ROMANIA -

Serb Support

May 1999

4'10''

Time

Code

01:01            The town of Belobresca (Belobreschka) in the Southeast of Romania. The Yugoslavian border lies only 200 meters from the houses away. The residents of the village belong to the Serbian minority, there are 30.000 of them in the whole country.

01:12            The family Raicic (Raikitsch) is meeting in the house of their parents to discuss the tense situation. Even a relative from Australia came over for this reason.

01 :23     The gun‑fire of the air defence artillery could again be seen at night over Belgrad 60 kilometres away, this is frightening and unexplainable for the poet Ljubica (Lubitza) Raicic.

01:33     Even the Serbs from Romania have declared NATO as an enemy.

                  Q‑tone, Ljuhica:

01 :37           "We Serbs feel like Serbs everywhere, no matter in which part of the world we live in; even if we are loyal residents of another country. The bombs do not hit our homes, they hit our hearts. We are against this war and we continue to hope that politics can ease this situation. If people are ready to talk, a solution is always found.

02:04 Children from the cities threatened by NATO‑bombs are given shelter. But grown‑up refugees are not welcome here. Their place should be on the bridges of Belgrade to save Serbia; and most people share this opinion.

02:16 In order to demonstrate solidarity with the countrymen across the border river Danube, big street festivals take place on a regular basis. Here in the Serbian towns of Romania, the news from Belgrade count as credible. It in said that the western media only spreads lies. Nobody wants to know much here about the fate of the Kosovo Albanians, the whole affair is only Western propaganda.

02:41     The people react angrily against the official position of the Romanian government. The politicians from Bucharest hope to be included in the second round of the NATO‑expansion. So they grimly approved the total support of the North‑Atlantic troops in the Kosovo conflict. But they have lost the approval of the people.

Only a year ago, 90% of Romanians were in favour of NATO‑Admission, today, according to a study, 70% of them are sceptical.

The historical and cultural ties to Serbia in the mostly orthodox country are quite apparent.

It is assumed that the mostly Hungarian and German inhabited part of Transylvania could be the next area of conflict Right extremists are at a peak.

03:25            Hidden in the mountains of Banat in Valea Minisului (Valea Minmischului) lies the summer camp for teenagers, where 52 of the about 700 Kosovo Albanians live who have found refuge in Romania. Most of them are not from Kosovo, but they had worked in Belgrade or Vojvodina.

 03:43           The food supply and the conditions are not the best, Romania itself is a country struggling against great economic difficulties. They arrived here exactly three weeks ago and since then have been cut off from the outside world.

03:59            A short while ago, the 38 year old Querim Likaj still had a bakery in Belgrad. He decided to bring his wife and his three daughters into safety.

04:10            They only came over the border carrying hand luggage, now they are dependent on outside help. one of the few people who helped despite of all was the poet Ljubica Raicic. She brought clothes for the children.

04:25            O‑tone, Querim Likaj:

"Since the first bombs fell, many neighbouring people became more and more hostile towards us. Some of them demanded to boycott my ' bakery. Even the window panes of the shop were smashed. Then, one night I crossed the border with my family illegally"

04:44            Time is passing slowly for the Querin and the other refugees in Valea Minisului. No one knows for sure how much longer they have got to stay here. Silent also lie the surroundings of the camp; a bunker and the debris of gunpowder factory of WW II.

ENDS 05'06

CREDITS

Producer: Paul Tutsek

Camera: Paul Tutsek

Editor: Attila Pataki