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NEWS & LETTERS, JUNE 2003
Open Letter from women of Kosova
Below we print excerpts of a letter to the women of Iraq
from the Kosovar Women's Network, a network of local women's groups and NGOs in
Kosova. The full text is at www.womensnetwork.org
--Ed. * * * The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein vanished under the
heavy bombing of the American and British forces. Many rejoiced the day when a
government that persecuted...its own people disappeared. The big question is
what comes next....As women's groups that work in a post-conflict area, run
mainly by a United Nations (UN) administration, we have a very complex story to
tell to the women of Iraq. Kosovar women started organizing in the early 1990's
and...resisted the persecution of the Kosovar Albanian population by...Slobodan
Milosevic. When war started in ex-Yugoslavia, we became part of the regional
women's networks that raised their voices against the war and provided help to
women and refugees...When the war came to Kosova, women's rights activists
became refugees themselves, but never stopped working with women and for
women.... We greeted joyfully the decision that put Kosova under a
UN administration. The UN was to us the revered international organization that
developed and passed key documents that stipulated women's rights and promoted
their integration in all levels of decision-making. But, when we returned home
we were, unfortunately, disappointed by the UN Mission in Kosova (UNMIK)....Some
of the international staff came to Kosova thinking that this is an extremely
patriarchal society where no women' s movement can flourish. And there were
those who wanted us to do all the groundwork for them...but were not interested
in listening to us and acknowledging our expertise.... Instead of dedicating all our energy to helping women
and their families put together lives shattered by war, we expended effort in
fighting to be heard and in proving to UNMIK that we knew what was best for
us.... But we did not give up. We raised our voice....We
encourage women in Iraq to organize, raise their voice and be part of the
rebuilding of their country. We, Kosovar women don't support a US military administration in post war Iraq. But if the UN takes on civic administration in Iraq, its time they change the principle of their work. |
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