�We Can All Live Here Together�
An exclusive account of how an Italian priest
helped win the release of a Kosovar leader from
the Serbs
On
May 5, Ibrahim Rugova, to all effect the Albanian
president of Kosovo, was allowed to leave
Pristina, where he had been held by the Yugoslav
authorities since the war began. Rugova and
his family flew to Rome in an Italian military
plane, and NATO paused airstrikes while he
was in transit. Among the first to talk to
Rugova was Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, spiritual
leader of the Community of St. Egidio, a group
of freelance Catholic diplomats active in
trying to negotiate peace settlements around
the world. Rugova, who has long been committed
to pacifism as a political strategy, knew
him well. They had worked together on an agreement
with Milosevic last year to allow Albanian
students to attend schools in Kosovo for the
first time. Paglia's account of the effort
to win Rugova's freedom:
We
had tried so many times to get a line from
Belgrade to Pristina that when I finally heard
it actually ringing, on April 6, I could hardly
believe it. I could picture it: the old black
Bakelite telephone on the little table on
the second floor of the house of my old friend,
Ibrahim Rugova; his study with the collection
of rocks from all over Kosovo. "Comment
vas-tu?" I said, because we speak in
French. "Finally, I've reached you."
"I'm
at home, as usual," Rugova replied, "staring
at the fireplace, with the picture of the
pope and me over it. But there are no normal
days any more. I'm fine. A little tired and
I no longer sleep, but I'm well and so is
my family." He recalled our first meeting,
with the community's founder Andrea Riccardi
at St. Egidio's in Rome, with the magnificent
17th-century paintings he was so fond of,
and what he called "the biggest banana
tree I've ever seen"�a tree that is a
memento of the peace agreement we reached
on Mozambique at our headquarters in 1992.
We spoke about other friends in Kosovo, some
of whom had erroneously been reported killed.
"But I can't tell you much more,"
he said. "Communications are so
difficult. I'm very worried about my people and their
great suffering."
"We
are also worried," I told him. "We're
here in Belgrade because of this, and we're
with you. What would you say if you could
leave Kosovo for Rome? Would you be able to
make a greater contribution to resolving the
situation?"
"Why not?" Rugova
said. "I would, if
and when the authorities in Belgrade let me
leave the country."
The
important thing was that Rugova was alive,
even if he couldn't express himself openly
and didn't have freedom of movement. Back
in Rome Mario Marazziti, the St. Egidio community
spokesman, made sure that the Italian government
and the Vatican knew what we were up to. Italy
was giving logistical support and
encouragement.
But it was all up to us: we had a mandate
from no one; only our own resolve. Now came
the hard part: the government in Belgrade.
The first test came during a bombardment,
in the half-deserted restaurant of the Hotel
Inter-Continental. At a dinner with one of
Milosevic's vice ministers, a fellow Socialist
Party member, I repeated, like a mantra: "Rugova
is a sincere pacifist. If you want to get
out of this, he needs to come to the West,
to Rome, for instance. Otherwise, everyone
will think you have a pistol pointed at his
head." For three days there were feverish
encounters like that, until I finally got
to see Milan Milutinovic, the president of
Serbia. I told him: "You've got to understand
that if you keep Rugova here he will be like
an unloaded gun in the fight for peace."
Milutinovic said he'd study our case.
From
April 10 there were contradictory signals.
Intermediaries from the Serbs went to see
Rugova. His leitmotif was simple: "Serbs
and Albanians can and should live together.
Albanians must return to Kosovo. You must
stop forcing my people out of country. This
is our land and we can and must all live here
together." Meantime, Rugova appeared
on TV with Milosevic in Belgrade, and denounced
the NATO bombing campaign. Two weeks later,
the Yugoslav Ministry of Information declared
they were studying Rugova's release, "if
and when he can go to Rome, as requested by
the Community of St. Egidio."
Though
his situation was dire, Rugova played an important
role. He used his time under house arrest
to try to go over his talks with Milosevic
and understand his thinking. Rugova has paid
a price for meeting with Milosevic, but he
was looking to the future. "I met
Milosevic,
and told him that if we want to live on this
land we have to get beyond shuttle-diplomacy
and speak to each other directly," Rugova
said. "I said that ethnic war is not
inevitable, that this is a war of armies,
not of peoples."
Finally
last week the call to Italian Foreign Minister
Lamberto Dini came from Belgrade: "Mr.
Rugova wants to come to Rome. You can come
and get him." He put on his silk scarf�the
"Rugova look," sort of
Sorbonne-existentialist.
Then he flew here with his family and his
assistant. The Italian government put him
up in the ancient Villa Algardi, where Charles
and Diana had once stayed. Now Rugova can
once again play his role in leading Kosovo
out of war and into peace. His first words
in public were, "Thanks to Italy, to
Minister Dini, to Prime Minister D'Alema and
to my old friend Monsignor Paglia of the Community
of St. Egidio�it is thanks to all of them
that I am here today."
Tired,
poor and suffering, like his people, he is
still the Gandhi of the Balkans: "My
people can't remain in eternal exile,"
he said, in his first statement while in
freedom.
"They have to go back to their own land.
Every effort must be made to allow the refugees
to go home and repopulate their land. Serb
forces must leave Kosovo. Security, for both
Serbs and Albanians, must be guaranteed by
an international peace force, including some
NATO countries and others. All arms must be
laid down, on all sides. And that includes
the KLA. They are patriots who have shown
the necessity of self-defense. But now is
the time for politics, and I'm sure even the
KLA is a political force which will favor
a political solution. The framework will be
the Rambouillet agreement, which we signed,
and the Serbs did not. It will be hard, but
the essentials are clear."
Vincenzo
Paglia
Emergenza
Kukes: manca ancora tutto
Solo
a Rusteni si comincia a vivere c'� anche la
scuola
KUKES. Proviamo a guardare il mondo
da un campo di rifugiati che si chiama scuola
Rusteni. E' un campo speciale, siamo al confine
tra Albania e Kosovo, al Nord. Dopo il campo
della missione Arcobaleno, fuori citt�, dove
� rimasta la paura, ma non c'� pi� la fame e
si pu� vivere, il campo Rusteni � il quattro
stelle dei profughi. Strano a dirsi, ma queste
1.400 persone sdraiate per terra, questi 700
bambini che ridono, piangono, cercano latte
che non c'� dal seno delle mamme, stanno meglio
che in quasi tutti gli altri campi spontanei.
E' il primo campo dove Sant'Egidio garantisce
il cibo, dove l'ambulatorio fa 200 visite al
giorno, almeno stamattina. Da ieri pomeriggio
i ragazzi kosovari fanno un po' di scuola ai
ragazzini kosovari con i volontari della comunit�.
La si fa per dire: si pu� vivere, c'� futuro.
E' stata creata una task force di giovani kosovari
che gira insieme ai volontari della comunit�
per gli altri campi spontanei, quelli pieni
di gente infangata che sta sulle coperte, sdraiata,
accampata, assiepata, annidata, sui rimorchi
attaccati ai trattori con cui ha raggiunto,
dopo quattro o sei giorni di fuga, la frontiera
albanese dalle campagne kosovare.E' cos� che
si viene a sapere chi non mangia da tre giorni,
chi non ha l'acqua anche se in citt� l'acqua
ci sta. E' cosi che s'inventa un pronto soccorso
itinerante per non far morire di sete, di fame,
di polmonite o diarrea. La diarrea � il grande
nemico: l'acqua rischia di essere sempre pi�
inquinata in una citt� sommersa dalle immondizie
e dalle feci. E' cos� che sono stati scoperti
quattro casi di meningite, mentre le agenzie
umanitarie sembra si stiano concentrando su
uno vaccinazione di massa antimorbillo per 200
mila profughi. che ai pi� appare costosa e inutile.Appare
addirittura paradossale visto che qui non c'�
cibo per tutti e che non sono state portate
inoltre medicine di base, il latte per i bambini,
le razioni contro la malnutrizione. Ieri pomeriggio
� stato avviato un secondo centro di emergenza
di Sant'Egidio al campo del deposito delle patate,
altre 10 mila persone non raggiunte dalla missione
Arcobaleno, mentre l'ambulatorio pediatrico
della comunit� ha superato le 500 visite. Non
si dorme, si mangia poco, si lotta contro il
tempo. Si lotta anche contro la scelta, folle,
di cominciare a svuotare Kukes dai profughi
cominciando dagli edifici pubblici e non dai
campi spontanei che mancano di tutto e anche
del tetto.Mentre scriviamo � arrivata la polizia
che non sente ragioni e vuole mandare via tutti
anche dalla scuola a quattro stelle del campo
Rusteni. Arrivano i funzionari dell'Ocse e dell'Achnur
che assieme a Sant'Egidio si oppongono alla
deportazione. Con altoparlanti, dopo due ore
di trattative in cui sembra si riesca a far
rimanere le persone a Kukes, all'improvviso
scatta l'operazione deportazione: chi pu� se
ne va con il trattore e si accampa vicino alla
moschea.. Gli altri sono portati nel centro
dell'Albania dividendo le famiglie che non hanno
il tempo di prepararsi e di prendere accordi.
E' una seconda deportazione che si unisce alla
prima. I costi umani di questa operazione sono
altissimi. Intanto a Kukes la vita continua
lo stesso sempre pi� dura.Al cimitero si lavora
di lena, nascono dieci bambini al giorno anche
se per i bambini non c'� niente. Solo il poco
latte e i pochi soccorsi di primo livello portati
da Sant'Egidio. La guerra, vista da Kukes dove
non funziona neppure il telefono, appare per
quello che �: una catena di violenze che si
aggiunge all'ingiustizia e alla sofferenza che
gi� esistevano. A migliaia non sanno pi� dove
stanno i parenti scampati con loro. Migliaia
di famiglie hanno perso i contatti e non c'�
nemmeno un tentativo di registro. Chi deve aiutare
sembra contribuire a questo disordine. A Kukes
c'� mezzo mondo, si gioca pure o si sorride
anche, ma manca il necessario soprattutto acqua,
latte, cibo. Sembra che soprattutto manchi il
buon senso.
Mario
Marazziti
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