Date: Fri 21-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Behluli-refugee-Fort-Dix

Full Text:

Newtown Couple Hopes To See Their Refugee Nephew Soon

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Behluli family was hoping to travel to Fort Dix, New Jersey Sunday to

visit their nephew, Boshkim, an Albanian refugee who was brought to this

country last week.

However, Nasser and Hidajete Behluli soon learned that the US Army was not

allowing any visitors onto the base, which has become a temporary home to the

thousands of ethnic Albanians who were brought to the US to avoid the horrors

now going on in Yugoslavia. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have

been driven from their homes and out of Kosovo over the past two months.

For now, the Behlulis will have to wait until the time is right to bring their

nephew home to Newtown.

The Behlulis had a message from the 24-year-old ethnic Albanian last Thursday,

saying he was now in America -- thousands of miles away from the life and

death situation he was in just days before.

"We talk to him every night," Nasser said.

Boshkim had been living in Serbia when he and some friends escaped into

Macedonia where they stayed in a refugee camp. What is usually a half hour

drive took Boshkim and his friends 17 hours to complete.

"They had to go over mountains and had to be careful not to be chased or even

killed," said Hidajete.

Many of the Behluli family members are believed to still be trapped in Serbia,

but there has been no word from them in several months. However, Nasser has

heard indirectly that his parents are unharmed.

Hidajete said she and her husband will eventually bring Boshkim into their

home, but it will take at least another week before he is allowed to leave the

New Jersey base. There are 14 other family members who are still in the border

camps waiting their turn to come to America. The Behlulis recently filled out

paperwork at the International Institute in Bridgeport which might expedite

their arrival in the United States.

"If they come, I'll take them all," Hidajete said.

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 crackdown on Kosovo in an effort to

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

population of ethnic Albanians. He 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

continues to bomb sites in Serbia and ground troops in Kosovo.