Cegrane, Macedonia,July 8, 1999
Close to the small village of Chegrane a refugee camp was set up for a maximum of 40.000 Albanians from Kosovo. The camp lies at the feet of high mountains bordering Albania and Macedonia. At the height of the refugee crisis, Chegrane was the biggest camp in Macedonia. Now only three weeks after the war ended, less than 4.000 refugees still live there. From the start ACT International had the responsibility for sanitation in the camp and will continue to have that till the last refugee goes home.

Headed by the Norwegian Anstein Karlberg, a team of Kosovo refugees carry out the program. "This is a good team," says Anstein. The camp looks clean, so the team appear to have done a good job over the last three months.

Mentor (26), a dental student from Pristina, leads the latrine cleaning team. "Just a couple of weeks ago, we worked very hard, seven days a week, ten hours a day. Now the situation is more relaxed."

The ACT 'volunteers' receive a reasonable financial compensation for their work in the program. "But that is not why I'm here," says secretary Nevrie (24). "I want to make myself useful", and adds in a whispering tone: "I also hope that one day ACT may have a job for me in Kosovo."

When will Chegrane be closed? In just two weeks, 36.000 refugees returned to Kosovo. Some people here expect that Chegrane will be empty before August 1st and that remaining refugees will be moved to the Neprosteno camp on the other side of the valley. Neprosteno will have a capacity of approximately 1.500 people and winter facilities.

The refugees who remain in Macedonia have a number of reasons for doing so. Some are too old and weak to go back by themselves. Some have no place to go, as their houses are destroyed. Many were deprived of their money crossing the Macedonian border, and in the war-damaged Kosovo there are no jobs. Other people fear the landmines and general insecurity. Also some people may have a police record in Kosovo and do not want to go back. A lot of people stayed hoping for the air-bridge to Western countries to continue. Unfortunately for them this channel has stopped. So where to go now? Probably the international community needs to set up collective centers in Kosovo.

Nagije Halicaj, her husband and five children came to Macedonia in April. They were put on trains. "Our family is not broken up. That is the good part, the bad part is that we lost everything we had. We saw how the Serbs set our house on fire. It is totally burnt downed. My husband was very badly beaten by the Serb police. He survived because he escaped into the mountains. We joined him later and lived ten days without food or water. Now we have nothing: no house, no money, no job. What else can we do but stay here?"

Nagije just heard that the chances to go abroad have vanished. That is a great disappointment.

To manage the situation properly and in order to work more efficiently, refugees in Cegrane camp are now being moved into just one sector. ACT is, with the help of Kosovo refugees and an excavator, clearing up and equalising open spaces. Latrines are being dismantled.

Anstein Karlberg: "This clean-up is part of the aid job too, but also has other reasons. The agencies and the Macedonian government are talking about the future destination of the terrain. Maybe it could become a vineyard. I suggested this to the mayor of Chegrane and he responded enthusiastically. He said that there used to be a vineyard in Chegrane some thirty years ago."

One thing is for sure, aid agencies agree that Chegrane village and the Macedonian government should be rewarded for their hospitality. On way to do that would be to support development projects that generate jobs and income to the local people. And there is a big need for that as 50% of the labour force in the Macedonian countryside is unemployed.

Back to the ACT front page