Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Chapter 5 • Giuseppe De Sario, Laura Corradi, Patricia Ruiz, Enrica Capussotti
the men to flee into the woods and the women to abandon their homes.
They also, however, remembered acts of solidarity and kindness by
Albanian and Serbian families alike.
The story of Bahrije [age: 44, female, housewife], Agim [age: 44, male,
engineer] and their daughter Ajse [age: 15, student] and of the family’s
three other children, all of them from Dragas, is also heavily marked with
violence and the dangers of flight. They had been badly burnt by a fire that
destroyed their tent in Kukes, on the border between Albania and Kosovo.
Ajse, in particular, suffered from the effects of her burns, but she nevertheless
continued attending school in Italy until she received her middleschool
diploma. In spite of the hardships they suffered, the members of
this family have been able to hold onto memories of festivities and religious
Islamic celebrations, happy times from the peaceful life they led
before the war.
Another group of war refugees was interviewed at a reception site in the
municipality of San Foca, near Lecce. Lytfi [age: 25, male] is a Rom, originally
from the municipality of Lupjani; he attended elementary school
and worked as a farmer. Lyfti was forced to flee Kosovo after the war of
1999, because of violence suffered at the hands of armed Albanians.
According to his accounts, the entire Romany population was by then
being persecuted. He saw no reason for the Albanians to act so violently
against all the Romany, because only some of them had collaborated with
the Serbian authorities. He also remembers a time when relations with
Albanians were good, and when many young Romany still attended the
same schools and mosques as their Albanian neighbours.
Elidon G. [age: 20, male, student], the second of three brothers, has come
to Italy from Pec. He is one of the sons of an Islamic religious leader who
supported the Kosovar Albanian cause from the United States. Elidon G.
was also forced to abandon his village, this time by the Serbian army. He
recalled a time when he enjoyed civil relations with his Serbian neighbours,
but also held a very negative opinion of the Romany, in particular
because of their behaviour during the war. He has been in Italy since
January 1999 and hopes to join his parents in the United States.
Gentiam [age: 20, male, student] briefly took part in the armed KLA fighting.
Then, after the Serbian offensive of 1998, he abandoned arms and
returned to his village near Pec. He left Kosovo, originally heading for
Germany where he had relatives, including one brother. The voyage, however,
began and ended in Italy: as soon as he reached Germany, he was sent
back to the first European Union country he had entered, in compliance
142