VALLEY SERBS LOOK HOMEWARD AS BOMBS PUMMEL KOSOVO.Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer Serbians
Albanians (Albanian: Shqiptarët) are defined as an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture, speaking the Albanian language as a mother tongue and being of Albanian living in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. watched and listened nervously as newscasts showed exploding airstrikes in Kosovo Kosovo or Kosovo-Metohija (kô`sôvô-mĕtô`khēä), Albanian Kosova, Serbo-Croatian Kosovo i Metohija and Kosmet, province (2002 est. pop. all day Wednesday. Many said they felt helpless witnessing the bombings from halfway across the globe, all the while fearing for the lives and well-being of family and friends. Woodland Hills resident Veroljub Radivojevic, 61, a Serbian immigrant, wondered how the war would affect his sister and brother-in-law BROTHER-IN-LAW, domestic relat. The brother of a wife, or the husband of a sister. There is no relationship, in the former case, between the husband and the brother-in-law, nor in the latter, between the brother and the husband of the sister; there is only affinity between them. who still live in Belgrade. Airstrikes reportedly struck outside the city limits. ``Oh yeah, I'm worried. Not only for them but for all Serbian people,'' said Radivojevic, a retired civil engineer. ``If they continue like this they will destroy Serbia. It is a small country.'' Majlinda Gjikuria, 26, was keenly aware that Wednesday she would have still been in her home outside the Albanian capital of Tirana - a city only about 50 miles away from the Kosovo-Albania border - if she hadn't won a U.S. green card in a lottery lottery, scheme for distributing prizes by lot or other method of chance selection to persons who have paid for the opportunity to win. The term is not applicable when lots are drawn without payment by the interested parties to determine some matter, e.g. that allowed her to move permanently to America just three weeks ago. ``I am really scared. I have friends all over Albania,'' said Gjikuria, whose family left Albania and now lives in Greece. ``This war is too much for them. Everyone is trying to get out of Albania, but they can't get visas.'' Nora Hughes, who has invited Gjikuria to stay at her Granada Hills home, lived in Albania for two years on a Fulbright scholarship Fulbright scholarship Educational grant under an international exchange program created to increase understanding between the U.S. and other countries. The program was conceived by U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright and instituted by the Fulbright Act of 1946. and worked to improve the justice system there. ``It is very hard. (Tirana) is 50 miles from the border of Kosovo, so you are not talking about any great distance,'' she said. ``The Serbs have been coming over the board for a year and people are scared to death. They're saying, How can we get out?'' Serbians, Albanians and supporters of both ethnic groups expressed sorrow over the violence. ``NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. is for defense, not for attack,'' Radivojevic said. ``Yeah, Milosevic is a bad man, but it's the Serbian people who are the victims. If they have something against Milosevic, they should go against him. Use other ways, diplomatic ways, pressuring way . . . something better than this.'' Radivojevic said he is helping to organize a protest by area Serbs and Serbian-Americans for 2 p.m. Saturday in front of the federal building in Westwood. David Hartsough, executive director of the Peaceworkers organization in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , spent the past two and a half years supporting Albanians working toward nonviolent solutions for peace in Kosovo. ``Our first response (to Wednesday's airstrikes) is really great sorrow that during nine years of very significant nonviolent movement the whole international community stood by and did nothing,'' he said. He said he couldn't help sensing a sad irony in the airstrikes. ``I don't think that our message that killing civilians is wrong can be gotten across by killing civilians ourselves,'' he said. CAPTION(S): photo |
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