KOSOVO 1999

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M I N U T E S T O WA R : Picnic in Hell He pleaded: ‘Look, I have a wife and children. Do what you have to, but there is no point in killing me for a dumb camera.’ I followed him into the television room where he just slumped down and explained how he thought they were going to kill him and retain both the money and video. Maybe he was naïve and inexperienced or maybe he did not know the full consequences what was about to happen. None of us did. He was dressed in black corduroy trousers and a slightly grubby woolen jumper and like all journalists or surrogate journalists he had that ubiquitous canvas photographers vest with the multiple pockets. As I said even the bar men at the ‘America Bar’ had one. As I dictate this I think Firouz is sleeping upstairs. The sun had set setting and twilight was turning to velveteen darkness. We waited in the Kukes television station on the second floor, pacing the aisles backwards and forwards that evening. The telephone calls ricocheted backwards and forth. Our demand was US$500 in return for the videocassettes. Ermine negotiated as he spoke with the thieves on the phone. They said they would return everything and that Ermine would act as the courier and they would pick him up and take him to an undisclosed destination. He was to meet them at a particular place drop off, the tourist hotel at the end of the city, on an isolated promontory surrounded by two lakes. The area was the bygone era of the Albania communism. As my friend Brian Webster said: ‘if you look at this area it is almost as if hell has returned and has risen into heaven. The French Rivera could be placed here and the beauty would be the same.’ But here there was only “the tourist hotel”. It was finally agreed that Ermine would meet these unknown people in the car park after which they would all to drive to a derelict sports stadium. There he would pay the money and they would hand over the goods. In theory it seemed negotiable. Finally it was negotiated that US$1,300 was all we could pay for the return of all the video cassettes and the camera. This left us with only a few hundred dollars. Ermine went out with the money, stuffing it in the sock on his left foot, and returned an hour later with the bag. But he did not return with the tapes and that was not what we wanted. He came back looking bedraggled and the telephone rang again and he went out a second time to pick up the tapes and that is when it all went side ways. Five and a half hours had passed since he left the first time. I paced backwards and forwards along the aisles of this small TV station. He had not returned. Something had gone very wrong. It was 4.25 in the morning and there he was as the bottom of the stairs of the station. He had left looking like Rambo shouting as he left: ‘Don’t worry everybody knows me in Kukes…No one would ever hurt me.’ He returned a shadow of that former self, dragging himself into the editing room. It was 4.27 am. Dazed and traumatised with his balding head in his trembling hands, sweat on his face yet it was the middle of the night and cold, slumped over the table staring at the ashtray. In front and above him multiple television screens of monitors projected a montage of shots of refugees, and news reportage while badly made laundry advertisements flickered. He sat there stunned by these recent circumstances. I went over and gently placed my hands on his
M I N U T E S T O WA R : Picnic in Hell Thieves: “Hold it well... they are English... I don’t know how... who has it?... Hide it... cover it well, so no one can see it... It will cost $500... hide it... should I take this? No, no, no... yes, yes.” shoulders but he didn’t notice me. The second time he returned with the tapes six were missing. But we had the body of tapes. And as it turned out the missing footage contained two and a half hours of the concert and another four hours of footage that we shot around the period of our stay. Ermin had done his best. He was in a state of shock. They, the thieves, upon picking him up had been wearing black balaclavas and all he could see was their arms. At that stage when he went the second time he had underestimated the situation.
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KOSOVO 1999

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