Date: Fri 30-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Behluli-Kosovo-war

Full Text:

Local Family From Kosovo Continues To Wait And Watch

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The waiting game continues for Newtown residents Nasser and Hidajete Behluli.

The couple's family still remains trapped in Kosovo, unable to leave their

homes. Here in Newtown, the Behlulis can only sit and watch the television

news coverage of Kosovo, hoping that peace will return to their war-torn

homeland.

Mr Behluli recently spoke to his brother who was using a telephone at a post

office. All other telephone lines available to him have been destroyed as a

result of the hostilities.

"He said everyone is still at home (in a town outside the Kosovo capital of

Pristina). There has been trouble with the army and police who have been

taking people out of their homes and beating them," Mr Behluli said Tuesday.

"It's a really bad situation. It's hard to get food. You are in danger if you

go out to buy food."

Of course, the ethnic Albanian Behluli family can take some solace in knowing

that their loved ones are still in their homes. Hundreds of thousands of

ethnic Albanians have been driven from their homes and out of the country over

the past six weeks.

The Behlulis moved to the United States six years ago, hoping to provide a

better life for their two children, Kaltrina and Besmir, both middle school

students.

A year ago, Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, the former head of the

Serbian Communist Party, launched a crack down on Kosovo in an effort to

eliminate the Muslim Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and disperse the region's

population of ethnic Albanians. President Milosevic has resisted international

efforts to bring peace to the region, and his government's "ethnic cleansing"

policy has brought death or displacement to hundreds of thousands of Kosovars.

NATO has been bombarding the Serbian capital of Belgrade and it surroundings

for more than a month. Despite the destruction of the buildings and bridges,

Milosevic refuses to let up. Mr Behluli believes strongly in the need for NATO

ground troops to go in and secure the region so people can return to their

homes.

The Behlulis say that despite the size of their small home in Newtown, they

will take in any of the ethic Albanian refugees who are brought to this

country.

As each day passes, however, Mr Behluli and his wife realize that the war will

not end any time soon. The suffering is only going to continue.

"I am just worried for over there," he said. "All the time I am thinking of

that. Thinking and wondering."