"The biggest wave of refugees arrived on Saturday, June 12. It included about 2,000 people. We immediately provided the Sports Hall in Jasikovac for their accommodation. Thanks to the solidarity of the locals, many refugees have found accommodation with the local families in Berane," says Sveto Mitrovic, the president of the Berane municipality. He reminds that (including the earlier arrivals) there are about 6,500 refugees in the Berane municipality. His estimate is that in the town there are about 3,000 refugees, most of them Serbs and Montenegrins. They have arrived to Berane over the last four days. "We've asked the Montenegrin refugee commissariat for assistance, because we lack blankets, beds, food, toiletries... The municipal crisis headquarters agreed to provide four more buildings for the accommodation of the dispossessed: Hotel Lokve, Medical school student hall, Workers hall in Rudes, and furniture showroom 'Jasikovac'." Mitrovic emphasizes that kitchens will be set up in Rudes and the Student hall. He reminds that the municipality has provided transportation for those refugees who wish to continue elsewhere.
The secretary of the municipal Red Cross, Slavko Jolic, emphasizes total commitment of the municipal authorities and local population to help the dispossessed as much as possible. Many local heads of families have volunteered to provide accommodation for refugees.
"We've just received a truck with assistance from the Montenegrin Red Cross, and a team from the Catholic Relief Services has recently toured Berane and promised donations of blankets and mattresses. Today, we are supposed to receive representatives of the International Red Cross," says Jolic. He reminds that about 5,000 refugees have passed through Berane in the last four days and that most of them hope to return to their homes.
Director of the General Hospital in Berane Miodrag Radunovic emphasizes that medical workers immediately visited displaced persons and checked their medical needs, while the hygienic-epidemiological service has disinfected the toilets and bathrooms in the refugee centers. He emphasizes that health workers in Berane have in the last few days been fully mobilized and ready to serve the refugees round the clock.
"We've hospitalized those refugees from Kosovo who had come from the hospitals there. Yesterday, we received three women who had been forced to flee only two days after a performed cesarean section. Also, our patients are a number of dispossessed with other sorts of injuries and problems. For all of them, and potential additional patients, we have enough medications and professional staff, and especially the will to help as much as possible," said Radunovic.
"This is a shame and ignominy, because there neither justice nor a state, if this can be done to us," says Svetomir Djukic from Gorazdovac near Pec. He was chased away from his birthplace and loaded all of his posessions on a tractor.
"I do not know when and whether we will be able to return at all. The terrorists and politics chased us away. We left everything we had behind," says Bogoljub Vulevic from Glavicica near Pec.
"This evil could have been avoided. We've left all our property behind. We were chased away from our homes and I do not know where my family will go now. I hope to return, but doubt that will be possible," bitterly says Marina Rajevic from Vitomirica.
"We've seen a lot of suffering, and have experienced a great evil. There was no protection for us. Politicians had to show more intelligence, instead of letting us to suffer like this, and then sign what they could have signed without this war. So many people have died for nothing. Milosevic has betrayed Kosovo, and he did not want nor know how to protect his people like Djukanovic," say Desa Bulatovic and her son (who has four little children) from Dubocak, near Pec. The head of the Bulatovic family claims that he will return to Kosovo as soon as the minimum conditions for return are established. They've left all their property behind.
As was said at the gathering, the intention is for the men to go back to Kosovo and find out whether a secure return of their families is possible and whether there are conditions for a normal life in their homes. After that, their families, who so far remain in Berane, would join them.