Last month nine of us set of to go to Kosova. Our aim was to deliver a small amount of aid and meet trades unionists / people to find out what was happening.

Nobody really expected us to get there.

We had to get visas from the Serbian Embassy and travel through many armed checkpoints. Kosova is a country where 90% of the population is under armed occupation by Serbian forces fresh from the killing fields of Bosnia and Croatia. Attacks by tanks and armed helicopters take place on ethnic Albanian villages daily.

There are over 300,000 economic migrants from Kosova in various European countries. Not surprising when you realise that since 1991 ethnic Albanians have been sacked from the mines, the schools, the media etc.

In addition the current policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing means that there are another 300,000 refugees and displaced persons in and around Kosova. The lucky ones make it to Albanian or Macedonia. Others have flooded in to the 7 major cities - including the Capital Pristina and Metrovichy.

40,000 are estimated to be living rough in the forests and the mountains hiding from the Serbian forces. There are no hospitals, sanitation, food or shelter for these people. It is estimated that 3,000 babies have been born in these conditions since the war began.

Official Aid agencies and the western media are only allowed in small numbers to designated areas by the Serbian forces. This means that the only news you get is pro- Serbian.. It also means that very little aid is getting through to the refugees in the forests. In summer it is just about possible to survive living rough under the open skies. In winter those 40,000 people will die.

Meanwhile on the Macedonian borders N.A.T.O. forces stand and watch. Their mission is to keep refugees and the war spreading out of Kosova. They, and our, respective governments know exactly what is going on in Kosova but are not willing to challenge Milosovic and his Serbian forces.

This is a story of hope despite this background. First our convoy did deliver aid to the Miners of Metrovichy. What we have done once can be done again. More importantly is the fact that the Kosovans are somehow still managing to function and organise their society despite the greatest provocations and harassment.

Schools for example. In 1981 there was unrest in Kosova lead by students. They were demanding equal status for the Kosovan Assembly on a par with the assemblies of Serbia , Croatia etc. Unrest and agitation continued until 1989 and included a stay down strike by miners which eventually lead to the demand being granted. As soon as the assembly won this right it was closed down by Milosovic and made illegal. Schools, colleges and universities were segregated. The Albanian language was banned and ethnic Albanian teachers sacked. Faced with this situation the union started to organise their own schools and education system. They teach classes in people's houses. They have no money for books or wages but they are still working.

Every economic refugee pays 10% of their salary back to the illegal Albanian Government. Teachers are now paid the princely sum of 120 Deutschmarks per month - about £10 per week. They still have no money for books and supplies but somehow they manage to keep going.

Following pressure from western governments Milosovic allowed the University of Pristina to re-open. We went and talked to the students. The first problem was obvious to us as soon as we walked into the library. It had been trashed by the Serb paramilitaries and there were no books or equipment. Studying engineering when you haven’t got any engineering machinery is hard. Even harder, medical students are not allowed to practise in official hospitals. Books in Albanian are banned.

Students told us that on their way to and from university they hid their books because otherwise they would be confiscated and their owners beaten. Torture, murder and harassment are their daily reality.

This was plain to see. All the main roads in the City and between cities have many armed road blocks. On one ten-kilometre stretch from Pristina to Metrovichy we passed through ten roadblocks and were stopped 4 times.

We had to produce passports and documents and usually had to open the boot of the car. Because we had British passports and looked semi-respectable we just had to put up with searches and a bit of swearing at stupid English tourists.

For ethnic Albanians it is much worse. Travel to and from some areas is difficult if not impossible. On the day we were leaving two Albanian aid workers were shot. Every night on the Albanian news we could see pictures of tanks and helicopters shelling and burning Kosovan villages. We regularly saw and heard gun and shellfire.

We talked to a family of refugees. We all broke down in tears as they told their story. They realised the Serb paramilitaries were coming because their Serbian neighbours left the village. The bulk of the villagers gathered together what they could carry on tractors or foot and left two people behind to try and talk with the Serb paramilitaries. They were both shot.

After the tanks and the paramilitaries had gone the family’s uncle went back to investigate and try to let the farm animals out to graze. The Serbs had left snipers behind and the uncle was shot. Three dead, 1 village ethnically cleansed. The bodies were still laying unburied weeks after the event. No one dared to return. Presumably the farm animals had simply starved to death.

Yet the Kosovans will not be defeated. We were interviewed by a journalist for the main daily paper in Kosova. She told us that every time they print anti-government points of view they get closed down. To be legal they then have to find an obscure Journal that had been registered with the state. My interview would therefore be published in the equivalent of the Daily Mirror currently going out with the title of the "Agricultural Gazette".

Anyway, if you’ve got this far why not go a bit further. Come to the demonstration on October 4th. Write letters or demonstrate in your own town. The organisation I went with is called Workers Aid for Kosova and we are planning future convoys and events. Get in touch with us. Chances are there is somebody local to you who might be already doing something. The nine us included me from Bradford but others from Manchester, Teeside, Leicester , Aberdeen and London. People from Brighton also went to Bosnia.

We are planning another convoy if you are interested write to me:

Demonstration: Sunday, October 4th, 11.00 - 12.00, Hyde Park Corner. March to Rally in Trafalgar Square

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