On Thursday, february 10, 2011, A forgotten promise stops at the publishing house and library Traficantes de Sueños in c/Embajadores, 35 in Madrid, Spain. Some information in advance: during the Kosovo War in 1999 the Kosovo Liberation Army expelled tenthousands of Roma from their Kosovo homeland, forcing them to take refuge in Serbia or, in the case of Mitrovica, in the northern part oft he city, mainly populated with serbs. After the war, they called not return to their destroyed neighbourhood in southern Mitrovica, the Roma Mahalla, an das IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) they were settled by the UNMIK administration on the slack sleaps of the Trepca lead mines, a highly polluted area, some called it the major environmental disaster in Europe. But the already discriminated Roma suffered from more than just the dramatic effects of social exclusion, for more than a decade they are forced to live, to birth and to bring up their children and, of course, to die, in lead-poisened air and on lead-poisened soil, drinking poisoned water. Yet, in 2011, there is no hope and still there is no one who feels responsible, nor the local administration, neither the United Nations itself. A forgotten promise is just a glimpse into the suffering and the difficulties of daily life of more than 600 people living in the camps of Osterode and Cesmin Lug in Mitrovica, Northern Kosovo.
Illustrating the chapter on deportation of minorities to Kosovo is only a little contribution for an important cause: get the book "Aufnehmen statt Abschieben" (Admission instead of deportation) about exile, asylum and the commitment of civil societies issued by ProAsyl Germany. More information: www.vonloeper.de/PROASYL
Article by Nerea Villoria on the spanish online-publication Objetivo Denuncia: "La mejor compañera de viaje es, a veces, la improvisación. El fotógrafo Florian Bachmeier da fe del giro que puede dar un trabajo a medida que se avanza sobre el terreno. Una ruta programada por el este de Europa en busca de imágenes del paisaje de fronteras tenía reservada para él una parada inesperada en Mitrovica, allá por junio de 2009. Tras haber recorrido Rumanía, Albania y Hungría llegó a Mitrovica, en Kosovo, sin conocer bien lo que se iba a encontrar." (...) Read more: http://objetivodenuncia.blogspot.com/2011/03/promesas-olvidadas-en-mitrovica.html
Exposición fotográfica "A forgotten promise" de Florian Bachmeier - Madrid, Jueves 10de febrero, 19.30h Inauguración a cargo del autor Florian Bachmeier. La exposición se podrá visitar en horario de librería. Entrada gratuita: http://alteridadperiodicocultural.blogspot.com/2011/02/exposicion-fotografica-forgotten.html
Public debate at Haus der Musik, Seilerstätte 30, 1010 Wien on Friday, 26 November 2010, 15.00 hours. I was invited after presenting my project "A forgotten promise" to the ESI (European Stability Initiative) and I took the chance to present some questions about the perspectives and the guidelines of European exterior politics concerning the situation of Roma refugees in the camps of Cesmin Lug and Osterode in Mitrovica, Kosovo. No one of the lecturers wanted to respond anything about the status of these so called Internally displaced persons living in these lead-polluted camps. Another trying to publicise the unbearable living conditions in Cesmin Lug and Ostarode for nothing... See also: http://aforgottenpromise.blogspot.com/2010/11/interventions-state-building-and-future_28.html
A forgotten promise/Florian bachmeier Fotografie in collaboration with Münchner Flüchtlingsrat e.V.: video projection of the pictures of A forgotten promise during the exposition "Sinti und Roma- In Europa zuhause" at the culture center Gasteig (foyer, small concert hall), 19 Ausstellung im Gasteig, Foyer Kleiner Konzertsaal, October 19 to November 7, 2010.
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