Muslims Urge Attention to the Refugees in Kosovo

Fearful that Muslims in the Kosovo province of Yugoslavia face the same brutalities at the hands of Serbian troops that Bosnian Muslims suffered three years ago, Islamic groups in Southern California on Monday urged greater U.S. government and news media attention to tens of thousands of refugees there.

“We are sitting on the sidelines, along with other relief agencies, unable to go in with supplies,” lamented Jehangir Malik of the Burbank-based West Coast office of Islamic Relief, an international agency. Malik and others spoke at a news conference at the Islamic Center in Reseda.

Under a U.S.-brokered cease-fire reached last week with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian security forces in Kosovo were to be reduced, and as many as 300,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Albanians, were to be allowed to return home from makeshift mountain and forest camps.

But relief workers are stymied by sporadic outbreaks of gunfire and danger facing teams of foreign monitors.

Albania--a nation that was under Communist rule from 1944 to 1989 and wracked by civil unrest recently--is too poor to help the ethnically related population to its north, the Muslims said.

“Albania cannot do much physically or financially,” said Albanian-born Doshishti Hysein of Encino, who has lived in this country for 20 years.

“The so-called ‘ethnic cleansing’ is happening again, but Serbia is becoming more adept at it--partly by keeping the media out,” said Ayman Mohamad, education coordinator for the Muslim Student Assn. in Southern California. He estimated that 90% of Kosovo’s population is Muslim.

Malik, who visited refugee camps in northern Albania in May, said the flow of refugees there has been slowed by tighter border controls by Serbian security forces. “We are calling on the international community to stop the onslaught,” he said.

Since August, more than $100,000 has been raised for refugee aid, coordinated with the International Red Cross and Christian relief agencies, Malik said.

Islamic Relief’s mailing address is P.O. Box 6098, Burbank, CA 91506. The phone number is (818) 238-9520.