Recent Romnews postings
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Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 10:14:13 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Recent Romnews postings
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Recent Romnews postings
Stenkovec / MAKEDONIA (RNN Correspondent), August the 28th, 1999
RCC "DROM" together with Martin Demirovski - external collaborator
from Kumanovo had a visit of Stenkovec 2 and they obliged themselves
to give you a following information.
28.08.1999 Saturday, at 9 p.m., location Stenkovec 2 (place 15 minutes
far from Skopje by car).
Group of several Roma refugees in Stenkovec had sees 3 Albanians in
the camp. The Roma refugees were very curious why and what this people
are here when they are not humanitarian workers from the camp. Then
the Roma thought that the police could answer this question from the
camp (who is responsible for the safety into the camp and around). The
policemen heard this information and they went up to see the Albanians
where they are and what they are doing. When the Albanians saw the
police they started with the running. After few minutes the policemen
took just two of the three. The third Albanian guy he escaped near to
the wear-house of the UNHCR and from there trough the fence (made of
wire) he left of the camp. After this the policemen from the camp
confirmed that the Albanians did not give them any identification
documents what means they came in the camp but ilegal.
Tomorrow morning Sunday 29 th of September the Roma refugees reacted
immediately with the following needs:
1. They do not want any Albanian's humanitarian aid workers in the
camp anymore;
2. They need Roma to come and to work for them;
3. They need better safety conditions and etc.
Mr. Robert Alen - camp manager from CARE International answered them
if you like that then I have to stop with the humanitarian program
except the food. The refugees said OK we do not need any humanitarian
program we need a better safety conditions and Roma humanitarian aid
workers. After this the International staff from the camp said O.K.
And now in Stenkovec 2 there are just International staff and
Macedonian aid workers who are not enough to cover the activities in
the camp.
DEVLESA
Ashmet Elezovski
[email protected]
Board Member of Roma National Congress
-----------------------------
The Independent, 27 August 1999
HUMAN TRAFFICKERS HELD FOR 100 DEATHS TWO SUSPECTED
ring leaders of a Yugoslav human trafficking network were arrested on
criminal charges relating to the deaths of more than 100 Roma who
drowned in the Adriatic as they tried to reach the Italian coast in a
tiny fishing
Boat.
The traffickers are accused of packing the people on to a vessel
designed for nine people. They had charged the refugees between 1,000
and 2,500 German marks (pounds 350 to pounds 870) each for the trip
from Montenegro, the smaller of the two republics still in Yugoslavia,
to Italy. The body of a small boy was pulled from the sea off the
Yugoslav coast yesterday, the latest of the past week's grim discovery
of more than 40 corpses, some of them partly disintegrated. A further
60 passengers on the same vessel are believed to have died. So far
only one survivor has been found.
Police said the two men, Joko Nikaljevic from Kotor and Ramadan Balja
from the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, were detained on Thursday.
Six others from Montenegro and Serbia were still at large. About 7,000
gypsies have arrived on the shores of southern Italy in recent weeks,
bringing tales of murder, rape, torture and looting by Albanians who
accuse them of collaborating with the Serbs in the Balkan war. But
many of them now face deportation back to Kosovo after the Italian
government not to consider them refugees.
Unlike the Kosovo Albanians, the gypsies are viewed as illegal
immigrants, to be turned back at the borders or sent home. The Italian
government has defended the about face, saying the war is now over and
the special status of "humanitarian refugees", which allowed fleeing
Kosovars to remain in Italy until December, has been revoked. The
timing of the measure, just as the first wave of gypsies arrived, has
provoked a barrage of criticism of double standards and racism.
At a reception camp on a disused runway near Bari airport, 702
gypsies, including 269 children under the age of five, have taken the
places of Kosovo Albanians who have now returned home. They occupy the
same neat rows of white caravans interspersed with brightly coloured
children's play huts and pristine portable toilets.
In the afternoon heat, families sit outside their caravans on deck
chairs reminiscing about the past and discussing the future. Ali
Ademi, 65, touches his still tender ribcage as he recalls the day he
decided to flee: "The KLA came to our house and ordered us to hand
over any arms the Serbs had given us. When we told them we had none,
they turned their machine-gun on my brother-in-law, who was confined
to a wheelchair, and killed him. They then tied my hands with a rope
and dragged me behind a car for a mile to force me to talk. It was
pointless. I had no weapons to give them."
An elderly woman with grey hair, black eyes and wrinkled cheeks
recounts how her neighbour, a childhood friend, was raped in front of
her eyes. Nehrup Gashi, 28, from Pristina, adds: "If they try to send
us back, I swear half the people would jump overboard. We want to pick
up what pieces are left but not to become sitting ducks for the KLA.
The K-For troops just stand aside and do nothing. We went to a
British barracks asking for help but they didn't want to know."
-----------------------------
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