June 16, 2001

In Lipjan, the local Albanian director of Mother Tereza Society has informed leaders of many Romani communities that he will never authorize food aid to Gypsies. Roma in Lipjan are in dire need of food, clothes and wood for the winter.

[Polansky Field Notes, 2001]

Roma suffer severe restriction of their freedom of movement in Kosovo. As the May 2000 joint report by the OSCE and UNHCR observes, "Lack of freedom of movement is the end result of all the cumulative violence affecting minorities, and continues to prevent many minority groups from exercising their basic human rights and accessing public services."⁶ Faced with virtual imprisonment in their enclaves and homes, Roma are unable to travel to places of potential work for job interviews, to obtain medical aid and supplies, and to attend community gatherings that are an essential component of Romani life, a matter to which we return on page 10 in the discussion of the Breakdown of Romani Personal Infrastructure.

Roma lack adequate means of transportation. Public transportation is often unsafe, as it is run by and serves the ethnic Albanian population generally hostile to Roma.

June 26, 2001

No one is helping them in Lipjan to get jobs. Life is more stable in Lipjan but it is still not a safe place for all. They get together to hire a van to take them to Ferizaj when they go there to play soccer. It is still too dangerous for them to take the bus.

[Polansky Field Notes, 2001]

Automobiles are a luxury item in Kosovo, where petrol prices are exorbitantly high. During his Summer 2001 visit, Polansky helped transport over 1,000 Roma to obtain desperately needed medical treatment and medicines, to job interviews, to cultural gatherings, and in some cases to families and/or loved ones separated because of the war and its aftermath. Through these experiences, Polansky learned first hand of the enormous complications and dangers that Roma confront in trying to meet their daily needs.

The better maintained roads in Kosovo are heavily patrolled by the Albanian authorities. Military checkpoints interspersed along these roads allow the Albanians to tightly monitor any movements. Many uniformed police officers, it should be remembered, were wearing the uniforms of the Albanian extremist guerillas, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), only two short years ago. It is dangerous for any group viewed with hostility by ethnic Albanians to travel these roads. There have been many instances of violent intimidation and assault against Roma and Serbs who have ventured on them.

June 9, 2001

Caki and Ado said they would only go if I promised not to drive on the south side of Mitrovice, the Albanian side. I promised, but upon entering the city I mistook the turn and ended up in the heart of the south side. Caki and Ado were in a panic until I made it to the bridge connecting the two sides.

[Polansky Field Notes, 2001]

Roma are sometimes compelled to circumvent hostile Albanian authorities by making perilous journeys on remote and hazardous roads where banditry is common and where weather conditions often make some of the routes nearly impassable. The gravest danger, however, is that most of these roads have been strewn with land mines, making travel life-threatening. Polansky, en route back to the U.S. from Kosovo, by way of Portugal, wrote to Voice of Roma: "I still can’t get myself to leave the concrete sidewalk running parallel with the beach. I fear a land mine has been planted somewhere in the sand."