wfn.org | Albania Is Overwhelmed by Waves of Kosovar Refugees

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7-April-1999 
99140 (REVISED) 
 
    Albania Is Overwhelmed by 
    Waves of Kosovar Refugees 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was late at night when military trucks dropped off 
more than 600 Kosovar refugees in a little town in southern Albania, to be 
housed in an abandoned barracks that has no windows or doors to keep out 
the cold night air and no running water. 
 
    "They came in very bad condition," said John Lena, a 24-year-old 
Orthodox monk who saw the trucks unload the refugees who were packed in, as 
he put it, "like sheep." Once on the ground, one elderly woman - who said 
she had  walked for seven days to reach the Albanian border - began asking 
townspeople for a pillow for sleep, promising to return it the next 
morning. A mother was pleading for a cup of milk for her baby, who'd had 
only water for sustenance for six days. 
 
    Donations of cheese and sausage and bread were gathered from neighbors 
and shopkeepers, although most of the donors, according to the monk, had 
little or no money to spare, because jobs are scarce. A few cattle are what 
most families in this little town keep to sustain themselves since the 
country collapsed economically a few years ago. Albania, as Albanians point 
out, is among Europe's poorest places. Lena was stunned by the outpouring 
of help from those who have little to those who have less. 
 
    "It is a great pain for me ... to see this suffering and not be able to 
help them," said the young man, who, along with others in his order, is 
slipping away from the monastery to talk with the refugees. "They are so 
tired, so without hope ... How do you say [in English]? 
 
    "Hopeless." 
 
    Hope is what Albania's churches are trying to give - both evangelical 
Protestants and the larger Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania. The 
immediate task is emergency help. When the crisis has subsided they will 
begin dealing with the longer-term challenge of caring for the refugees. 
 
    Diakonia Agapes - the outreach arm of the Orthodox church's development 
office - just took in 1,000 tents, 25, 000 blankets and 10,000 mattresses 
from Church World Service (CWS), the relief arm of the National Council of 
Churches of Christ in the United States, an $800,000 shipment. An 
additional $100,000 for blankets and bedding was channeled from CWS through 
International Orthodox Christian Charities, the humanitarian agency of 
Orthodox Christians. 
 
    The Lutheran World Federation, Norwegian Church Aid, DanChurchAid, 
Dutch Interchurch Aid, CWS and other partners of the World Council of 
Churches' relief agency Action By Churches Together (ACT) are working to 
augment the church response in Albania - which is why two Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) staff - Duncan Hanson of the Worldwide Ministries' 
Division's Europe Office and the Rev. Art Beals of University Presbyterian 
Church in Seattle, who coordinates the PC(USA) partnership in Albania - are 
in Tirana to help coordinate the response of the international religious 
community. 
 
    As of Sunday morning, ACT had airlifted 31 metric tons of biscuits into 
Albania, as well as more than nine metric tons of food for children and 
infants. Relief staff on the ground are developing ways to distribute the 
goods. The agency is developing contingency plans for countries bordering 
the Balkans, such as Hungary and Greece, and is operating refugee relief 
programs in Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well 
as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 
 
    The PC(USA) has so far given $200,000 to support ACT's work in Kosovo 
and the Balkans.  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance's Kosovo Relief account 
number is 9-2000-137. Checks may be mailed to: Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.), Central Receiving Service, Department 97590, 100 Witherspoon 
Street, Louisville, KY 40297. 
 
    Credit-card donations may be made by dialing PresbyTel at 
1-800-872-3283. 
 
    "We're here to ameliorate the crisis ... do what we can to get people 
through the immediate problem," said Hanson, who spend a few days earlier 
in the week in the northern border town of Kukes. "And then assist the 
church here to build their capacity to minister to these people over the 
long haul. Many have had family members killed. Many." 
 
    It is estimated that more than 1,000 Kosovars are arriving every hour 
at an already overwhelmed and increasingly unsanitary camp in Kukes - which 
has one bathroom for every 200 people, no shelter and not nearly enough 
food. Many - including women and children, according to Hanson - are 
sleeping outside in bitter cold, while others are jammed into school 
buildings and even homes. "Kukes was described in `The Herald-Tribune' as 
hell," Hanson said. "I think it was hell.  There are tens of thousand of 
refugees there, and thousands more are arriving every hour." 
 
    Two of the denomination's three mission personnel in Albania have been 
relieved of their assignments to work directly in refugee relief: Cheryl 
Lee Choy, a mission volunteer at the University of Albania in Tirana, and 
Arthur Ware, who teaches at an evangelical bible college in Durres. The 
college has suspended classes and is being used as a shelter for refugees. 
Eloise Ware continues to teach English at The Resurrection of Christ 
Orthodox Theological Academy in Durres. 
 
    "We're functioning here on Maslov's hierarchy of needs. Do they have 
food? Do they have shelter? Do they have clothes? Are they physically safe? 
Some of these people have walked hundreds of miles, and some of them are 
elderly," said Hanson, adding that more than a few are collapsing as soon 
as they cross the border into Albania. 
 
    "And nearly everybody has a story of an atrocity," Hanson told the 
Presbyterian News Service (PNS). "... My companions from Norwegian Church 
Aid and Diakonia Agapes and I heard about countless atrocities. At first I 
tried to remember the details, but the stories eventually became so 
numerous I couldn't take them in. I couldn't make a count of the number of 
reports of crimes against humanity that I heard, but it was high. ... Art 
Beals - who stayed in Tirana to work on that side of our planned response - 
heard similar stories from refugees in `Tent City' [there]." 
 
    The Rev. Luke Veronis - academic dean of the seminary in Tirana and a 
member of the pastoral staff of the Orthodox cathedral there - told the PNS 
that Tirana has absorbed about 10,000 refugees, which he said is not so 
overwhelming in a city of more than 600,000. But the problems of the 
refugees are overwhelming. Fourteen refugees delivered new babies last week 
in Tirana's maternity hospital - with no home to go to and no means to feed 
or clothe their children. 
 
    Seminary students and church youth are volunteering in Tirana's "Tent 
City." Kosovars with relatives in Tirana are jamming into private homes. 
 
    "A lot of people are very afraid," Veronis said, speaking of the more 
than 239,000 refugees who had swarmed into Albania by April 5. "Albanians 
are scared for the future, scared of what's going to happen. Of all the 
countries in Europe to accept refugees, Albania is in the worst position 
 ... But [people] are trying to help." 
 
    What worries Veronis is how such compassion will hold up after months 
and months of relentless need. "It is going to get hard. ... We are going 
to get tired," he said, noting that he believes Christians have no other 
choice but to help anyone who is in need. "People here," he said, "are in 
shock, in despair and, of course, they are also angry." 
 
    And then there's the shock of hearing about whole towns slaughtered, 
and watching so many traumatized displaced people straggling toward the 
Albanian border. 
 
    "It is a clear sign of evil in the world," Veronis said one week before 
the Orthodox Easter. "In this century, we've seen some of the worst 
killings in the world. Our technology has progressed, but the hearts of men 
haven't progressed. It just shows that what the world needs is a change of 
heart - a conversion only God can bring. 
 
    "Our technology just shows us that killing can be done on a greater 
scale." 

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