Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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Chapter 5 • Giuseppe De Sario, Laura Corradi, Patricia Ruiz, Enrica Capussotti<br />
the men to flee into the woods and the women to abandon their homes.<br />
They also, however, remembered acts of solidarity and kindness by<br />
Albanian and Serbian families alike.<br />
The story of Bahrije [age: 44, female, housewife], Agim [age: 44, male,<br />
engineer] and their daughter Ajse [age: 15, student] and of the family’s<br />
three other children, all of them from Dragas, is also heavily marked with<br />
violence and the dangers of flight. They had been badly burnt by a fire that<br />
destroyed their tent in Kukes, on the border between Albania and Kosovo.<br />
Ajse, in particular, suffered from the effects of her burns, but she nevertheless<br />
continued attending school in Italy until she received her middleschool<br />
diploma. In spite of the hardships they suffered, the members of<br />
this family have been able to hold onto memories of festivities and religious<br />
Islamic celebrations, happy times from the peaceful life they led<br />
before the war.<br />
Another group of war refugees was interviewed at a reception site in the<br />
municipality of San Foca, near Lecce. Lytfi [age: 25, male] is a Rom, originally<br />
from the municipality of Lupjani; he attended elementary school<br />
and worked as a farmer. Lyfti was forced to flee Kosovo after the war of<br />
1999, because of violence suffered at the hands of armed Albanians.<br />
According to his accounts, the entire Romany population was by then<br />
being persecuted. He saw no reason for the Albanians to act so violently<br />
against all the Romany, because only some of them had collaborated with<br />
the Serbian authorities. He also remembers a time when relations with<br />
Albanians were good, and when many young Romany still attended the<br />
same schools and mosques as their Albanian neighbours.<br />
Elidon G. [age: 20, male, student], the second of three brothers, has come<br />
to Italy from Pec. He is one of the sons of an Islamic religious leader who<br />
supported the Kosovar Albanian cause from the United States. Elidon G.<br />
was also forced to abandon his village, this time by the Serbian army. He<br />
recalled a time when he enjoyed civil relations with his Serbian neighbours,<br />
but also held a very negative opinion of the Romany, in particular<br />
because of their behaviour during the war. He has been in Italy since<br />
January 1999 and hopes to join his parents in the United States.<br />
Gentiam [age: 20, male, student] briefly took part in the armed KLA fighting.<br />
Then, after the Serbian offensive of 1998, he abandoned arms and<br />
returned to his village near Pec. He left Kosovo, originally heading for<br />
Germany where he had relatives, including one brother. The voyage, however,<br />
began and ended in Italy: as soon as he reached Germany, he was sent<br />
back to the first European Union country he had entered, in compliance<br />
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