On this trial Flora Brovina, Albanian poet and
medical doctor, was sentenced to 12 years of inprisonment by Serbian
authorities.
This is what she said:
"I dedicated my whole life to children and children do not choose
their ethnicity, children do not know what ethnicity they are if their
parents do not tell them. With my patients, I have never divided them
according to their ethnicity, according to religion or the ideological
choice of their parents.
I feel proud because of this and even if I
was not an Albanian woman I would have done the same thing. I am one
of the persons most involved in humanitarian work in Kosovo; I have
sacrificed my health in order to help women and children. If I were
free, I would have had much work, I would help those that are suffering
more now; now it is not Albanians that are suffering the most, now
it is others, and I would work with all my strength in order to help
them, Serb, Roma people.
My duty has been to dedicate myself also as a woman, as a doctor,
as a poet to the emancipation of the Albanian woman, to her consciousness,
to women's human rights, to help them fight for their freedom, to
understand that without independence economics cannot succeed nor
can freedom.
In the League for Albanian Women, I have created
bridges of friendship in the country and in the whole world. We have
cooperated the most with Serbian women. Serbian women have given me
the strongest support, perhaps they knew our problems best, and they
have presented our problems best. The Albanian women of Kosovo should
never forget this.
I am very sorry that the court underestimates the role of women in
the world. It is very important that women enjoy the same equality
as men. I will never renounce the right to fight for the rights of
women. I will always fight for women's rights.
What the court has accused me of having fought for the secession
of Kosovo and the annexation of Albania, I repeat:
My country is where my friends are and where
my poems are read. My poems are read in Switzerland, India, Brazil,
Poland, in each of these countries it is as if I am in their own house.
My poems have been published in the Encyclopedia of Poets of Yugoslavia
(ex-Yugoslavia) and it is something very important for Albanian women.
The Albanian community has never behaved in this manner with their
neighbors, women, and children. Right now in Kosovo, they have gone
back to revenge at the end of the twentieth century. I am very sorry
for not being free, for being in jail, for not being able to influence
more what is happening now in Kosovo, for not being able to do more
to lend a hand, to help those that are expelled, displaced. I believe
that they will do it as if I were with them; I hope that they will
make it because they are women, I hope that they behave in a just
manner. I would do anything for them so that they could return to
their houses, I would do anything so that the Serbian community and
the Albanians reconcile. The intellectuals of Kosovo should give their
support to reconciliation, other communities have also fought, they
have made even larger wars between each other and now they have reconciled."
Flora left the court walking slowly; the police showed with harsh
and arrogant words to the family and friends of Flora that they were
not permitted to have any contact with her. Flora's two sisters that
arrived from Kosovo, the poet Radmila Lazic, and I went to accompany
Flora up to the police car. For a moment, we succeeded in putting
the palms of our hands on the window of the police car. At that moment
one of the policemen said with an insolent voice, "She's in safe
hands."
Two policemen were in the front
seat of the vehicle. Before my eyes surged imprisoned women: Leyla
Zana, Kurdish, imprisoned in Turkey, Rigoberta Menchu, Aung Suun Ki
. .. . . We waved goodbye to Flora until the police vehicle was gone,
while we could see it. I was in a state of "black shame,"
as Ana Ahmatova says, because each one of us could have been on her
place.
Stasa Zajovic
Women in Black
Belgrade, 14. december 99