Kosovar gypsies suffer post-war poverty

“WE DON’T have enough firewood for the winter, so at the moment we’re collecting old plastic bottles to burn. We have to survive the winter somehow.”

These are the words of Desim Linaani, 35, the village leader of the gypsy community in the Kosovar Albanian village of Gorjne Gadinjle.

Surrounded by other men and children from the village, Desim is pleading with Ed Holland, 26, a captain in C company of the Irish K4 contingent to help secure more aid for his people from the local administration.

Captain Holland from Ladysbridge in Cork is on foot patrol with other Irish soldiers of C Company in the village.

Before our visit here, we were already warned about the abject poverty in which these people are forced to live.

“The gypsy or Askali community are some of the poorest people we have to deal with here,” said Capt Holland. The village has an unemployment rate of 98% and an entire family is forced to survive on as little at 62 per month.

The dilapidated community lies alongside a meagre stream, the banks of which are strewn with rubbish.

“A dog in Ireland lives in better conditions than we do,” says Mr Linaani. “Conditions have got far worse since the war here in 1999. It was much better before in the former Yugoslavia, we have no opportunities now.”

Captain Holland promises to address the concerns of the village through his CIMIC duties which is an integrated civilian and military programme that makes up part of the work of Irish K4 troops stationed in Kosovo.

“The gypsy community didn’t take any side in the war here but their conditions are still squalid,” says Lieutenant Mick Mercer.

“This village and others like it form part of our regular village patrols. It’s important that we have a visible and public profile, it reminds these people that we are here and we’re here to help,” he said.