the kosovo crisis

On a recent visit to CARE programs in Macedonia and Kosovo, CARE staff member Marshall Burke kept a diary of his thoughts and experiences...

6/18/99 - Macedonia
Arrived in Skopje and went straight to the CARE office.

The refugee situation remains a bit up in the air, as more and more people are crossing home daily. CARE is continuing to manage the refugee camps in Macedonia.

6/20/99 - Macedonia
Drove up to the Kosovo border station.

In spite of the danger and uncertainty, refugees are going home. There was about a two-mile line of vehicles filled with families, carrying what they could, in the heat and the confusion, waiting to cross. There were many women with children under their arms, others holding onto their legs and skirts, etc. The women also carry a satchel, a sac, a back pack or a suitcase with their few possessions, maybe a sleeping mat, and a bit of food. It is hot, and there are virtually no services available to these people as they wait endless hours, and then finally cross.

6/21/99 - Macedonia
Today we put into place a boarder post where we are providing bottles of water, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and tinned meat to each person to help them on their way. We also put together "baby packs" with oral rehydration salt packages (to help stop diarrhea if the children drink bad water), baby food and fruit juice. In addition, we are setting up latrines for two reasons. The most obvious is sanitation and health, with thousands going into the woods right now to relieve themselves, and the second is safety. The other side of the border is littered with land mines - there have been seven casualties since Wednesday. If we can give people a chance to relieve themselves on this side of the boarder, they will have less exposure to land mines once they cross the border. We are also placing plastic bracelets on small children bearing their name, their parent or guardian's name and their community name on them. It is inevitable that children will become separated from their families, just as when they came over, and this will help reunite them.

6/25/99 - Macedonia
Things are pacing themselves a bit better. When I arrived, I went to the camps -- CARE had responsibility for 68,000 men, women and children. The borders were in chaos and people were returning home with very little. But our border program is up, running and excellent. We have assembled food packs for 70,000 people. The latrines are open.

6/28/99 - Macedonia
Led a strategic planning workshop this weekend with Kosovo and Macedonia staff. They did an excellent job. I am trying to type up the bare bones of the strategy for them before I go. We will concentrate first on basic provisioning -- shelter, warm rooms for the coming winter, and feeding. Congruent activities will focus on mine awareness training of staff and civilians as well as de-mining work (just heard there may be about 24 land mines around the CARE warehouse, for example). As these processes kick in, we will then begin developing a second tier of activities in the next month focusing on agriculture and health centers. I will probably go up to Pristina late this week to discuss how to incorporate security, mine awareness and de-mining into the program plan.

7/2/99 - Macedonia
CARE sponsored an Albanian concert in the Cegrane camp with a volunteer band. The weather was beautiful -- it has finally quit drizzling and turned warm. There was golden sun behind the verdant hills. Several thousand people showed the first real joy I have seen in circles of dance and smiling faces showing signs of victory and hope. And there are so many the children. They all want to touch you and be held. Once in your arms, in your lap, slung around your shoulders and neck, they snuggle in deep, and hold on like there is no tomorrow. I keep wondering, "What have they seen? What will they find? Can they forgive, forget and flourish?" Language is a barrier. We can't talk. But we can touch.

7/4/99 - Kosovo
In Kosovo.
What a difficult return it will be for these families. The area CARE is working in right now, in the Urosevac region, is comparatively little damaged. Pristina has electricity and water -- and new shops are opening again every day. The feeling and energy is one of hope and reconstruction. The British NATO forces patrol very heavily. Huge convoys of heavy armaments, supplies and munitions travel virtually 24 hours a day. In Prisitna itself, heavily armed NATO patrols are to be found at every street corner. Armored vehicles do spot checks, and, although there is no curfew, almost no one is out at night. Invisible Black Hawk helicopters with no lights patrol overhead.

7/6/99 - Kosovo I found out while that over 50 percent -- 225 of the 420 mine fields laid by the Serb army -- are in the area CARE is working. This is the area where the NATO land invasion was to have occurred, and the Serbs prepared for a major tank war, laying tens of thousand of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. Every CARE staff member now gets extensive de-mining awareness training, checks in with our land mine "Ops" room daily, and every vehicle has a radio. Once we know more about where the mines are, and have checked villages for booby traps, it will be better. But for now, extreme caution is the word. People are out working in their fields, gathering in hay as fast as possible for their remaining livestock before the fall. They are putting that ahead of repairing their own homes. Last week in Mitrovicia -- another of CARE's areas of operation, 47 people were maimed or killed by mines. One woman told me about a pen she saw sitting on some flour left in her kitchen. She felt it was strange and asked a soldier to look. It was a booby trap and would have blown off her hand as she prepared to feed her family.

7/5/99 - Kosovo
While Pristina stands, the area around Mitrovicia is 80 percent gone. It is devastating. In one village, I stood on a bluff overseeing a path of destruction that was near 100 percent. Tank tracks at my feet, and thousands of 20mm shell casings told the story. The Serb tanks and artillery took the bluff, and then took their time leveling the village to the ground. Yet the people are back. And CARE is there, giving hope in the form of shelter packages of wood and plastic. Food. Basic supplies. Enough to get them started again. It will be long and cold, but with luck -- and with CARE -- we will get through it together.

7/9/99 - Kosovo My last day. In a village, we stopped in front of a building whose walls had been blown out -- big enough for three adults to walk through abreast. "CARE" the people kept saying. It was the only common term we had. One man gestured for me to walk with him to the damaged structure. He went through the gapping hole and came out with a bullet riddled CARE sign -- this had been one of our old field offices. And we were back. Our promise renewed.