedonian border -Blace. There

were small children, pregnant women, invalids, old persons. While walking

on the road people had unwanted contact with a group of revolted Albanians

and few Roma got hurt. After 6 hours walking they arrived in the village

Ljaplje- Serbian settlement ,but they were not allowed to take a rest and

were welcomed with the same hostility. They finished their trip at one gas

station owned by Albanian and spent the night there. Tomorrow morning they

took a bus to the border provided by UNHCR-Kosovo.At 16 o'clock they

arrived at the border and when they tried to pass they were sent back by

the Macedonian authorities with the explanation that Macedonia can not

accept them,the war is over , their lives are not in danger and KFOR is

responsible for their security in Kosovo. And so the Roma refugees were

forced to stay at the borderline by the buses they arrived with and to

improvise their own tents. On Wednsday ,22.09 the situation maintained the

same.

The private TVs and the independent newspapers in Skopje informed about the

event. On Thursday ,Sep. 23rd at 14.00 with the help of Mr.Jan- a

representative of OBSE-Macedonia and with the understanding of Mr. Blagoja

Kotev , the representative of the Macedonian police at Blace, the members

of RCC"DROM"Kumanovo (Ramis Osmanovski, Martin Demirovski and Asmet

Elezovski) were allowed to visit the Roma refugees on the no man's land

between Macedonia and Serbia. We were informed about everything mentioned

above.

We recorded some of their stories :

Mevluda Krasnici from Obilic, maried, pregnant in her 9th month, felt

terrible pains and she was taken to hospital in Pristina on Sep. 17th,

Friday.That day she was given a medical treatment by dr.Jemail and the pain

stopped. On Sunday doctors find that the child is dead.On Monday she was

treated by the surgents, and after that she leaves the hospital in very bad

situation, frightened and maltreated by the hospital personnel.The mother

claims that the doctor killed their child. Now she is with the other Roma

on the border. We asked help from the Greek organization "Doctors without

boundaries".They did everything to help her and she recovered soon.

Small children (they can't speak and hear) were crying and one of their

relatives said that their father died heavily wounded by a group of

Albanians. He was taken to the hospital, passed away there but nobody knows

where he was burried.Roma people talked in fear for their troubles in

Kosovo saying : " We didn't start the war but now we are persecuted from

our homes, KFOR is not able to give us full protection , we are facing

everyday pressures and maltreatments by the Albanians , because of the

impossibility for survival we had to get away.If we stay there we will have

to wait our death. There is no way back. Believe us that the only rule

there is the rule of the weapons and hate . Most of the refuges had such

statements (Rahman, Ramis, Baskim, Skender, Emina , Gjusefa ). They came

mostly from Pristina, Obilic, Kosovo Polje, Crkvena Vodica, Kosovo B and

Kosovo A, places where Roma people were living and now everything is burned

and destroyed. For the last two days they received humanitarian help from

UNHCR from Kosovo. 150 children under age of three needed milk and hygienic

means. People are unwashed for a weeks, and many deseases are

threathening. Roma people were crying instead of talking.Everything around

was scaring them . That day the representatives of UNHCR ,those of the

Roma refugees and the representative of Macedonia had a meeting in order to

find possible solution of the situation. We haven't got any official

information about this.

After the situation was considered the representatives of RCC"DROM"Kumanovo

gave information for the Roma NGO network in Europe. The representatives of

DROm left the place and after two hours they were back with humanitarian

help-nutrition articles. The organization provided bread, milk, juices and

food for the children for two or three days with the means donated by Roma

and non-Roma organizations and individuals from Australia, USA, England,

Switzerland. First organization that joined us was Karitas-Essen-Mr.

ilija,some considerable amount of cans (fish and pastes), the mayor of

Suto Orizari -Nezdet Mustafa provided mineral water.CRS-Skopje provided

baby food and fruits. The consignment was given to the refugees' leaders.

Leaving the borderline (where KFOR is situated) the Roma refugees asked the

whole world to be informed about their situation. In the realization of the

help for the Roma refugees were engaged the representatives of RCC"DROM"

Ramis Osmanovski, Ahmet Jasarevski, Samir Demirovski, Toni Vuckovski,

Martin Demirovski, mayor Nezdet Mustafa and Asmet Elezovski.

The requests of RCC"DROM" for the improval and solving of this situation

are:

1. UNHCR to inform the world about the real events and the situation of the

Roma from Kosovo and to provide medical help for the refugees on Blace

border place.

2. KFOR to give bigger protection to the Roma and to stop the further

maltreatments by the Albanians

3. KFOR, UNHCR and the International organizations to be more engaged in

the informing and looking for solution of the current problem of the Roma

people

(We therefore ask the European Institutions , OBSE, UN, is it so difficult

for them to find a solution for this problem when they could solve the

problem of the bigger number of Albanian refugees during the war in

Kosovo.)

Our message to the world in this moment is:

STOP THE RACISM AND THE GENOCIDE AGAINST ROMA PEOPLE-DON'T LET THE HISTORY

REPEAT AGAIN !!

Asmet Elezovski member of board Roma Nacional Congres

asmet@romanacionalcongress.org

Stopanska Banka a.d.-Skopje

SFIFT-STOB MK 2X

40100-623-79

Konto 727150-11174-13

Elezovski Asmet

Ljube Gacev 6

91300 Kumanovo