Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
nessed first-hand, the interviewees gave highly different accounts of circumstances,
though many resembled one another, conforming to set
“types”, depending on the individual’s sensitivity, or on the part they
played in the conflicts. Woman, youth or elders, each person told their
story from a different point of view, with a different emphasis, according
to what they considered more symbolic or relevant to themselves. Thus did
children and mothers remember the poisoning of Albanian children in their
schools. This particular story was recounted often and by many interviewees,
each time tainted with the fear of continuing to attend any institution
controlled by the Serbian government. The speakers often omitted
the precise place where an event had occurred, or the first catalyst in a long
series of events. Yet whether true, probable or ambiguous, the particular
example of the poisonings had made the young Albanians determined to
abandon state schools. Their departure, this very real and visible action,
gave all Albanian schoolchildren another reason to fear what might have
happened to them in retaliation, had they decided to remain in public
schools after such a symbolic stand.
To the young men interviewed, most vivid were the tales of friends, brothers,
uncles and cousins who had been abused or killed during their service
in the Federal Army. Like the school poisonings, these stories, these events
and the stories of these events, together with the surge of conflicts within
Kosovo and the drive to emigrate that many felt, led a considerable portion
of young men to abandon or avoid military service in the 1990s. First,
they failed to report to their summons, then they fled to other countries. As
in the words of Gjolek:
…They killed them in the barracks because they were Albanian, they
killed them inside; this is not just something said to accuse somebody but
it’s true, it always happened during the last ten days, before finishing this
military service, they kept them a year, and then maybe a week before
they finished they said he died, he committed suicide, their answer was
always he committed suicide… and so everybody ran away, especially of
my age there is almost no one left. [Gjolek]
Other kinds of stories were told by women, in whose tales were to be
found the fear of using Serbian health services, and the terrible experiences
of young women giving birth. These fears, brought up by two interviewees,
were expressed thus:
…We began to be afraid that even in the hospital surgeries, where there
were Serb doctors, these did not do their duty, but that they did just the
opposite of their duty, so that even while giving birth the women were
afraid… [Alketa]
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