Posted on 5/17/2004, 8:59:18 AM by Nennsy
Serbian original at http://www.glas-javnosti.co.yu/danas/srpski/R04051101.shtml
Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade May 12, 2004
Impressions of Serbs from France who visited Kosovo last weekend
Survival on tranquilizers
Under the influence of strong medication the people in the refugee camps wept and trembled
By Ivana Ikras
(photo: A Serb woman beaten by Albanian mob during March 17 riots)
The very approach to Holy Archangels Monastery, located in the Bistrica River gorge some three kilometers from Prizren, is dreadful. We were met at the bridge leading to the church by German soldiers and we stood in line in front of them for a long time. We inched forward toward the control checkpoint.
They strip searched us and everything gave the impression that we were entering a prison camp, not an 14th century Orthodox Christian holy shrine. As we drew nearer to the monastery we were met by the horrible sight of the completely destroyed monastery. Ovens and refrigerators were scattered in the field; not far from the ruins a tent was pitched where the monks have lived, prayed and served liturgy since the most recent violence when the monastery was torched.
The priest welcomed us with words of what seemed like apology. He repeated that everything happened at lightning speed, that everything exploded all around and the monastery burned down in the blink of an eye. A black cat was persistently and neurotically meowing on the ruins. At one point, the priest excused himself from us and went to remove the animal. He told us: "Forgive her, she's been through a terrible shock." All of us newly arrived guests instantly burst into tears. I wonder what shape the people must be in, I thought to myself.
Mila Aleckovic-Nikolic, clinical psychologist and vice-president of the Congress of European Serbs, thus relates her impressions from a recent two day visit to Kosovo and Metohija with a group of Serbs from France visiting the southern Serbian province for the first time since the violence of March 17.
Aleckovic says that the initial idea of the Congress of European Serbs, an organization gathering Serbs from 13 countries, was for groups from all five continents with foreign flags to hold a big meeting at the beginning of April. Permission was refused.
We had 200 women who registered just from Germany. Several tens of thousands of Serbs from the whole world were ready to symbolically enter Gracanica on the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday when, according to the Scriptures, Christ entered Jerusalem. We announced the meeting to the international forces; however, they turned us down without explanation. The day that the international military entered Kosovo, those of us who live abroad started paying taxes for that military. Since we are financing them, we have the right to ask those who are keeping the peace in the cradle of Serbia to take us anywhere, says Aleckovic.
Finally a delegation of 20 Serbs from France, among them Mila Aleckovic, delivered humanitarian aid and visited the German camp near Kosovska Mitrovica where 60 Serb refugees are lodged.
They didn't know who we were or where we were from but the moment we appeared at the door they ran to us, touched us, literally clung to every stranger who entered inside. And suddenly everyone was crying. There are no children in the camp, only old people: one of them missing an arm, one with an injured leg, one who lost an eye... They showed us their scars and their wounds...
If the goal of the Albanians was to sow fear, they have succeeded. These people were too frightened to speak. There is a collective psychosis and no one believes the peace will last because for the past ten years they have lived in constant fear of Albanian attacks and ceasefires. The staff says that without exception they are receiving neuroleptics, * medication that blocks the affective zone of the brain; since they are given in cases of serious psychoses, there is simply no demonstration of emotion. If these people under the influence of these medications wept and trembled, their psychological state is apparent.
They all sleep together in the same large room on military cots separated by only 30 centimeters. It's like entering a can of sardines. It's suffocating. The woman who caught me as I walked in removed her shirt to show me her wounds. A old man with one eye sat motionlessly for an entire hour staring at a single point. Every single one of them said they were beaten with sticks and metal rods, that the international police arrived at the last moment and saved them. When they recovered somewhat, they begged us to ask Europe to help them and asked for compensation.
None of them so much as mentioned the Serbian authorities. They gave us a list of their houses and, on that list, only two houses were partially damaged. All the others are either burned down or leveled with the ground. We offered to transfer them to asylum in France. But they refused. They want to go back to their homes which no longer exist. The German soldiers watched all this happening and when I asked one of the officers what would become of the refugees, he just shrugged his shoulders and said that they "really don't know what to do with them".
The chief organizer of our visit, an Austrian, at one point said that the international community is constantly saying they are contributing great sums of money for Kosovo but that he could not see any results on the ground. When we headed from the camp under strong military and police escort, they pulled us by the sleeves and refused to let us leave. It's the classic syndrome of children in orphanages but today in Kosovo you can see middle-aged and elderly people behaving in the same way.
They accompanied us as far as the barbed wire. They could go no further, says our collocutor. In mid-May the same delegation will be received, with photographs and direct evidence of Serb suffering, by French president Jacques Chirac. The Congress of European Serbs will again try to organize a large gathering of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija on Vidovdan. **
* neuroleptics - tranquilizers used to treat psychotic conditions when a calming effect is desired, antipsychotic agents
** Vidovdan - the Feast of St. Vitus, June 28, also the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo (1389)
Hopefully this one will not be pulled off by FR Administrator.
Ping on Kosovo and Metohija
I hope it doesn't get pulled either. I'm not really up on the war in Eastern Europe, so I figured I should take a look at some of these posts.
It's pretty sad. These people are probably too old to recover and start new lives.
Indeed! Silencing the truth about Muhammedan expansion in the former Yugoslavia is what he is paid to do.
bump
clinton Legacy Bump!
If this story is true, isn't there some ethical prohibition against giving people heavy duty psych drugs who are not in fact actually psychotic?
Are these people psychotic or are they simply being drugged for the purpose of control?
These people suffered a big trauma. When you live in the same environment for 5 years, literally imprisoned in your own house, not being able to speak your own language, being constantly under attack, even if you were made of stone you would break.
I would not exclude the second option you mentioned "or are they simply being drugged for the purpose of control?".
But I also believe that without medication these people would go insane.
It needs wider coverage in the media.
BTT
Your reply got pulled? How odd.
I always thought that this was between two religions that were ethnically the same. I didn't know that the Muslim side was importing fighters. See when Bill Clinton stuck his big nose into the war, I basically closed my eyes, and plugged my ears.
In this situation, it's probably merciful to sedate these people. What I'd like to know is how they will be taken care of in the future.
lol, yepp it got pulled, guess they didn't like me implying that the thread would get pulled as soon as a certain person joins in and starts his/her usual antics which eventually lead to these threads getting pulled.
Anyway the fact is that there is so much we don't know and most likely never will know as we usually only hear the PC side of the conflict. If it wasn't for those that opposed the Kosovo war we wouldn't know half of what we do today.
it's not ignoring. it's more hiding the actual situation from the american public, cuz so far kosovo was a "success" story!
why ruin that?
If Kosovo is a success, how do you call a failure?
Ah yes, shouting his Clintonista propaganda and declaring it to be "truth!" LOL!
We really need to let this buffoon just rant away and ignore him. Sort of like watching the monkeys throwing their feces at each other at the zoo; we're never tempted to join them. We need to treat disruptors the same way.
Now which buffoon would that be? Actually I decided to ignore provokers the other day when they got posts/threads pulled. Anyone open to dialogue I will be answering but I have no interest in monologues. If I wanted a monologue I would go see a Shakespeare production not take part in FR forums :)
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