Sixteen-years-old Roma [Gypsy] girl Sara (name and surname known to physicians in the Institute for Mental Health in Belgrade) from Pristina has after more than two weeks finally arrived to the Post-traumatic Center in the Center for Mental Health in Belgrade. The girl hadn't spoken a word for weeks. Then, Sara started talking and spent hours and hours in conversation with physicians, but was still unable to tell them what happened in the house of her parents in Pristina at the end of July.
"KLA members mobilized Roma by force to participate in demonstrations. They exerted pressure in all conceivable ways, and the Roma hid counting that the Albanians wouldn't touch women and children," says Dr. Oliver Vidojevic, child psychiatrist from the Post-traumatic Center for Children and Youth and the leader of the team for the protection of children and youth from maltreatment and neglect.
"Then two Albanians threw Sara on the floor and tore her clothes off," says Dr. Vidojevic. He adds that Sara would have been raped had Marija not saved her. Marija grabbed a pan full of hot water from the cooker and poured it over the rapist. The young man started to scream, as well as the other two who were holding Sara down. Scared members of KLA immediately ran away. "The elder girl was in shock, unable to do anything," says Vidojevic.
The younger sister, Marija, was sufficiently collected to help her sister, instead of running away. The girls immediately left to the household of their uncle in Skopje and thereby avoided a revenge of their torturers, who instead burnt their deserted house down.
Twelve-years-old Danijela and her younger sister Jasmina from Suva Reka did not manage to get away from three armed young men (17, 18 and 22 years old) in KLA uniforms. They let them go after a gang rape that went on for four hours.
The most recent report of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about human rights in Kosovo, published on December 6, confirmed that children were not only witnesses and victims, but also perpetrators of crimes. During July and August 1999 young Albanians (14 to 20 years old) committed more than 30 bomb attacks in Lipljan only. The number of children, above all Albanian children, who participated in bomb attacks, maltreatment and persecution, prompted American president Clinton to appeal to the Albanians, above all parents and students, to be more tolerant towards other ethnic groups that live in Kosovo.
Clinton's appeal prompted recently Bernard Kouchner, the chief UN administrator for Kosovo, to state that children are the future of Kosovo and that one of "the most alarming trends" documented in OSCE reports was "the increase of the participation of minors in violations of human rights in Kosovo", which is the consequence of the ten-years of systematic "policy of apartheid" carried out in Kosovo by the Serbian authorities.
However, the first OSCE report "As Seen As Told" dealing with violations of human rights in Kosovo until June 16 (the deadline for the demilitarization of KLA) clearly indicated that "according to evidence the Albanian population in Kosovo was mostly the victim of human rights violations". However, the report does clearly show (although that isn't specified anywhere in the report) that non-Albanian children (up to 18 years of age) did not beat up elderly, threw bombs etc. According to OSCE report, the Albanians suffered the most during the bombardment of Yugoslavia by NATO forces when Serbian forces (Police, Army and paramilitary troops) systematically terrorized them.
The OSCE report does not make it clear whether Serbs or ethnic Albanians were buried in mass graves found near the villages of Ugljare (the Gnjilane Municipality) and Pogradje (the Gnjilane Municipality), discovered on July 23 and 24. It is only stated that members of the Democratic League of Kosovo reported the locations of the graves and when the forensic experts exhumed the graves it turned out that none of the corpses found in the grave were circumcised. Remains of Ivan Atanasov from Malisevo, Dorde and Zoran Zdravkovic from Glogovac, Stojan Pekic from Vitina, Slobodan Stevic from Klokot and Dragan Tomic from Ranilug were identified. All of them were abducted on July 10 1999. The remaining corpses were not identified. Villagers from the village of Glogovac informed the Church-People's Council in Gnjilane that a minor, Sejda N. from the village of Stublina, Mustaf Mustafa, "the commander of KLA in that region", a minor, Ibrahim, and his uncle Zahir from Kisno Polje, Ali Trstena from the village of Slakovica, Naman Naziri and Jahir Shabani from Gadis, and Sadik Qerimi from Zegovac all participated in the abduction. The council from Gnjilane informed OSCE, but the information (for unknown reasons) was not included in the reports published by this organization.
Also, the OSCE report does not mention the bomb attack on the video club "Asterix" which took place on August 23 1999 in Gnjilane.
"A boy, about fifteen years old, in black trousers, green T-shirt and a baseball hat turned backwards, threw a hand grenade through the door," says Vitomir Vasic, a member of Church-People's Council in Gnjilane, adding that six persons were wounded in that attack.
"According to my own estimate, I would say that out of estimated 160,000 people who have left Kosovo [since the arrival of KFOR troops], more than 40 percent are children under the age of 20. All of them are traumatized to a certain extent," says Dr. Vidojevic, adding that in Serbia there is a whole network with more than 100 stations which assist children and the youth. However, so far, neuro-psychiatrists, psychologists, and special teachers had no missions to Kosovo and Metohija since it is currently impossible to travel there.
"Ethnic Albanians who live in Belgrade and have lost a family member were among my patients. At first they are ill at ease, but when they realize that we treat them professionally, just like any other patient, everything comes to its own place," says Dr. Vidojevic.
Physicians from the Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry of Children and Youth did not have many patients from Kosovo, having in mind the total number of refugees, but that does not mean that the children do not have difficulties and problems.
"Parents are facing difficult existential problems and are used to long-term suffering, so that they do not notice problems of children and do not bring them to see a doctor since they believe that the children will get over their troubles if they provide them with enough parental guidance," says assistant professor Aneta Lakic, neuro-psychiatrists at the Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry of Children and Youth.
Moreover, most children do not immediately show symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Ten-years-old Igor, an old patient of the Institute for Mental Health, has held steady although he knew that his brother was burned alive by a cluster bomb, until his mother collapsed unable to control pain because of the lost son.
Twelve-years-old Marija who saved her sister Sara was not brought to the Past-traumatic Center in Belgrade, even though she was a victim and has become volatile and violent in the meantime. Her parents believe that, thanks to her temperament and age, Marija has easily "weathered" the trauma. It is frequent that parents of "double" refugees believe that their children who were forced to leave homes in Bosnia and Croatia, will have an easier time escaping from Kosovo, since "the first time is the most difficult" and, besides, Kosovo has never become their "real home".
Although there is no sense in classifying the suffering of children, it turned out that those children who, although wounded and disabled, survived the death of their loved ones, show strong suicidal tendencies. Dr. Lane Jones, a British child psychiatrist who worked in the Drenica region, as well as physicians who collaborate with the Institute for Mental Health in Belgrade can testify about the suffering of those children.
"These children are not sick. They have survived extremely difficult events and their reaction is totally normal," says Dr. Vidojevic. Asked about the number of children from Kosovo who were admitted to the Post-traumatic Center, Dr. Vidojevic quotes "physician's secret" explaining that many parents demand anonymity. "They tell us, as physicians where they are from, but they are afraid that they would be forced to return to Kosovo".