The reality in Kosova

I am a Kosovan refugee. I left Kosova several years ago. I did not leave because I wanted to, but because I was forced to leave by the Serbian authorities.

I am and always was in favour of a peaceful solution, but I think it is time that the world should respond. Thank God it has finally reacted.

I am sorry for what is happening in Serbia to ordinary people, but that is a result of Milosevic and his government's behaviour. I agree with President Ibrahim Rugova, who all of the time has been trying to find a peaceful solution but the reaction of the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities was to shut down educational institutions and throw people out of their jobs - even though they were claiming all the time that they were for a peaceful solution as well.

But they carried on killing people, burning their houses, emptying villages and carrying out ethnic cleansing.

I see extracts from the Serbian news on televisions in this country and listen to Serbian news on the radio. They claim that the Serbian authorities are innocent. But what about ethnic cleansing, rape, murder, and the destruction of everything that is Albanian?

If the Serbian authorities are innocent, why did they burn my house? Why did they force my family and my relatives to flee from Kosova? The Serbian police killed my friend and his 12 year old son in their own home. This is not the behaviour of innocent people. Milosevic should be put on trial as a war criminal.

I repeat: I do not like to see the bombing, but tell me how else you can stop the paramilitary forces and the police continuing with their ethnic cleansing, massacres, rape and genocide.

It is a fact that we already have over a million refugees who have been forced to flee from Kosova in recent years and particularly in the last two weeks. It is not true that they are fleeing as a result of NATO bombing. They are fleeing from the aggression of the Serbian authorities.