October 10, 1999

OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION
This week brought some cold clear nights, the first real reminder that winter in the Balkans is just around the corner. Within Kosovo the impact on an overstretched and underrepaired electrical system was immediate. There were power outages of varying intensity in almost every part of the territory.

ACT’s office/warehouse in Rahovac was without either power or water for most of the week; and the Gjakova office went a whole day without electricity. If computers are to function and rehabilitation work get done, there is need for stand-by electrical generation capacity throughout Kosovo.

Worrisome are the number of requests coming to ACT field staff from villagers living on the periphery of ACT commitment and activity, requesting assistance with their unfulfilled winterization needs. Whereas the anticipation is that the ACT implementing partners are going to be able to meet their shelter commitments at at least an acceptable basic level, it is now evident that the international community as a whole is going to fall short of its goal in this regard.

As indicated in the ACT Progress Report there are a variety of reasons for this being the case, but the bottom line is that there are going to be, very soon, some 200,000 Kosovars in need of alternative shelter.

Indications are that the situation in FRY will not be much better. With the FRY economy in disarray, there is a real concern amongst humanitarian agencies for the plight of the most vulnerable in FRY society. Of particular concern are those individuals who have now been refugees for as many as five years – from Croatia, to Bosnia, to Kosovo and now to Serbia/Montenegro. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Belgrade estimates that there are three million persons in Serbia in need of humanitarian assistance, with only 1/3 of them currently receiving attention from the international community.

The security situation in Kosovo remains tense. The action of a Serbian teenager in giving the Serb three-finger salute to a passing Kosovar funeral procession near Mitrovica last week led to a riot which ended up with 1 person dead, and injuries to 16 French KFOR and 11 Serb civilians.

Within Serbia the government press has launched a vilification campaign against its political opponents, referring to pro-democracy demonstrators as "traitors" and "sexual deviants". Not to be outdone the KLA(UCK) press agency within Kosovo has heaped invective on the publisher of the territory’s most temperate, liberal, independent newspaper, Koha Ditore, charging him with being pro-Serb and stating openly that "such criminals and enslaved minds should not have a place in the free Kosovo". More worrisome is the not unveiled threat in the Kosovapress editorial that all such "traitors" are at risk of "eventual and very understandable revenge".

In such a climate of non-dialogue, UNMIK pressure for early elections in Kosovo (cf. May 2000) seems neither helpful nor realistic. There is much pain and anger, very close to the surface, throughout this territory.

OVERVIEW OF ACT RESPONSE
Of the fourteen projects within the current ACT appeal four (by Hungarian Interchurch Aid, the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization, and International Orthodox Christian Charities) are focused on assisting internally displaced persons, refugees and other needy persons within the FRY areas of Vojvodina, Sandzak, Montenegro, and (as possible) Kosovo. The five implementing partners (Lutheran World Federation, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, Norwegian Church Aid, and DanChurchAid) that constitute the Act humanitarian response within Kosovo, are working in the predominantly rural areas surrounding Mitrovica, Decani, Djakova and Rahovac, engaged in food distribution, shelter & school rehabilitation, winterization, de-mining, well-clearing, water/sanitation, agriculture/food security, and social/community development.

The ACT-Balkan Regional Coordinating Committee met this week in Skopje, with representation of ACT working partners in Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, and Macedonia. It was noted that the ACT EUBK91 Appeal is currently undersubscribed (at approx. 62% of budget need). This has necessitated a cutting back on some of the anticipated programs. A comprehensive revision of the Appeal is being prepared from the meeting and will be distributed to the ACT network, designed to update on the situation and identify the most pressing current areas of need. Planning was also initiated for appropriate follow up to the current appeal in year 2000.

SHELTER / WINTERIZATION
ACT/LWF Mitrovica is working in 16 villages. 90% of its supply orders have been placed, but only 37 of an anticipated 500 truckloads have so far arrived. ACT/UMCOR has off-loaded 91 trucks with 50 more stranded highway-side in Montenegro awaiting clearance documentation via UNMIK. With the bulk of these shipments anticipated within the next two weeks, ACT’s warehouses have been cleared and staff configured to accommodate up to 40 trucks a day.

93% of the 500 prefab housing units have now been site-delivered with construction teams and local people doing the erecting. With awareness building within the UN and NGO community of the almost certain approaching crisis in winterized housing, considerable interest is now being expressed by others to try and secure additional of these ACT-designed temporary housing units.

ACT/MCIC is proceeding with construction in its responsibility area and has entered into contract with a local sawmill in Dragash to supply timber for its program. It has also secured funding to rehabilitate an additional 30 houses within Gjakova itself. Priority will be given to housing widowed, single parent families.

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION
ACT/NCA is now involved in 30 school rehabilitations, with 14 additional under consideration. With local labour in short supply, bids for some of the more heavily damaged facilities (eg: in the Vushtri area) are being sought from outside contractors in Macedonia.

FOOD / MATERIAL AID DISTRIBUTION
Within Montenegro/FRY, where 2/3 of the populace earns less than $80 (US) per month, the value of the Yugoslav dinar continues to decline – by almost 20% in the last month. The average person is now spending more than half of that monthly income on basic food needs. More than 100,000 persons are dependant on daily soup kitchens to survive.

IOCC/Belgrade anticipates a tripling of its food and non-food aid deliveries during the remaining months of 1999. It has identified a core group of 45,000 of the most vulnerable persons (IDPs, refugees, social cases, Romas, single mothers) which it will endeavor to assist through the winter months.

In the FRY area of Novi Pazar, ACT/HIA is operating a soup kitchen serving some 380 persons daily. An additional such facility has just been created for the area of Priboj. ACT/HIA has rented and had ploughed 17 hectares of land on which to grow vegetables and produce for supplying these food kitchens. During the past three months ACT/HIA has distributed food and non-food aid valued at more than $637,000 (US) to six towns in the Sandjak area – assisting almost 3,000 families (14.750 persons).

ACT/MCIC has completed its survey of the Dragash area and prepared plans for food distribution to its inhabitants. It also discovered this week an area kindergarten which had somehow been overlooked by everybody and distributed food supplies to it.

ACT/Kosovo project managers have agreed to each develop a list of anticipated contingency needs (eg: blankets/bedding/utensils for people coming to the pre-fab housing units) based on the approach of colder weather and to retain some of the supplies forwarded from ACT/Albania to the ACT/Gjakova warehouse to be able to meet these needs as they arise.

WELL CLEARING / WATER SANITATION
Since the commencement of its operations on August 25, 1999 the ACT/NCA corpse removal unit has investigated 116 contaminated wells, and cleared 85, retrieving 56 human bodies plus animal remains, garbage and stones. Contracts have been entered into with new local well cleaners who are currently being trained to replace the original expatriate staff.

The ACT/NCA water/sanitation group has cleared some 50 wells in the village of Senoc and is concentrating activity on training local people to do the work themselves. Teams are being trained in both Dechani and Mitrovica. The aim is to clear 1000 wells by the end of the year. Work has started on WatSan projects in an additional 9 schools.

The ACT/NCA Wat/San group has, at the request of the people themselves, taken over administrative control of the temporary Roma camp in north Mitrovica. A contract has been let with a local contractor to construct the "permanent" camp closer to town. Site preparation is almost complete, with erection of the assigned 45 pre-fab houses and accompanying kitchen/toilet central units to commence shortly.

DE-MINING
All of ACT/DCA’s 147 staff were in the field this past week, de-mining selected areas reported to it by local residents. Parts of ACT’s service area continue to be extremely dangerous. On one occasion this week an ACT team came across a pile of 35 unexploded anti-tank mines which locals had retrieved from their fields and simply stacked by the side of the road! The danger of such activity was well illustrated when there were, this week, three different mine accidents involving KFOR vehicles which had pulled off the tarmac onto road shoulders.

The de-mining team are hopeful of this week getting use of the Danish mechanical de-mining equipment. Field de-mining cannot take place once the snow comes so there is considerable urgency to getting as much done as possible while the weather holds.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
ACT/MCIC is supporting three very important independent newspapers within Kosovo. With the pressure from UNMIK for the territory to proceed to elections as early as May 2000, the encouraging of liberal and independent forums for the exchange of views is of the utmost importance. One of these papers, for its liberal views, was the subject of vitriolic attack during this past week by the KLA(UCK) controlled press which illustrates not only how dangerous, but how important it is, for the populace to have exposure to differing and independent expressions of opinion if the democratic process is ever to succeed in Kosovo.

ACT/LWF’s social services staff this week has been completing its social service assessment in the 24 villages of its work area. Parent-Teacher Council meetings were held in Bare, Bajgore, Malisevo and Rahovec, gathering information on the current situation and helping to facilitate the rebuilding of the educational system.

ACT/UMCOR staff met with colleagues in Bosnia, developing plans for existing local NGO capacity building within Kosovo.

ACT/IOCC in Belgrade managed all through the conflict, to continue its support of 11 local FRY NGO organizations working in the area of pycho-social assistance to children and the elderly, part of its program of trying to build capacity and mobilize such groups to initiate relief work for segments of their own constituencies.

FOOD SECURITY – AGRICULTURE
The ACT/UMCOR food security director is now in place. All the ordered farm tool kits have been distributed to the targeted and the tractor repair program (40 tractors - 10 in each of the 4 ACT/UMCOR villages) is underway. Extensive planning has begun in order to be ready to provide significant assistance to the Spring planting season.

ACT/MCIC has committed to repairing 80 tractors within its responsibility area. It is also distributing concentrated cattle food to the 36, mostly Gora (Serb speaking Muslim), villages in the southern high-mountain area of Dragash.

ACT EUBK91 partners in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC); the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization (EHO); and Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA). The ACT International Humanitarian Response in Kosovo consists of five operational ACT members – DanChurchAid (DCA); the Lutheran World Federation (LWF); Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC); Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) – who have come together to form an operational structure supported by the ACT International Network worldwide.

DCA is involved in humanitarian mine action; LWF in shelter rehabilitation and social

development; MCIC in relief and rehabilitation; NCA in water and sanitation, well cleaning / corpse removal, and school rehabilitation; and UMCOR with shelter / winterization, and food security / agricultural recovery.