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Princeton
• Looking for alien light |
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Computer experts aid Kosovo refugees
By Caroline Moseley
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Megan Peterson (l) and refugees Besart Morina and friend search online for relatives who were in an Australian camp (photo by Bill Achuff) |
Over 5,000 refugees were flown to New Jersey's McGuire Air Force Base in May and transported to Fort Dix for shelter and eventual assignment to refugee organizations and sponsors around the country.
Realizing that these refugees would appreciate access to Albanian language news reports and to various refugee databases set up in Macedonia and by the International Red Cross, the US Information Agency established the RIAI, which then sent out a plea for computer-savvy volunteers within driving distance of Fort Dix.
E-mail, refugee databases
This request attracted the notice of Peterson, who is newsletter editor of the Princeton Macintosh Users Group (PMUG). As she posted the call for volunteers, she realized that her own computer skills could be helpful. She and about 10 other PMUG members became regular volunteers at Fort Dix, going down twice a week for six weeks, until the USIA closed the facility on July 9. (Peterson was the only University employee among them.)
They worked in a trailer equipped with 12 iMac computers donated by Apple Computer and internet access donated by AT&T. "We kept the computers in operation," Peterson says. "We assisted people in getting the materials they wanted to look at, set them up with e-mail accounts and registered them on refugee databases."
Most of the refugees didn't speak English, "so watching American TV news was useless for them. We found them Albanian language news reports on websites operated by the BBC, Radio Free Europe, the Voice of America and other European broadcasters."
The news reports proved so popular that "The trailer became extremely crowded, and no one could hear anything. Finally, we set up speakers outside the trailer so people could sit and listen." This arrangement especially suited the older refugees, Peterson says, "because they weren't very comfortable with the computers anyway; sitting outside, there was a nice social atmosphere."
Instant archival treasures
Among frequently accessed web sites were several devoted to collecting evidence of war crimes. These sites, says Peterson, show many photographs of massacres. "Even the children would examine these scenes, partly to see if, among the dead, was a face they recognized."
In general, photos were very important to the refugees, Peterson observes. "Often people would request printouts of photographs on the websites, and at first we were a bit cautious because we didn't have that much paper. But when we realized how important any documentation of their life could be to people who have had all their possessions destroyed, we printed and printed and printed. The refugees had nothing except their clothes when they arrived, and any photos we could provide became instant archival treasures."
Peterson found time to interact with numbers of the refugees outside the trailer computer lab. "The children would sit with me, put their arms around my shoulders. It didn't seem to matter that we didn't speak the same language."
She says she rarely asked questions about the refugees' past experiences.
"I didn't want to intrude. They'd been questioned so much -- by the State Department, immigration officials, the Red Cross -- and besides, the place was crawling with reporters."
One boy who spoke some English did tell her that in March 1998 "his family was thrown out of their home and their village by Serb soldiers. They fled to Pristina and lived in hiding for a year, when they fled again to Macedonia. I was honored that he told me," she says, "because it was obviously painful for him."
Colleges donate scholarships
The success of the RIAI, says Peterson, "really depended on several young refugees who had studied English and acted as interpreters. We could never have done it without them. We would have been operating in sign language."
One of these interpreters, Kujtim Latifi, is now living with a family in Montgomery Township, and Peterson expects to continue her friendship with him. She also remains in touch via e-mail with several of the other interpreters, now living in Massachusetts, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and New York City.
"Many of the refugees want to return to Kosova, and more than 600 already have," says Peterson, "but some of the younger ones have decided to pursue their education in this country. There are colleges across the country donating full scholarships to qualified individuals among these students."
Before this summer's volunteer experience, Peterson had been "concerned about the conflict in Yugoslavia but not particularly involved." After her first trip down to Fort Dix, however, "I just wanted to be there all the time. You had to pull me away. The refugees were so warm, so appreciative -- and they had suffered so much."
She found herself wondering, "What would it be like if a vigilante group, or our local police, turned us out of our house at gunpoint and told us to walk to Canada?
"We Americans are so very fortunate."