2020 has been a turbulent year for all of us and it’s no different for the activists we follow and support in the Balkans. Covid-19 restricted travel and I was unable to visit the activists and groups that I’ve been working with for 22 years now.
Shortly after the Covid-19 shutdown began in March, Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, experienced its worst earthquake since 1880. It killed one person and injured many, and damaged more than 26,000 buildings at an estimated cost of six billion dollars. Three of our partners' office spaces were damaged. The buildings belong to the city of Zagreb, but it offered no assistance in repairing the damage. The groups cleaned up the debris themselves and shouldered the costs.
North Macedonia (new name, same country) has registered an alarming 1,063 Covid-19 cases a day (47,050 to date) for a country of less than two million people. The public hospitals are full, and it costs over $17,000 for a bed in a private hospital. People are angry and scared and tired and sick.
Using Covid-19 as an excuse, the Bosnian government opened a refugee tent camp near the Croatian border. It moved thousands of refugees there, knowing it had minimal access to electricity or water or heat. The refugees' movements were highly restricted; the government even forbade public transportation to be used in transporting them. Just as the general population was asked to practice social distancing, thousands were being placed in living conditions where it is impossible to do so.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Bosnia (mostly Croatian nationalists) decided to hold a Mass honoring murderous and fiercely anti-Semitic WWII fascists. The people of Sarajevo responded by lighting the Sarajevo City Hall with an image of the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest Haggadahs in the world dating back to 1350. The image was a powerful reminder that the people of Sarajevo had saved the Sarajevo Haggadah at least twice, once during WWII and again during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.
Protests against the Serbian government’s handling of Covid-19 are similar to what we hear in the US. It lifted the lockdown right before a federal election in June. Supporters celebrated with hugs and kisses but not a mask was in sight. Not surprisingly, the infection rate rose rapidly after the election. More than 3,000 doctors sent a letter to the government complaining that they were overwhelmed, lacked basic supplies and were frustrated that infection rates and deaths were routinely underreported. Instead of responding to the doctors’ complaints, the government retaliated by subjecting them to disciplinary proceedings and even dismissing some doctors after 34 years of hospital service.
Kosovo’s president, Hashim Thaçi, a guerilla leader in the war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, has resigned to
face charges for war crimes against humanity in The Hague.
I am hopeful that our election and new President might make a difference in once again setting a model for how a democracy can work, not only for our own benefit in this country, but for all the globe.
I understand that we’re all stretched from supporting Covid-19 relief, assorted natural disasters and electoral politics, but I hope you’ll join me again in giving generously to the Heart & Hand Fund. Despite facing obstacles of a pandemic, an earthquake, and corrupt governments, our dynamic groups continue working to improve the lives of women in the Balkans. They need and deserve our support.
Thank you, Marta Drury
