Reading the last issue of Flashes-Contacts-Echanges made us think of the Balkans. In fact, that's an area which - according to many political analysts - could well be an example of federation, once a degree of self-rule (with oversight by the international community) has been achieved. Kosovo in particular could benefit, but meanwhile we all need to face up to - and voice to the world - the extreme difficulties experienced by the people there.

We've just returned from Kosovo after participating in I Care! an initiative of Italian non governmental organisations (among which were Pax Christi and Blessed are the Peacemakers). About 250 concerned participants, from all parts of Italy and abroad, including the MEP Gianni Tonino, representatives of the Italian central and local government and people from all religious denominations, went on this first-of-its-kind grass-roots peace mission. It certainly wasn't easy as we experienced something of the difficult, tense and uncertain living conditions of the Kosovars.

The I Care! initiative co-incided with Human Rights Day (10 December) and was an act of solidarity with all peoples. Our aim was to listen and learn at as many levels as possible. In particular, our meetings with the Serbian Mayor of Prishtina, and similar with the parallel Albanian authorities in the country's capital, were extremely cordial and positive.

Other significant events included the Symposium held at the University of Prishtina and attended by hundreds of students and their professors. Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, had sent a personal message of encouragement. Other speakers were passionate in their desire for an immediate, peaceful settlement in Kosovo, including a Serbian human rights worker from Belgrade. Our subsequent silent, non-violent march through the city was a demonstration of our solidarity with all those whose rights had been denied. At the same time Morishita, the Japanese Buddhist monk from the peace pagoda in Sicily, held a lone 3 hour long prayer vigil outside the town hall. The local press reported that some 400 passers-by looked on in respect and silence.

On our return to the port of Bar we stopped to meet the Vice Prime-Minister of Montenegro who publicly expressed gratitude for our initiative. The previously disinterested Italian and international mass-media are slowly beginning to arouse themselves, especially as on 17 December some of us took part (together with the Italian Prime Minister) in a RAI TV current affairs program featuring Kosovo.

For the moment the violence and slaughter of this summer have eased up - although we are still learning of people being killed near the Albanian border. We are not sure that all the promised 2,000 Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers are in place to monitor the situation. In our conversations with people living in Kosovo, we became acutely aware of the urgency of reaching a peaceful agreement during these winter months. If this is not achieved, there is the real fear of a wider-spread explosion of bloody violence in Spring 1999, which would spill into all the southern Balkan countries.

We tried not to be partisan but it isn't difficult to see that Albanian Kosovars are being squeezed - economically, culturally, educationally and physically. The Serb police/military have no hesitation in bursting without warning into Albanian houses and beating people up (even killing them). The young folk especially are impatient, seeing that the non-violent, parallel system practiced over the last ten years has done little to stop the aggressive policies of the Serbian leadership.

Those who took part in the I Care! initiative feel compelled to share this urgency with as many people as possible so that the international community can positively support those responsible for finding a peaceful settlement in this troubled region as quickly as possible.