'U' alum works to aid to refugees in Macedonia

University graduate Sheri Fink, a doctor of neuroscience and part of Physicians for Human Rights, arrived in Macedonia shortly after NATO forces began bombing the region in an effort to end the atrocities from the war in Kosovo.

Fink currently is part of the humanitarian effort underway on the Macedonian border.

Speaking from Macedonia, Fink said PHR has two objectives - to document human rights violations and to work with local doctors to gather information and provide assistance.

"It was really, really horrible," Fink said, remembering her arrival in Macedonia.

The problems in Kosovo are incomprehensible, Fink said, adding that while conditions on the Macedonian border are terrible, she cannot even imagine the conditions in Kosovo.

After arriving in Macedonia on March 31, Fink found 50,000 refugees representing every element of society - from farmers to professors huddled together - stranded on the border, exhausted from spending a week in a mudpit. Person after person collapsed in the mud from fatigue, heat, fear and stress, Fink said, and others were collapsing as a result of untreated illnesses like diabetes, seizures, and heart failure.

Since her arrival, Fink has interviewed countless refugees in attempts to learn more about the conditions in Kosovo. She also has spoken to doctors to learn about the conditions of the hospitals, patients and the doctors themselves.

Fink's interviews are part of PHR's efforts to gather information about the human rights violations occurring in Macedonia and Kosovo. The information is used to create awareness and put pressure on the United States to end these atrocities, Fink said.

PHR also plans to provide the war crimes tribunal with this documentation to help with the prosecution of human rights violators.

There is a "wide variety of human rights violations" including massacres, depopulating areas, lack of medical supplies and executions, Fink said. She told the story of five eyewitnesses to the murder of 15 people in a small village.

"We're starting to see a pattern," Fink said.

Although PHR is not present in Kosovo and there is no documentation from journalists about conditions there, Fink has been conducting interviews with refugees to learn about the conditions the refugees face.

For a year prior to NATO bombings, PHR had worked with local doctors who participated in its program, Fink said. PHR is now working to locate these doctors. The organization feels responsible for them, Fink said, and wants to provide humanitarian aid.

Fink said she visited Kosovo in December, making ties with the people there. When the violence erupted, "I had to see for myself" what was happening, she said.

PHR has issued a statement that only a ground protection force will be able to provide security and the humanitarian aid needed, Fink said.

She added that college students, even in the United States, can still help to end the crisis in Kosovo. Fink said University of Michigan students are in a good position to bring awareness to the issue by holding lecture series, collecting money for humanitarian aid and writing letters to Congress.

The University has a "proud activist tradition," she said.

People also can make donations to human rights organizations that provide aid, support the war crimes tribunal to ensure that it will get adequate funding and support the American effort to end the crisis.

Despite recent events, ethnic Albanian refugees support the NATO bombings, Fink said.

With each passing second, Fink said, she feels the urgency to end the crisis.

"We need to see this through," she said.

04-20-99