As soon as the crisis in Kosovo began, representatives from the New York-based ORT met with Albanian non-governmental organizations to help them begin documenting Serb human rights violations that could become the basis of war crimes trials.
The monitoring of atrocities was the NGO’s “conscious decision as to how to react to these atrocities. And they’re doing it in a very organized fashion,” Celeste Angus, the director of ORT’s International Cooperation/Washington Office, said, adding that the groups have gone as far as received the standard forms from the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
ORT is one of many Jewish organizations getting involved in the Kosovo crisis.
With the help of private donations, Jewish groups — from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America — are helping to meet both the long- and short-term needs of the more than 700,000 Kosovar Albanians made refugees during the current crisis.
NATO began airstrikes March 24 aimed at curbing the repression of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Despite the strikes, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has shown little sign of ending this repression, which has included a policy of ethnic cleansing that has led some to make comparisons between the Kosovo situation and Nazi policy during the Holocaust.
The JDC, which has already raised $1.23 million to aid the refugees, this week sent a team to the region to explore the best way to distribute the money.
The board of directors of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society passed a resolution this week approving a $54,000 contribution to the JDC. In its resolution, HIAS said it supports the efforts of NATO in the Balkans, and would advocate “all other means of support necessary to ensure the viability of regional asylum for Kosovar refugees.”
Last week, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group, called for the use of “all means deemed necessary” by the United States and NATO in the Balkans — not excluding ground troops — to end ethnic cleansing, return refugees safely to their homes and restore stability in the region.
And the American Jewish Committee this week sent a delegation to Macedonia to explore firsthand the conditions facing the thousands of Kosovar Albanians who have sought refuge there. The AJCommittee has already raised $500,000 to help the refugees.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center announced plans to purchase a mobile medical clinic capable of providing aid to 54,000 Kosovo refugees during the next two months. The clinic will be stationed wherever the need is greatest, officials said.
Jewish organizations collecting money for the refugees include:
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Kosovo Mailbox, 711 Third Ave., 10th Floor, New York, N.Y., 10017;
The American Jewish World Service, Kosovar Relief Effort, 989 Avenue of the Americas, 10th Floor, New York, N.Y., 10018;
B’nai B’rith International, Humanitarian Relief Fund, 1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 20036;
Hadassah Emergency Relief Fund; General Post Office, P.O. Box 26035, New York, N.Y., 10087; and
United Jewish Communities, c/o Kosovo Refugee Fund, 111 Eighth Ave., Suite 11E, New York, N.Y., 10011. In addition, some local federations are collecting money.
Notes should be made on all checks that they are for Kosovo refugees, and checks to the UJA fund should be made out to the CJF Disaster Relief Fund.
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