KOSOVO 1999

M I N U T E S T O WA R : Picnic in Hell
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. For some reason the second time he returned
everything turned furious and nasty. He did not know why but they announced rather mater-of-factly that they
were going to kill him. As it was, they didn’t.
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.’
We are tired, fatigued and it had been a long, exhausting and bad day. Our hope was that the next day we
could put another radio or television message to the crooks, that we could do something so that we could get
the rest of the footage back, but alas it was not to be the case.
What could we do? We were hoping that the people were going to reply but since they had their money,
since they had everything there was no reason for them to reply. All they had to do was get the fuck out of
there.
(NOTE: Three months after our return to Australia I was going through the video footage of the
returned tapes. One of the tapes towards the last minute was completely black. Up until now it had
remained undetected. With a VX1000 camera even if the lens cap is on but the lock on the trigger is off
it can if film without anyone realising it. The thieves must have hit the film button and even though
nothing was filmed their voices were recorded. So the Albanian thieves recorded themselves as a final
performance, by pressing the record button as they were going through the tapes.
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.”
Tuesday, 11th May, 1999, Kukes, Albania
After a series of written communiqués to the UNHCR, we received a document to grant us free passage on
the helicopter back to Tirana. Because the videotapes for the concert had been lost we collected two tapes from
Ermine, one was from the television Kukes, and another one was from the radio station which recorded the film
footage. As we left Firouz filmed the departure by helicopter. Ardian at times kindly helped us, as did this little
boy called Balbeon, even though we had no money to pay anybody.
I said a few brief goodbye to the refugees: ‘I wish you every success, bon chance. I hope that the future is a
lot happier than the present. God willing you can go back to your homes.’