Show tiE jf A Letter from Kosova o o. o Contributed by Derek Cook and Alban Here is an all mail e-mail from an student from Kosova which he fort fore forwarded forwarded for for- t e warded from his friend who is currently currently cur cur- living in Kosova Id I'd like you to read the following letter from one of my friends who lives in which is the capital of our Kosova if I Perhaps one day it will inspire you to write an article about the humiliation degradation stupidities assimilation ethnic cleansing that is being inflicted upon one great people called Albanians while the world reacts passively When I go to bed late at night I think about my country family Albanian pride and my blood starts fI boiling Two weeks ago three of my best friends died while fighting for the theKLA theKLA theKLA Kosova Liberation Army My cousin was employed in Germany but he returned to Kosova to fight Nazi Serbs when he heard that they were burning his village to the ground Unfortunately he was killed The is no not a terrorist group They are fighters who want to defend their country the same as you and others do These are protecting protecting protecting pro pro- their families from being iW t massacred sacr d so would you say that hat they are terrorists terrorists' If you think that members of the theKLA theKLA theKLA are terrorists treat me as a terrorist terrorist ter ter- ter- ter wrist also If I 1 was in Kosova Id I'd do dothe dothe dothe the same things that they do in order to protect my country and our old lands which belong to us and only us This is a letter from my friend in Kosova I couldn't read it all because it is such a sad letter Dear Alban I am sorry that I did not write to you earlier We are okay It is very quiet in our town This silence is killing me o Another day in fear Another sad let let- ter All we do is watch news news and more news with fear of war in our town We are waiting for the day when it will be our turn to be Serbia's vic vic- vic vic- tims The worst thing is that there is nothing that we can do about it I want to run away but where could I Igo Igo Igo go Nobody wants us and we are arc not left alone in our fatherland I cannot remember the last time that I smiled What have we done to deserve this It is just as it was in Bosnia The same things are happening I dont don't know if you if you have havee heard our friend Arben died He was killed in his family's house with his sisters Leonora 17 Bahrie 10 and others God I cant can't believe it Whenever I talk to someone I wonder if I will see them again All of our Serb neighbors are equipped with arms All of the streets are empty when the night falls We hear a lot of gunfire gunfire gunfire gun gun- fire at night Sometimes I sleep on the floor because I think that it is safer to sleep there Our town is full of refugees Their houses have been burned and now they have nothing at all One day I saw a little girl who who asked her mother Mummy what about my red dress is that burned too The little here with her her- girl was V e. e mother I dont don't know where her fame family fam fam- ily ly was The childs child's grandparents were left in their village because they were not able to run The girl and her mother did not know whether the grandparents were alive or not A friend of mine from England used to call here to ask us about his family I was so sorry when that tragedy in happened that I Idid Idid Idid did not know what to tell him A few days ago I heard that his pregnant sister was found dead in the street She had attempted to run away My friend still does not know what has happened to his mother Nobody seems to know anything Most of us think that she may be in in one of those massive graves that people people people peo peo- talk about I cant can't live with this fear any any- more I am so scared Especially after I heard about one incident wh where re four cops Serb police raped two sisters Rina 13 and Sima 14 in front of their parents First the police cut their hair then they raped them The girls' girls father tried to stop the Serbs but they shot him in the leg legand legand and forced him to watch his daughters daugh daugh- being raped Rina and Sima killed themselves by jumping into a river on the day after the crime The girls' girls father promised to avenge their deaths Their mother ran away to Albania but she promised that she would be back to fight too She told us that she could not sleep because she still hears her daughters' daughters cries and screams Bad things are happening here I am not afraid of being killed by bythe bythe bythe the Serbs I just dont don't want to be raped This is all that I hope Why are they doing this Everybody knows know that the Albanians Albanians' dont don't commit crimes against women and children There was a time when wars used to be army against army Now there is an army that attacks all Albanian people no matter what they are from men to women and children They burn all of our houses and v everything I used to cry every day and every night but now I 1 have gotten used to all of these things You are so lucky for not being here Everyday we hear how many people people people peo peo- have been killed or massacred Today 20 tomorrow 23 I am waiting and waiting One day I 1 might be just a number too Just a number I am sorry for writing you this sad letter but this is how I am feeling I am never happy enough to write a nice letter I hope that I have a chance to see you again agam Your best friend is a dental student at University in Koso Kosova va Yugoslavia She is 23 years old |