“The Gift
that Keeps on Giving”
A Child
Landmine Survivor Struggles to Build a Life
“Seven
years after the Kosovo conflict ended, NATO bombs continued to
explode (this fall) in the mountains of northern Albania. This
time, however, it was a reassuring sound. Up in the hills, men
in protective gear were setting off bomb lets that alliance
warplanes scattered along the Kosovo border during the 78 days
of hostilities.
Within
earshot but miles away, men and women combed other hillsides,
inch by inch, on hands and knees, searching for landmines
planted by combatants in the ground war between Serb forces and
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian separatists.
For
isolated villages such as Dobruna, it’s been seven years of
death, amputations, shrapnel wounds and blown-up farm animals,
seven years of blocked-off grazing lands, forests and water
supplies. The explosives have choked off any hope of
development here, denying more than 25,000 people access to
parts of their land…
Most
residents fled the day NATO began bombing Kosovo, March 24,
1999, in a campaign to halt attacks by Serb forces on ethnic
Albanians in the breakaway province. They returned to a
familiar landscape made lethal by landmines and booby traps.
Dobruna had become one of the border’s most
explosives-contaminated villages…
(Excerpted
from Washington Post, “Years After War in Kosovo, Land Mines
Scar Albania,” December 10, 2006, Barbara Frye)
6. Suela Alia
 Suela
comes from a poor family close to the border with Gjakovo. Her
family has made her living up in the mountain breeding goats and
sheep.
Her story is a bit different.
She was only 5 years when a piece of a rocket exploded in the
yard of her house. It was March 12 1999. The Kosovo conflict had
just started. The Serb army regularly bombed the Albania
territory and the villages along the border. They did not care
that they were killing innocent children like her. They were
angry with the Albanians. They wanted to attract the Albanian
army in the conflict by shelling Albanian territories….as they
were totally paranoid…
The little girl was playing in
the garden. She had no idea of what war is. Cheerful as little
kids are. Her parents occupied with spring agricultural works.
None ever imagined in the village that the paranoid Serbs were
going to target civilians inside the Albanian border. The
villagers were careless. They could not understand that the war
was knocking on their doors. It was eleven o clocks. Flowers had
started to flourish… the weather was improving. After cold
winter days the it was warm again. Little Suela was enjoying god
rays of the sun. A terrible noise was heard, then a blast and
smoke. The splints (shivers) of the rocket hit her on the chest
.She fell down and lost her conscious. Her father as he was
digging in the garden behind the house run into the house
immediately. The glasses of the windows were broken. Part of the
hose was broken too. Her father took her away…. After a few
minutes she started to cry again. The neighbors helped to send
her to Bajram Curri Hospital…
Now she is 10 years old. After
the accident she has started school again. However her teachers
said she is still physically traumatized. She often looses
herself in thoughts. She does not answer although she looks at
you right in the eye. Who knows, may be if educated properly she
could become a nurse, why not a teacher…. the village needs one…
She often misses the classes
because her school is about one and a half hour from her house.
Sometimes her mother helps her to go to School. The family is
very poor to move somewhere else. She has become a real burden
for the poor family…
Suela returned to school last
year for the first time since the accident with the support of
private transport to/from the school and private tutors with
catch up classes. Additionally, she is receiving catch up
classes at home and are progressing well.
Assistance
Requested:
She needs further
support to complete Primary School. The support is needed to
help her to attend English and special catch up classes, as
well as for school materials, transportation to and from the
school and psycho-social-support and recreation activities.
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History of
Regina Murati
Regina Murati was 7 years old when the Gerdec
explosion happened. The day of the accident Regina
Murati was staying home with her mother, grandmother
and her two little sisters. Her house was very near
of the Munitions Depot. When the first explosion
happened her mother and her grandmother took the
children’s and running in the forest to go as far as
possible to rescue their life. ..
Izet ADEMAJ
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Lumturi MUHADRI
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