LUCHTBRUG KOSOVO NU!!!

[Dirk van der Woude]

Dag Vincent,

Was het zondag jl. al met je eens. Net als toen:
veel mitsen en maren, met als conclusie dat ons land
niet volop kan deelnemen aan een oorlog zonder zich
te bekommmeren om de gevolgen daarvan.
Vraag is natuurlijk wel wat de betrokkenen zelf willen,
zie onderstaand stuk uit de de Independent.

Groet,
Dirk



http://www.independent.co.uk/stories/B0704902.html

Macedonia is turning nasty. The government has made it
clear it wants nothing to do with the refugees from
Kosovo who have swarmed across its borders. It only
agreed to let them cross when it received an assurance
from the West that the refugees would be airlifted out.
Now it is resorting to trickery, lies and brute force to
speed up the process.

Under the cover of darkness on Monday night, 1,491
refugees were flown out of Skopje airport on 10 flights,
all but one of which were heading for Turkey. When one
refugee tried to run away he was frog-marched on board by
security men. Yesterday morning another 600 refugees were
flown out of the Macedonian capital - all bound for the
same destination.

The Macedonians were ruthless and disingenuous. Loaded on
to crowded buses at either the border 10 miles away or at
the refugee tent camp that had grown up near by, the
Kosovars had been told they were being taken on a
journey. Some were told they were going to Germany; many
were told nothing.

At the airport they were met by armed police who had
donned white protective masks and rubber gloves.

Standing in the queue for the buses that took them to the
planes, the refugees were a pitiful sight: old men in
filthy boots, fragile old women with nothing more that
carpet slippers on their feet, young women with crying
babies wrapped in dirty blankets, young children staring
helplessly at their father for an answer he could not
provide.

All these people were forced on to the planes without
knowing if they would ever return. It was the final
insult: helpless, homeless and stateless, it appeared
they were now being robbed of whatever hope they may have
managed to retain.

"We have been treated like animals," cried Isha Zigodi, a
father of seven, forced from his home in the Kosovo
capital, Pristina. "These people have done everything
they can to get us out of their country. I don't want to
go to Turkey. It is up to Nato to take us all home as
soon as possible."

The refugees were bussed  towards the planes where they
were hurriedly forced up the steps. It seemed to be more
luck than judgement if families were able to stay
together. One elderly man, barely able to walk even with
crutches, apparently realised his family were on another
plane. He was forced to walk several hundred yards to the
other aircraft.

The West had previously agreed that an airlift was the
only feasible way to deal temporarily with the refugees.
A number of nations, including Britain, the United
States, Germany and Norway, have agreed to house more
than 100,000 refugees between them. The first of these
refugee flights is due to take place today.

But it is the manner in which the Macedonians have acted
that has sparked international concern. "We strongly
oppose this operation because people are being sent away
and families are being split up," said a spokeswoman for
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

"These people have been through enough distress and this
is adding to it. I have lost count of the number of
people who have come up to us in the camps and said their
families are being put on the planes against their will."

http://www.independent.co.uk/stories/B0704902.html