War spurs some Kosovars to return home
BARI Spring, 1999 - For the past few days, the passenger terminal in the port of Bari has been an unusually busy place. Its -coffee shop has been packed with Italian aid workers and ethnic Albanian men, sipping espresso, waiting to board ships headed for the port of Durres, Albania.
While the Italians launched official convoys of Red Cross workers, volunteer from the Alpini military corps, and prepared two navy ships, the San Giusto and the San Marco, informal bands of Kosovars and Albanians left their jobs in Germany, Switzerland, and other European countries in order to search for their families, bring clothing and comfort, or, in many cases, to join the Kosovo liberation Army.
All the world has come to help us. We have to help ourselves, too," said Besnik Bezbi, a 35-Year-old Kosovar waiter who lives in Salzburg, Austria. Sitting around a table with a group of eight, friends at the terminal's coffee shop, he said he was going to join the KLA. A few of his friends spoke up, indicating that they too, intended to fight with the rebels.
None of them, they said, had any military training. A young man sitting next to Mr. Bezhi said it didn't matter, because he had lost everything and had nothing left to lose. He, like Mr. Bezhi, said he had no idea where his family was or whether they were safe. The last time Mr. Bezhi heard from his parents and siblings in the southern Kosovar town of Jakova was on March 24, just before, he says, Serbs cut the telephone lines.
When he heard that the Serbs had expelled ethnic Albanians from Jakova, he says he quit his job and has no idea when he will return. Albanians and Kosovars take the ferries to Albania every year on Easter weekend, taking advantage of the European holiday to visit family and friends. But this year, workers at the Adriatic and Vikinga passenger shipping lines said there are many more than usual. Ships have been filled to capacity, transporting about 1,200 passengers a day. A clerk at the Vikinga Line in Bari estimated that there were about 20 percent more Kosovar passengers than in past years. Tell NATO to bomb even more," said Plak Ukaj, a 31-year old Kosovar construction worker living in Perugia.
"If they hadn't started bombing it would have been even worse." Mr. Ukaj rattled off the names of four cousins that he heard had been 'killed by the Serbs. He and a group of his friends planned to travel from refugee camp to refugee camp until they found their families. Mr. Ukaj wanted to return to his job as soon as possible, and hoped to bring his family to Italy, at least temporarily. His employer was understanding, he said; and would allow him as much, time off, as he needed.
But Mr. Ukajs optimism that he would even find his family was not shared by all the Kosovars waiting for the ferry this Easter weekend. Muhamedi Mici a 42-year-old Kosovar plumber who has lived as a political refugee in Germany for more than 15 years, said he was going to Albania just to help, without expecting to find his relatives. He has no information about his brothers in Jakova, but heard a rumor of a massacre. With close to 200,000 refugees dispersed throughout. Albania and Macedonia, he didn't think it was realistic to actually find his relatives. He began to cry as he opened a box of colorful baby sweaters he had collected from neighbors to take to refugee camps. His Mercedes Sedan was crammed with boxes fill of items for the refugees.
But the mountains of bedding and baggage visible through the windows of most cars parked, waiting for the ferry, did not appear to be solely aimed at private relief efforts by compassionate individuals. When asked where he was headed, a young man in. a minivan simply said: "The war." The majority of the passengers informally questioned this weekend said they were going to fight with the KLA.
Between recruiting among, the refugees along the northern border of Albania, and the influx of perhaps hundreds volunteers, from around Europe, some suggest that the KLA will soon try to launch a new campaign against the Serbs in Kosovo. But only one man among about 30 interviewed in the Bari terminal said he had any military experience, and most of that was spent as a political prisoner in an army jail cell.