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Views
Displaced, flooded, forgotten
I would like to turn today’s “Views” towards the people who have found themselves in an endangered situation caused by various catastrophes (caused by man and natural), their problems and the role of the civic organizations in their solving.
In our context we have examples of both and here, above all, I refer to the displaced people from the crisis regions from the conflict in 2001 and the people touched by the recent floods in the region of Kumanovo.
In Macedonia there have been about 9,000 internally displaced people since 2001 and they have been joined by about 4,000 people from the flooded region. Only few people know that there are still 35 refugees from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 1995) and about 3,500 (mainly Roma people) refugees from the Kosovo crisis (1999). And I am mentioning them because similar happens to the rest. Twenty months after displacing, the attention towards the displaced is very low. The families in the collective centers have been living in one room all this time (in some cases even three generations together).
After a one-week everyday presence in the media, there are not any news from the flooded regions. The floods have finished and there is not any reporting that in the refugee centers, on 120 m2, there are 110 people.
What rights do these people have?
The best would be if they could all return to their homes, as soon as possible. Over 160,000 people, who were displaced during the conflict in 2001, have done this. It is the country’s obligation – to provide some secure conditions for returning to their homes and the displaced have the right to return.
However, not everyone can do it. Some of the ruined houses have not been reconstructed yet. It is the main problem for the ethnic Albanians (2/3 of the displaced people). For the Macedonians from Arachinovo and the Serbs from Matejche security is the problem number one. According to them, so far there have not been any conditions for secure returning and they have the right not to return (that is, they must not be returned under duress).
They also have the right for damage compensation. A few organizations have worked on repairing and reconstructing the damaged buildings, as a form of rehabilitation of the condition before the damage. They are guided according to the minimal standards for humanitarian help (“Sphere”), according to which decent conditions should be provided (at least two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom) for the life of the family (according to the number of members). The total compensation (and according to the current laws in Macedonia) is country’s obligation.
The organizations also provide the reconstruction of the houses or building new houses at the same place, not on other location (one of the arguments is preventing ethnical cleaning). So far it has been the government’s attitude, too. But, what until some secure living conditions are not created? How long will it take? Almost two years have already passed. The displaced want to know how long they will live in the collective centers?
What can the non-governmental organizations do and what can the others do?
The humanitarian organizations have given support since the very beginning of the crisis. They have provided help in food, hygienic products, clothes etc. They were usually the first to react and have given an example how to behave in crisis situations. Support is usually very big in the beginning and these organizations are most often criticized when it decreases. The element of citizens’ solidarity – the wider population is forgotten and they are the ones who should provide the help and then the NGOs can distribute it to those who need it.
NGOs can help with small interventions in acute crisis (short-lasting) and when the conditions become chronic, they should be solved systematically, with government’s involvement. This has happened after the opening of the collective centers and it is government’s responsibility to take measures for solving the current situation of the internally displaced people.
However, as for every other thing in life, most should be done by the ones who are touched by the problem, the displaced people themselves, their civic associations and NGOs whose target group are those people. Since the end of 2001 they have had three associations in which they have been organized to realize their rights. In this period their activity, with considering and proposing all the possibilities for solving their status, although until now without any concrete results, deserves support in the following period.
This should happen of several reasons. Firstly, because of the openness for conversation at the new government, which although quite far away from the attitudes of the internally displaced people, shows preparedness for a constructive dispute and approach towards solving the problem. The second reason is the accessibility of the international community’s funds for reconstruction of their homes, which is provided only for this year. The other NGOs should continue supporting the internally displaced people in the part of the psycho-social activities, as well as with some legal support for the process of compensation. Finally, the role of the media is very important, in order not to realize the prognosis from the title of this text, to be forgotten.
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