Sir, - I have just returned from two weeks working in Albania, catching probably one of the last regular flights out of Tirana, now closed. Like everyone else, I have been watching the evolving situation with increasing horror. I have been emailing contacts in Tirana, generally putting the anti-war view. I would like to quote some extracts from an email I received last night from a health action overseas worker on the ground in Tirana.
"Milosovic had already killed 2,000 in less than 10 months before the bombings even started, and displaced about 200,000. UNHCR expected a minimum of 50,000 into Albania in the event of a bombing campaign. So we all knew it would happen. The Kosovars coming into Albania have said the bombing is not severe enough and that ground troops must be sent in; so the refugees themselves are asking for an escalation of the campaign.
"One thing people at home should be very clear about: this was Milosovic's plan anyway; he was going to do this whether NATO went in or not. It is absolutely the fault of this man that this genocide is accelerating. This way at least the West saves its credibility in speaking for the vulnerable.
"If the bombing stops without a climbdown from Milosovic, what then? If Europe had acted sooner against Hitler, what would he have done? Killed as many Jews as possible as quickly as possible before time ran out. Far from being divided, public opinion here, among Albanians and foreign aid workers, is 110 per cent behind the bombings. But yes, it is horrible. It has been compared to Bosnia. It's not. It's more like Rwanda. . .
"The pictures on Albanian TV last night would break your heart, I swear to God. Albania is coping with the influx the way only Albanians would: people with nothing and less than nothing are bringing refugees home to stay with them. The refugees who made it down to Tirana gathered in the Palace of Sport, the TV put out an appeal for help and people just showed up and offered to bring them home. I saw one man, very poor, there were five people living in his house. He was the only one working and he took a family of seven Kosovars home with him. When asked about the economic conditions in his house, he said there was only bread to eat and they could have it. He was apologising for his poverty, and it would just make you ashamed when I think of how Ireland treats these people.
"According to the refugees' stories, the Serb plan was to sweep them from Pej, Prizren and other wealthy areas (the real reason for this: Kosovo is rich in industry and natural resources) into Albania, fill these areas with Serbs; then go back to the negotiating table claiming these are Serb populated lands, and dump the Albanians in the southern mountains of Kosovo.
"Incidentally, all the Albanians and Kosovars are refusing to believe there is genuine opposition in the West to the air strikes: they think the anti-NATO demos are a Serb plot." - Is mise, Adrienne Boyle,
Phibsboro, Dublin 7.