According to one of the first reports (HUN), published by a southern Hungarian news site Délmagyar.hu (HUN) about the case of 15 illegal immigrants disappeared in the Tisza River at the Hungarian-Serbian border, a member of the group who tried to cross the river, father of a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, was the one to call the police from a public payphone in the border village, Röszke, at dawn on Oct. 15.

Nagyobb térképre váltás

Csaba Bálint, a blogger with Serbia Insajd (HUN), commented on the case, using the report of Délmagyar.hu, and also proposed to start an investigation personally on the relations between Hungary and Kosovo:

[…] Child, child, help!

That's what the Kosovo Albanian guy, whose children almost froze to death on the bank of the Tisza River, was repeating, when he was trying to escape to the EU one night. If somebody isn't familiar with the story, I'll retell it in a nutshell. […]

The weirdo had gone by that he would pay the human smuggler well, it's a trendy profession there, and what would be, would be, he would step into the new world at Szeged. He hadn't reckoned with the fact that cold rain would fall on his kids at night, that they would be worn out because of this irregular forest hike. When our man saw how big the trouble was, he left the children back in the October rain, and went to ask for help. […]

The children hardly breathed when they found them. A 2-year-old and a 3-year-old, I'm just mentioning that! They were totally run cold. One child of the cross-border violator mister had fallen into a coma, but got better since then. They came off with a whole skin, but the story is sad. Sad and makes you wonder. At least some questions come up with it.

What's the reason for that from the independent and free Kosovo Republic, hundreds of independent and free citizens are escaping? Probably, it's not easy to live in a ‘democracy' built on delinquency? Tell another independent country in Europe from where dozens of free people are coming illegally every week! Probably, the states that urged to recognize a Columbia of the Balkans, hereafter are not working so hard anymore on making the country a country? If a 29-year-old man with two little children is heading off to the forest at night in the middle of October, then I have to say: no.

In the next episode we'll look at what Hungary, the big European friend of Kosovo, has done so that the people living there wouldn't have to escape to the West. […]

Balkan Insight reported that investigations have been started by an EU rule of law mission, EULEX, Kosovo police and the Hungarian authorities. According to the website, migrant family groups had to pay €6,000 to €8,000 to get to Hungary. Contrary to the media referring to Koha Ditore, Balkan Insight emphasized, no arrests have been made yet.

By Monday, Magyar Szó reported (HUN) that a body of one man was found on the Hungarian border of the Tisza River, and on the Serbian border bodies of two women were found. One of them was Agron Rama's wife and the mother of his children.

Gábor Nagy, a Hungarian immigration officer, also commented (HUN) on the case on his blog, showing the same incomprehension of why Albanians escape so desperately from Kosovo:

[…] Of course in cases like this the question can always be raised, if the parents are so careless as to start off with babies to the ‘big world' or the situation is really this horrible in Kosovo? Though it should be mentioned, nobody is after them from Kosovo, as they ‘achieved their independence.' At least on paper. And that also can't be forgotten that these people are always helped by human smugglers for weighty Euros. But if we consider that it's not even to Hungary where they want to escape, then I have a negative stance on the things, too.

Ten years later, Serbian bloggers are reminded of those terrible days. Below is a selection of some of their journal notes and recollections from the beginning of the war, translated from Serbian.

Dejan Jovic posted this entry:

Today NATO’s forces have attacked Yugoslavia from air, from submarines and warships. The attack began at 7pm. The first wave lasted 2 hours. About 20 targets are hit: the Police Academy in Novi Sad, airports in Batajnica and Danilovgrad (Montenegro), several barracks around Pristina and around Nis as well as factory shops of Crvena Zastava in Kragujevac. The second wave began about midnight and it is still going (now it is 00.45. (Yugoslavia declared the state of war. The last night Veran Matic was arrested and B92 was closed. Now only national stations and agencies can broadcast. Journalists from countries which are members of NATO, including BBC, can report only by phone. Twenty-five journalists have been arrested temporarily so far and one is beaten. Because of all that, there are very little video reports but it is absolutely clear that the attack was very very strong. […]

[…] Milosevic says that he is for peace and agreement. It is not possible to appraise why he says that – whether because he wants to inform NATO that he is ready to withdraw himself or because he wants to justify a lengthy war. In this moment it seems that he can’t withdraw himself very easily. I don’t know how he could be more cooperative with the West after this bombing, if he couldn’t do that before it. Also, people are much more anti- West than they were several days ago. [The West] forgets that Milosevic is a legally chosen president and that he is not without support of voters like Saddam Hussein.

News at 1 am. Russia and China condemned aggression. Russia asks session of the Security Council. For this attack, Clinton and Blair condemn Milosevic directly. Clinton compares Kosovo with Bosnia and mentions hesitation in the first and second world war. India condemned action of members of NATO because they ignored the United Nations. India also says that NATO became an instrument for realization of goals of ethnic separatists and that could be the case in the Kashmir […]

Angie01, in her blog titled ”Notes of Madness”, wrote:

[…] In the evening I come out on my spacious balcony and smoke. I notice some unusual and big star which is very near by me. I don’t know from where it is here. I’ve never seen it before. I call my family. Everyone feels uneasy. No one know what's happened.

A little later, I talk on the phone with my sister from the bathroom. In the middle of a sentence there's a strange sound.

She asked me what that was. I don’t know. “What can we do now?” she asked. I don’t know. I go to see. I open the door. And then I hear zvvviiiiijuuuu. The red-yellow light filled the room. Then there was an explosion. It was strong, destructive and full of dark forebodings.

Everyone is frozen at the moment. And then one more bomb explodes.

You can hear screaming all over the hallways, people are running, children are crying. You can hear people calling over the floors.

Neighbors ring our doorbell. They said that we should go to the bomb shelter. […]

[…] Girls are throwing up inside. Some old women faint. My neighbor squats with a baby in her arms… there is no air, there is only stench and fear. Everything has changed in 20 minutes. […]

[…] A neighbor, a refugee from Bosnia, arrives. He said that he came for us. And he added that the bomb shelters were not suitable for those bombs. If they were hit, they might turn into tombstones over us. And we leave and never come back there.

This is how it began. […]

Readers commented on Angie01's post. Here are some of the comments:

Vidomir Pavlovic:

I was sitting 100 meters away from the barracks in Sremska Mitrovica when a rocket whistled over my head. It was ghastly…

Then one young woman was killed. She came out right after the detonation to see what happened, to see where the rocket hit. She was about 1 kilometer away from the barracks and was hit by shrapnel. It pounded into her head or breast. I forgot. But she was dead on the spot, on the balcony on the first floor. She had just moved into that flat…

She had two little children…

Bili Piton:

One doesn’t know whether one hates more those who bombed or those who caused it.

Sybil:

[…] The maniac [Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Serbia and Montenegro] has burdened us with the bombing by 19 most civilized countries. The biggest disappointment after the bombing was that he kept his seat and Kosovo was lost. It would have been better the other way around. […]

Pix3lchick:

[…] Sadness, hopelessness and depression because of fact that, after 10 years, he [Milosevic] is still alive through the current ministers' statements, in which they says that the bombing happened because of false accusations of ethnic cleansing. (From where did the refrigerator trucks come to us?)

Jasmina Tesanovic wrote in her blog titled “La vita e' bella” ('Life is beautiful'):

March 26, 1999 - 5 PM:

I hope that we all will survive this war: Serbs, Albanians, good and bad boys, those who took weapons, those who deserted, Kosovo’s refugees who are roaming through the forests and Belgrade’s refugees who are roaming the streets with children in arms and running to find the nonexistent bomb shelters when they hear the sirens. I hope that NATO’s pilots will not leave their wives and children forever. I saw them on CNN, how they cried while their husbands were preparing to attack targets in Serbia. I hope that we all will survive, but the world will not stay the same. […]