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Published on 12/22/1999 All articles from this issue

Supervisor describes Kosovo conditions

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

Last August, Joe Simitian, a Santa Clara County supervisor, spent several weeks in Albania and Kosovo. He volunteered with a refugee assistance program to establish a tool distribution program to rebuild the war-torn communities.

As a volunteer for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Simitian was sent to Albania July 26 to help reorganize its field operations to meet the changing needs of the Kosovar refugees remaining in Albania.

Simitian told the Los Altos Rotary Club Dec. 9, that there are 4,000 Balkan émigrés in Santa Clara County. The county works closely with them because it's the first contact for incoming refugees. The refugees go through health screening, psycho-social services and a language and job skills program.

Simitian was based in IRC's Albanian headquarters in the capital city of Tirana, and spent nearly a quarter of his time in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and the town of Prizren.

Simitian said Kosovo refugees in Albania went through organized chaos. After the financial system broke down in 1997, the armories were looted and one in every four persons walked around with automatic weapons.

"Albania is a country of contrasts. We had two-wheeled horse-drawn carts on the streets along with new stolen Mercedes Benz cars that went for $5,000," he said. "There were devastated neighborhoods immediately adjacent to those totally intact where you could find Diet Pepsi, but no bread to eat."

After Simitian's visit to the Balkans, he commented that he seriously doubted whether Kosovo and the surrounding country can ever re-integrate into Yugoslavia.

"There are too many deep-rooted differences and hatreds to overcome. There is enough religion to hate, but not enough to bring people together," Simitian told the Rotarians.