Peace Plan Poses New Option for Kosovar Family

With peace in their war-torn land apparently imminent, you might think the Vlashi family would be ready to return home tomorrow.

But the Kosovar refugees, who came to the San Fernando Valley two weeks ago, instead are cautious and conflicted.

They have seen many promises broken by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic during the past decade. And while they are hopeful, they are not about to trust the man they blame for the slaughter of thousands of their fellow Kosovar Albanians.

“Nobody believes Milosevic,” said Besnik Vlashi, 17, of news that the Yugoslav leader had agreed to a peace plan Wednesday. “But I hope it’s true.”

The Vlashis fled Kosovo in March to neighboring Macedonia. From there, the Vlashis and 23 other members of their extended clan flew to join a relative in West Hills.

Their arrival here has been marked by a gradual and relatively painless adjustment to life in a new world. But this week, as they watched details of the peace plan unfold on CNN, they were confronted with a whole new set of questions.

How long will they stay in the United States? Should they continue to plan for the long term or look forward to a quick return? Should the children enroll in school?

Fatime Vlashi, 47, the mother of the family, said she felt as though she was caught “between meat and fish”--an Albanian expression signifying uncertainty about two choices.

“We don’t have a life here and we don’t have a life back in Kosovo,” she said.

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Another problem is that the plan still leaves the Vlashis without a country to call their own. That problem was at the top of their minds Friday as they visited an international fair at a Calabasas middle school.

The Vlashis passed by booths explaining the history and culture of Israel, Greece and even Macedonia--once a Yugoslav republic, and now its own nation. But there was no booth for Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the major republic in the former Yugoslavia.

“It is not enough,” said Besnik, noting the peace plan’s failure to make Kosovo a separate nation. Instead, the plan calls for the creation of an autonomous province to remain within Serbia.

Of course, the Vlashis would welcome an end to the hostilities that have torn apart Kosovo. Many relatives remain in the Los Angeles County-size province, their fate unknown.

But they worry that any peace will be difficult to enforce. In their town of Djeneral Jankovic, called Hani Elezit by Albanians, Serbs lived in the same area as ethnic Albanians.

The Vlashis fear continued violence between the groups unless peace is solidly established by the United Nations peacekeeping force now under consideration. And they have bad memories of the toothless U.N. force in place during the 3 1/2-year war in neighboring Bosnia that failed to prevent the killings of thousands of Bosnian Muslims.

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Difficult decisions await, but they will be postponed for at least two weeks. That’s the expected arrival date of Hazir Vlashi, the family’s father, who was left behind when the family came to the United States.

When Hazir arrives, the family will have a discussion with their extended clan to decide what to do. The U.S. has promised to provide free flights back to Kosovo for all refugees.

One concern is that some of the clan may want to stay in the United States and try to make their lives here, while others insist on returning.

“There’s not much we can do right now,” Fatime Vlashi said. “We will wait and see what happens.”