K O S O V O
Xheralldina Cernobregu is a member of the Shtime branch of the Kosovo green movement in Yugoslavia. She spent the month of January at the REC as a Junior Fellow and writes below about what it's like to a young green in this little-known part of the region.
People often ask how we survive in the current conditions in Kosovo, especially how can young people get by. We sometimes ask ourselves the same question. But this is our place. In many ways we have become immune to the hardships and life goes on. Our world broke up when Yugoslavia was torn apart by war. With the political changes that took place in 1990 Kosovo lost its right as a federal unit and the peole lost their right to self determination.
The attitude of the Yugoslav government towards the inhabitants of this region, more than 90 percent of which are ethnic Albanians, has left them feeling like strangers in their own country. Some 90,000 Albanians have been expelled from their workplaces and the area's children have been denied access to their school because classes are held in their mother tongue.
In addition to being one of the poorest areas of Europe, Kosovo is also one of the most polluted parts of the oldest continent. As the government is not concerned with the inhabitants of this region it is even less concerned about the ecological problems facing them. In fact many systems are supported which contribute to the continued destruction of the environment there. One such system known as Iber -Sitnica is an open collector for household, industrial and city waste waters for towns from Ferizaj to Leposaviq. The thermoelectric stations Kosovo A and B, and the Trepqa smelter are the main polluters here. In 1990, the atmosphere of Mitrovica, near the smelter, registered some 45,000t of SO2; 44t of lead; and 790t of other dangerous pollutants. In addition, two million tones of ash, 100,000t of sulfur, over 12t of arsenic, and 3t of beryllium were found. So, radioactive contamination is also present in this region.
Kosovo has a surface area of 10,887 square kilometers, much of which was, productive land but polluters destroy it more and more every day. The woods in Kosovo are also subjected to uncontrolled cutting. Thousands hectares of woods are cut without being replaced by cultivated trees, and all this is done by state organizations. Urban waste is the largest problem for our cities, the trash piles up in all cities and is uncontrollable because a system for management of solid waste doesn't exist. In addition, many of the cities are seeing the destruction of their old towns in order to make way for building new trading parts. Public fountains, Turkish baths, synagogues, catholic churches and mosques have been destroyed.
The Shtime branch of the Kosovo green movement was founded in 1994 and has, despite the odds, made a difference. As the organization has no funding at its disposal, we began with less expensive projects like planting trees and flowers inside schoolyards and building a small park and fountain in the middle of town. Eventually we were able to take on larger projects with help of a few donors. The main focus for the movement now is on improving the water supply. This is the most critical problem facing Kosovo. The majority of the population, especially those living in villages, has no clean drinking water, drainage systems or sewage systems. It is hard to believe that this situation exists in the Europe of the twentieth century.