her working for a French photo agency who wanted to get to the border and back in time to have his film processed and wired to his editors before noon. Unfortunately he forgot that Macedonia just went on daylight savings time, and we spent an hour in the dark at Blace before we could photograph anything. Blace is the infamous "no man's land," heavily reported in all the international media. Upon my arrival on Friday morning, April 2, the refugee flow was still on the rise and almost nothing was in place yet. I observed a huge sea of people standing in a dark, misty and muddy field, being held back by armed Macedonian police and military guards. Some refugees were filtering through to either get medicine or water at a makeshift medical area set up by the International Medical Corps (IMC). Others were leaving "no man's land" for either buses to take them to who knows where (they didn't), or just walking on foot into Macedonia. Most of these refugees were recently driven out of Pristina a day or two before. T

hey either drove to the border or were forced onto trains. In either case, the trip was harrowing. They had no food or water during the trip. All along the way, Serb guards demanded money and jewelry and continued to harass them. They could not buy anything in the few shops along the way that were open. Upon reaching the border, their documents were destroyed, and they had to abandon their vehicles. Some were forced to bribe Macedonian police to cross the border. The ones who came by train were let out on the Kosova side of the border and walked along the tracks into no man's land because they feared landmines on either side of the tracks. Tetova That afternoon I left Skopje for Tetova, the center of the Albanian population in Macedonia, and checked into the Hotel Macedonia. The next morning, I was fortunate to meet up with a young Kosova Albanian, Enver Vrajolli, who became my translator for the remainder of the trip. He just came across the border two days before from Pristina with his parents and his gi

rlfriend, Afradita. His story was just like the others. Armed paramilitaries came to his house and gave them ten minutes to leave. They also demanded money from him. When he said he didn't have any, they pointed a gun at him and said they would kill him if he didn't produce any. He did manage to give them 200 German marks, leaving him and his family with 20 marks and the clothes on their backs upon entering Macedonia by train. His father was a partisan in World War II and spent the post-war years building a house and raising a family. Now they have nothing. They don't know if or when they will be able to return. West Kosova Enver educated me about-or told me his view of-the Albanian situation in the region. Macedonia is officially 23% Albanian, the remainder being primarily Macedonian, but with a sizable Serb and Roma community as well. The Albanian community on the other hand estimates that the country is really 50% Albanian. Like Kosova, they feel oppressed by the Macedonians, and do not have access to g

overnment institutions. They are vastly under-represented in all aspects of the official economy, and have very little representation at the ministerial level in government. Neither is their university in Tetova recognized by the government. Western Macedonia, closest to the Kosova border, is 95% Albanian. The Albanians refer to the region as West Kosova. This makes no sense because it is on the eastern edge of Kosova. Someone later explained to me that it is called West Kosova because there is actually a region in northeast Macedonia that is called East Kosova. Many Albanians I spoke with said they must fight for their freedom and can imagine taking up arms against Macedonia. It is unclear from my discussions if greater autonomy would satisfy their need for freedom, although they did say they do not need land, just control of their destiny. Understandably, the Macedonians are extremely nervous about this new influx of Albanians that will skew the demographics in favor of the Albanian population. Enver an

d other Albanians repeatedly said that the Serbs and Macedonians are of the "same kitchen." I am not so sure that I agree, but the important matter is that they think so. They also are very suspicious of Slavs in general, although they are somewhat sympathetic to Bosnians. When I mentioned that Bosnians are Slavs, they didn't have an answer. Albanians comprise the oldest nation in the Balkans and they have a distinct language from the rest of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Most of the younger Kosova Albanians also speak Serbian, but not all. The Macedonian language is similar to Serbian-also written in Cyrillic-but there are differences in the way Croatian and Bosnian are now distinct languages. Visiting refugees I spent the afternoon on Sunday talking with refugees from Kosova who had settled in Tetova. They were not difficult to find. My translator literally just stopped someone on the street and asked if they knew where we could find some refugees to talk with. In the house in front of us were

three families from Pristina living on one floor. These were professionals-doctors, economists, engineers-who like everyone else in Pristina were forced to leave. And like everyone else, they were missing family members and not knowing what would happen to them next. I loaned one family my cell phone so that they could call their relatives in Switzerland whom they had not talked to since there exodus from Pristina. Enver and I later went to the El Hilal office in Tetova. We noticed this organization at all locations where there were aid groups and they appeared very effective in working with the refugees. Their office was mobbed with refugees looking for assistance and they were extremely busy working out logistics and helping refugees find lost relatives and find places to live in Tetova. Friends of Bosnia will be sending donations for Kosova relief to El Hilal so that they can continue their work in helping refugees. Delivering Aid in Blace On Tuesday, April 6, I joined forces with some local concerned

Albanians and went out to the markets in Tetova to purchase direct aid for refugees. With resources that I had at hand just in case this opportunity arose, I spent $800 on the following items: 50 liters of juice 100 bottles of water (1.5 liters) 80 loaves of bread 150 liters of milk 30 packages of cheese 100 packages of crackers Miscellaneous medical supplies Members of the local Macedonian Red Cross joined us with a van filled of water, and by mid-afternoon we drove back up to Blace. I spent the rest of the afternoon bringing arms full of food down into the no man's land-alternately taking pictures and ripping open six packs of water and juice. I also helped to bring four elderly people and one invalid on a stretcher out of no man's land to the medical tent set up by the IMC. Delivering Aid in Jazince The next day I met two Germans who had come down to Macedonia to help out with the refugee crisis and to bear witness. We again went to stores in Tetova to purchase food and medical supplies. We rented a

taxi for the day and drove to the border at Jazince where there were about 7,000 Kosova Albanians at the border but prevented from coming in by the Serb police. On the Macedonian side of the border were approximately 15 aid workers, 10-15 journalists, and 50 refugees who were waiting for family members to cross. Upon our arrival, nothing was happening other than both sides watching the stand off. My German companions and I went up to the border where we negotiated with the Macedonian police to allow us to bring food to the other side. For a brief period of 20 minutes, we grabbed all the food that we brought, as well as food stockpiled by the Macedonian Red Cross and brought it to the border where it was delivered to the waiting refugees. Finally the Macedonian police forced us to stop. We then attempted a similar effort to bring sick people from the Kosova side across the border to waiting medical personnel. We were unsuccessful in this effort. An hour later we watched as the refugees in Kosova started to

turn away from the border and head back into Kosova. We soon realized that the Serb military were forcing them back into Kosova for unknown reasons. Perhaps they were to be used as human shields, or worse. Standing next to me was a young Albanian woman with tears streaming down her face as she watched members of her family who were moments before within view, head back into Kosova. Vratnica When we realized that there was nothing else that could be done, we loaded up our taxi with the food that was stockpiled by the Red Cross and drove back towards Tetova where we noticed earlier a group of refugees waiting in a small town Vratnica. They were from a village in Kosova, and like all other refugees were forced out at gun point. They had walked over steep mountains in two feet of snow and just wandered across the unmanned border into Macedonia. My German companions drove back to Tetova to purchase another taxi load of food to distribute to this group. About an hour later three buses came and the group were br

ought to the nearby refugee camp set up by NATO. NATO refugee camp This was erected by German and Dutch NATO forces to house 3000 refugees. When I arrived there were only 900 refugees, but within a few days the camps was filled. It was quite an impressive facility with tents with wooden floors, windows, heaters and electric lights. There were also washing facilities, a fully equipped field hospital and a mess tent to feed the residents. Enver and I went into a few tents while he was looking for family members from Pristina who were unaccounted for. The refugees now were living the slow, sad life away from their homes, with no apparent future. They didn't have access to news and didn't know what was happening in Kosova, Belgrade, or to the hundreds of thousands of other refugees coming across the border into Macedonia and Albania. They all wanted to know when they could go home. I met one woman with a five week old baby swaddled in white cloth. The infant had been driven out like everyone else, and now wa

s laying peacefully on a green army-issue blanket in the tent. An appeal for contributions for refugee relief Friends of Bosnia is accepting cash donations to send to El Hilal in Tetova to further their support for refugees. Checks can be made out to Friends of Bosnia/Kosova Relief Fund and sent to the address below. FOB is a non-profit, tax-deductible organization. Glenn Ruga Director Friends of Bosnia 47 East Street Hadley, MA 01035 Tel: 413-586-6450 Fax: 413-586-2415 fob@crocker.com HYPERLINK "http://www.crocker.com/~fob" www.crocker.com/~fob