Activism and Appeals: Kosovan women

As we have seen on our tv screens and in newspapers hundreds of thousands of Albanian Kosovans have been brutally expelled from Kosova. Before this mass expulsion the repression and oppression of Albanian Kosovans had been continuing over many years. Women have been at the forefront of peaceful resistance and political protest. In 1998 on International Women’s Day (8^th March) the Network of Women in Kosova organised a protest against the isolation of the people of Drenica. Their communique over the international email networks stated that the march on 16^th March organised by the Network of Women was: ‘Women of Kosova carrying only bread under their arms for the children and women of Dresnica would march to show solidarity with children and women in curfew, surrounded by Serb police and military forces’. These women were making use of the most time-honoured means of protest - silent vigils and marches - and the most up-to-date technology via their international contacts sending messages across the internet to show that these atrocities were not going unprotested and that international recognition and assitance was imperative.

The situation in May 1999 is such that the ethnic cleansing in Kosova continues and the NATO bombing ‘for peace’ is causing devastation across the whole area of South Eastern Europe. Women working in Belgrade on SOS hotlines for women are dealing with many calls about fear of violence. Women’s groups in Albania and Macedonia are stretched in trying to keep some levels of everyday life for refugees. There is also growing evidence that besides assassinations, torching and forced population movement, rape is being used as a means of torture and harassment, as it was in the war in Bosnia.

There are many ways that women can help at various levels. Fundraising evenings with videos from women’s groups in the region and auctions plus all the ideas that women continue to use are one of the most useful ways of being able to channel resources direct to women’s groups. Several general appeals have also been set up in Scotland that are detailed in the press from the Herald appeal to those of Oxfam and Children in Need. More locally there are two in Glasgow.

A consideration of some of the issues for women in the Kosova crisis will be included in our discussion day ‘Changing the Face of Politics: Womens Participation’ at Glasgow University Women’s Studies Seminar Series at the College Club, Glasgow University on Saturday 22^nd May 1999 (details enclosed). WISE - Women in Scotland and Europe (c/o Chris Corrin, Women’s Studies Centre, Politics Dept., Glasgow University) have been working with women’s groups in the region since 1992. In January this year visitors from the Centre for Women War Victims in Zagreb (who are now working closely with refugees in Croatia and Albania) and the Kosovan women’s group Motrat Qiriazi an educational project for young women and women’s health care and advocacy, visited Glasgow as part of our ongoing projects. Among others they paid a visit to the Women’s Library and set up contacts for the exchange of information. Our current project is to enable women activists to come to Glasgow in September for a series of workshops and visits to share experience on the current needs of groups in the region. Account for ‘WISE’ at Clydesdale, University branch sort code 82 70 12 a/c 215506.

GUKA - Glasgow University Kosova Appeal which is linked with refugees in Glasgow working with the City Council offering everything from toys to English lessons and days out. The first stage of our appeal has been so successful that we no longer need clothing, toys, books for refugees here but are continuing to collect blanket and toiletries for Macedonia and Albania. We are developing a skills base network of people offering their services for groups in Glasgow.

Contact C.Corrin@socsci.gla.ac.uk or R.R.Berry@socsci.gla.ac.uk or c/o Adam Smith Building, Glasgow University, G12 8RT. Bank account Clydesdale for ‘UKA’ sort code 82 70 12 a/c no. 130336.

In the UK two main appeals that are directly concerned with women’s needs and activities are:

WAFTY (Women’s Aid to former Yugoslavia, 20 Tennyson Road, Portswood, Southampton) prioritise the needs of women refugees, working in conjunction with locally-based groups in the former Yugoslavia since 1992. They are collecting on behalf of Motrat Qiriazi, The Kosovar Centre for the Protection of Women and Children and Medica Kosova. The first two are Kosovan women’s organisation, formerly based in Pristina and now working in Macedmia, the third is a German/Bosnian/Albanian partnership working in Albania.

Their a/c is at TSB Bank Southampton - sort code 77-95-34 a/c no. 00914268. Medica Kosova (c/o Cynthia Cockburn, Dept. of Sociology, City University, London who has worked with Medica since 1994) which have an emergency appeal for medical and psycho-social care for women refugees from Kosova in Albania traumatised by rape and other forms of terror. A/c in London is ‘Medica’ Lloyds Bank, Kentish Town sorted code 30 94 66 a/c 0562837 or send bank draft direct to: a/c holder Medica Mondial e.V. a/c name Kosova at Sparkass Bonn Bank sort code 380 500 00 a/c no. 450 055 50. Whatever we do at the various levels and with the opportunities open to us shows that we are actively supporting both peace and freedom for people in Kosova to return home and recognising that any return to ‘normal’ life for many hundreds of thousands of women, children and men will take decades to achieve.