What was striking about these refugees? Two things in particular, their massacred feet and their eyes. Eyes full of terror. I have never seen such terror in the eyes of a Human Being. And their eyes were mirrors. Mirrors for the whole of Humanity. They reflected our defeat in that moment of time, which it is now imperative that we transform into victory, so that we can learn from this experience. We have to do this if we want to go on calling ourselves Human Beings.

The worst thing about this war is the possibility that the hatred, the division, the perception of the ethnic differences may not be contained, and may spread beyond the frontiers of this land. We have to invent a new yardstick. We shouldn't think in terms of who is more wicked or violent, a Serb or a European, Western man, an Albanian or someone from Kosovo. The real enemy here is the kind of backwardness which leads us to see others as different , and which spreads hate. The murderer himself is victim of his own folly. Obviously, this does not absolve him, but nor does it authorise us to act likewise.

What was striking about these refugees? Well, there was also something else. After a couple of days at the camp set up by the ANA volunteers, they appeared to be reborn and different. They even laughed, in spite of everything. They had got to know people and soldiers who had come to their aid. They knew now that Humanity continued to exist. In the course of Life we can also meet fine and generous people, even in the midst of the worst of hells.