Compiled by Kristopher Koka Cold Spring Harbor High School New York, United States
Turbulent times in the Balkans continue to threaten the stability of the rest of Europe. In what many are calling one of the most appalling acts against humanity since World War II, Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic has set out on a path of ethnic cleansing aimed against ethnically Albanian residents of the small Serbian province of Kosovo. As of April 5, over 350,000 ethnic Albanian residents of Kosovo have been forcibly displaced from their homes by Serbian paramilitary police. This represents nearly a quarter of the ethnic Albanian population in the entire province. These police have used brutal tactics in the coercive evacuation of the defenseless Kosovars.
In one instance reported to military officials at a refugee camp which occurred in Suva Reka, a man who had rented his house to international monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was executed by the Serbian police at his front door, along with most of his family, four days after the foreigners had evacuated.
Others tell stories of how these Serbian police groups rounded up ethnic Albanians in Kosovo's capital city of Pristina and dumped dozens of bodies in big, black garbage bags in front of a downtown supermarket. Others who worked for the foreign investigators have been beaten and had their houses burned to the ground. Two of the most infamous of these paramilitary units, the White Eagles and the Tigers have moved to Kosovo to "loot and terrorize ethnic Albanians," says a NATO spokesman. "The police ordered us out of our house at gunpoint. They marched us in a long line, along with all the neighbors to the railroad station," said a displaced Kosovar.
As of April, the situation does not look as though it is improving either. More than 200,000 refugees have arrived in Albania alone, a country with a lower standard of living than Kosovo. Over 150,000 others have spilled over the borders into countries like Montenegro and Macedonia and threaten to disturb the ethnic balance presently held in the country.
General Clark of the NATO force believes this to be a "calculated and deliberate" move by Milosevic to disturb neighboring Macedonia, "Not only does it change the demographics in Kosovo, but it helps to destabilize Macedonia," he says. Because of this massive influx of refugees, Macedonia has already been forced to close its borders, and it is strictly enforcing these restrictions with military forces which were called into action.
The rate at which the refugees pour out from Kosovo is uncontrollable. Nearly 1,500 new people every hour cross the border into Albania. Despite the efforts of groups such as the French Doctors of the World, medical supplies are scarce, and the people of Kosovo seem to be escaping one horror only to be met by another. Countries such as the United States, Germany, Norway, Ireland, and Turkey have all agreed to take in nearly 120,000 refugees between them, however, for the time being, many are perishing in the unsanitary refugee camps on the northern border of Albania. Virtually every household in these border areas has taken in refugees; many homes have several huddled families sleeping on floors. The line of cars waiting to get into the country is miles and miles long, and it only becomes larger as days pass.
President Bill Clinton of the United States of America has committed a force of 6,000 to aid in the protection of these camps and dispatched of a force of Apache helicopters to Kosovo. These helicopters were deemed necessary to the protection of the people of the province after air strikes on the capital city of Belgrade failed to make Milosevic succumb to NATO's demands of greater autonomy for the Kosovo province.
Public opinion around the world remains mixed as anti-NATO rallies were held in both Rome and Cyprus, yet demonstrations condemning the Serbs as war criminals were held in Pakistan. Movie theaters in Siberia have replaced American films with Yugoslav features in an act of protest against "American aggression" as well.