© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

Medical Emergency In Macedonia

By Eran FRAENKEL*
April 6, 1999
 
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A medical disaster is growing amid the Kosovo refugee crisis. It's a disaster caused not merely by the flood of expelled refugees but also by how relief organizations and governments are responding to the situation.
 
Refugees languish in inhuman conditions in the no-man's land between Kosovo and Macedonia. They scavenge for twigs to build fires in order to keep from freezing. Excrement is everywhere; the seriously ill lie in it, children are born in it.
 
Food and water are scarce. The sight of aid workers wearing gauze masks across their faces Monday threw the camp into a panic. Rumors immediately spread that disease, presumably cholera, was spreading among the refugees.
 
Medical resources are minimal. One volunteer doctor said he was able to devote about one minute to each patient. Dehydration is rampant, particularly because of the recent diarrhea epidemic in Kosovo.
 
Meanwhile, indecision about who is responsible for the administration of the relief efforts has led to inaction or worse. While refugees are dying, Red Cross workers sit on boxes of medical supplies, waiting for official permission to enter the camp. A field hospital provided by a private initiative from Israel has arrived but it's unclear whether it's in operation yet.
 
There are both Albanian and Turkish medical personnel among the refugees, despite the Yugoslavs attempts to prevent them from leaving Kosovo. But right now, this vital resource is being squandered.
 
Ethnic Albanian doctors from Macedonia say they are sending their staffs to the border to help. But that means that hospitals and clinics in Macedonia are understaffed. Meanwhile, ethnic Macedonian doctors have neither offered to help relieve the burden at these medical facilities nor provided assistance to the refugees.
 
Macedonia's Albanian community may soon face a health crisis of its own. Refugees are being are taken directly from the camp by private Albanian relief workers and housed with local Albanian families. The majority of these refugees have gone to Tetovo and Gostivar, the two principal Albanian-majority towns in western Macedonia. According to community leaders in Gostivar, the town of 40,000 is now home to nearly 20,000 refugees.
 
These community leaders warn that local resources are being stretched to the limit. They claim that efforts to disperse the refugees among Albanian families in other cities in Macedonia have been thwarted by the militia, which has blockaded the roads and prevented convoys of refugees from leaving. Even if these blockades are being thrown up due to fear of the refugees possibly spreading disease through Macedonia, it still means that these few Albanian communities will bear the brunt of the growing medical emergency.
 
And through it all, political wrangling over responsibility, accountability, and organization of medical relief continues to take precedence over life.
 
*Eran Fraenkel is Executive Director of Search for Common Ground in Macedonia, a conflict management organization based in Skopje, Macedonia.

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© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.

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