A digest of the latest refugee news,
as reported by the world's media.

KOSOVO: TRIPARTITE AID EFFORT 3 May 1999 – Russia, Switzerland and Greece are set to join efforts to create an international mechanism of delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid in the entire Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, reports Itar-Tass. A three-party initiative group was set up with that aim, the press service of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies said yesterday. Two groups, one already working in Bern and the other due to start operating in Belgrade, were set up to coordinate the three countries' efforts. The first group has already drawn up a plan of actions on providing humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia. The plan is aimed at ensuring a quick delivery of humanitarian cargo addressed for refugees and the population. Simultaneously, concrete regions and corridors for humanitarian aid deliveries will be defined in the country. In agreement with Switzerland and Greece, Russia's Ministry for Emergencies will already on May 3 and 4 start transferring humanitarian cargoes and the first convoy of 24 trucks, which earlier participated in UN humanitarian operations. [Russia, Switzerland, Greece join efforts over aid delivery – www.itar-tass.com]

KOSOVO: ROBINSON WANTS 'CLEANSING' PUNISHED 3 May 99 – United Nations human rights chief Mary Robinson yesterday condemned what she called the deliberate ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and said it must not be allowed to go unpunished, reports Reuters. "We must have accountability. We can't have impunity," she said after talking to refugees at the Macedonian border. Robinson was visiting Macedonia to get first-hand accounts of the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees expelled by Yugoslav forces. She also said Europe was not doing enough to help solve the refugee crisis in neighbouring countries. Meanwhile AP adds refugees yesterday recounted a day of slaughter in the central Kosovo village of Slovinje, and later being forced to dig graves for the bodies before being expelled. The New York Times in Kukes reports refugee accounts of atrocities by Serbian forces in Kosovo are multiplying: a killing spree in the village of Velika Krusa, the rampage of troops through the streets of Djakovica, the slaughter of up to 100 men in the village of Meja. Accounts from different refugees are consistent enough to lend a great deal of credibility to some of those accounts. But eyewitness accounts by survivors are rare. [UN human rights chief slams ethnic cleansing – www.reuters.com; Kosovo refugees recount day of killings in village – www.ap.org; Survivor Tells of Massacre at Kosovo Village – www.nytimes.com]

ALBANIA: THOUSANDS ARRIVE FROM PRIZREN 3 May 1999 – About 11,000 refugees have crossed into Albania at the Morina border post since Friday evening after a Serb sweep on Kosovo's second city of Prizren, UN aid officials said yesterday, reports AFP. The new arrivals brought to 23,000 the number of displaced who have entered through Morina since Thursday, according to UNHCR figures. The exodus from Prizren is the biggest influx of Kosovo Albanian refugees in three weeks. Many of the refugees said they fled the Serb rampage on Prizren, but some said they left because of the NATO bombing campaign. UNHCR spokesman Ray Wilkinson said some 4,380 refugees were transported Saturday and yesterday from Kukes to Shkodra, from where they were to board trains for other regions of Albania. More than 100,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo have found sanctuary in Kukes where overcrowded tent camps faced water shortages, Wilkinson said. UNHCR in Geneva said Friday it appeared that Serbian forces were involved in a "final push" to oust ethnic Albanians from Prizren. The Christian Science Monitor reports more than 20,000 ethnic Albanians from Prizren have fled since Friday in the third major refugee wave into Albania. Refugees say Prizren is being turned into a fortress shielded by a still large ethnic Albanian civilian population. Meanwhile the Independent reports police are forcing women and children to return home in Prizren while their men are expelled across the frontier to Albania. [11,000 Kosovo refugees stream into Albania – www.afp.com; A resurgence of Kosovar refugees – www.csmonitor.com; Serbs force women back into Kosovo – www.independent.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: THOUSANDS MORE ARRIVE 3 May 1999 – Thousands of refugees poured into Macedonia again yesterday at Blace, the main border crossing from Kosovo, leaving aid workers at their wit's end to find places from them in the country's bursting refugee camps, reports Reuters. UNHCR has been scrambling for days to try to find room for the influx of refugees in camps already bursting at the seams. One official said between 3,000 and 4,000 arrived at Blace yesterday. At Cegrane camp, the newest, Macedonia Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski made another appeal for money from the international community to help handle the crisis. Cegrane was an island of tents in a spreading sea of people. Thousands of people spent a second night there in the open on Saturday, sleeping on plastic sheets because there were no tents. UNHCR has appealed to the international community to speed up airlifts of refugees to help ease the pressure. UNHCR said that, as of Saturday morning, there were 173,100 refugees in Macedonia, 79,700 of whom were crushed into nine overcrowded camps and holding centres. [Thousands more refugees arrive in Macedonia – www.reuters.com]

MACEDONIA: NEW CAMPS IDENTIFIED, UNHCR SLAMMED 3 May 99 – The Macedonian government is looking for locations for new refugee camps, after 15,000 Kosovo Albanians entered Macedonia in the past two days, an international aid worker said Saturday, reports AFP. "We have heard that the Macedonian government is looking for two locations for new refugee camps," said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, adding: "We have no more room in existing camps." The Washington Post reports the Macedonian government, at the request of UNHCR and the US Embassy, has identified sites where three new camps might be opened. But it has not finished negotiating with landowners and local officials, and the new camps are unlikely to be opened for weeks. Meanwhile AFP also reports Macedonia yesterday sharply criticised UNHCR, charging it has not borne its share of the financial load for building refugee camps. Macedonia's prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, yesterday called on other countries to take in more Kosovo refugees and stressed the economic burden the camps represent. "The refugee camps are built by Macedonian companies at their own cost," Georgievski told reporters, lamenting the lack of financial aid coming from UNHCR. "We have not received one dollar," Georgievski added. [Macedonian government seeks new locations for refugee camps + Skopje slams UNHCR for lack of financial aid for camps – www.afp.com; Over 10,000 Kosovo Refugees Cross Into Albania – www.washingtonpost.com

MACEDONIA: UNHCR WARNS OF HEALTH RISKS 3 May 1999 – Epidemics of disease are threatening the overcrowded refugee camps as thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo continue to arrive in Macedonia daily, an aid official warned yesterday, reports AFP. "If refugees continue to arrive in these numbers as the weather gets warmer we can expect serious health hazards," UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said. "We are afraid that diseases such as dysentery, cholera and hepatitis may come with warmer weather," she said, while stressing that no cases of these diseases had yet been registered. Ghedini said that with the warmer weather, bringing temperatures that might exceed 40 degrees Celsius, social unrest might also break out in some of the refugee camps. The Washington Post reports daily life as a refugee in Brazda camp has settled into a numbing routine of boredom and despair. A visitor is welcomed by the sharp odours emitted by hundreds of unemptied latrines and as many as 28,000 residents who have not bathed in a month. Dust is everywhere, lice are becoming commonplace, rodents make regular nightly visits to the garbage areas, and everything that might make living comfortable seems to be missing or in extremely short supply. Its population is more than five times what aid workers say is the optimal size for efficient, humane housing of refugees; its density is three times what international standards specify. [Epidemics threaten refugee camps, aid official warns – www.afp.com; Macedonia's Nowhere Land – www.washingtonpost.com]

MACEDONIA: VISITORS PLEDGE HELP 3 May 1999 – A stream of Western politicians toured Macedonia's teeming refugee camps on Saturday, seeking to help it cope with thousands of refugees rolling into a country with nowhere to put them, reports Reuters. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, one of the first NATO leaders to visit the frontline state since the war began, walked through a French-built camp to the applause of ethnic Albanians sheltered there. He later announced France was giving Macedonia a supplementary aid package totalling US$26m. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy visited a neighbouring camp where nearly 29,000 people are crammed into a tent city. He said Canada would give US$23.99m for refugee assistance and more economic help for Macedonia. A delegation from the US Congress also walked through the camp. Deutsche Presse-Agentur says Albania's economy has been severely hit by the Kosovo refugee crisis, but international financial help is helping the country to avoid economic disaster. [Macedonia gets offers of aid as refugee tide rises – www.reuters.com; Refugee crisis threatens Albanian economy – www.dpa.com]

KOSOVANS: UNHCR REQUESTS NEW AIRLIFT 3 May 1999 – UNHCR appealed on Friday for the first time to countries outside Europe to accept Kosovo refugees, amid mounting concern about Europe's ability to respond fast enough to the crisis, reports the Financial Times. Sadako Ogata abandoned her previous policy of trying to keep the refugees in Europe and urged Australia, Canada and the US to go ahead with evacuation plans. She also asked European countries to speed their efforts. Germany alone among EU members has set a big specific target and fulfilled it. Ogata said she was acting because of "the magnitude of the crisis" and "the absolute need to preserve the stability" of Macedonia. In a veiled criticism, Ogata said that while European countries had offered to take 85,000 people, only 25,000 had been flown out of Macedonia since refugee flights started on April 5. In the same period, 80,000 new refugees had streamed into Macedonia, taking the total to more than 165,000 and straining the capacity of the "hopelessly overcrowded refugee camps," she said. Ogata's comments will sharpen arguments within and among EU states about receiving refugees. Reuters adds Canada immediately said it would reactivate its plan to take 5,000 refugees. AP reports Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Saturday Kosovo refugees will begin to arrive in Australia early this week. [Non-European nations urged to accept refugees – www.ft.com; UNHCR asks U.S., Canada to take Kosovo refugees – www.reuters.com; Kosovo refugees due in Australia next week – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: MODEST U.S TAKE-IN 3 May 1999 – Most of the 20,000 Kosovan refugees that Vice-President Al Gore announced America would take will probably wind up in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles, where they can join sizeable Albanian-American communities, reports The Economist. America took the lead on military action against Yugoslavia, but is not yet as bold in taking in refugees. Against the total of 78,000 refugees from around the world that America was already planning to take in this year, 20,000 Kosovans is a modest figure. And against a total of displaced and refugee Kosovans reckoned at around 925,000 people, the American number is tiny. The people who have the best chance of getting a new life in America are those who have made common cause with America against a foreign foe, and are suffering for it. If the Kosovans now get truly generous treatment, the change will be plain. The common foe will not be communism; it will be Slobodan Milosevic's brand of ethnic hatred. America has a habit of opening its borders as a gesture of shame and responsibility after a foreign debacle. A White House official bristles at this suggestion: "The administration does not feel responsible for the ethnic cleansing that's taking place." Others sound gloomier, admitting that, if the Kosovan refugees cannot ultimately find a way home, America may owe them a real debt. [The next masses Boston – www.economist.com]

KOSOVANS: SAFE RETURNS? 3 May 99 – Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic Saturday said he will send a letter with visiting Rev. Jesse L. Jackson proposing a meeting with President Clinton to seek an end to the conflict over Kosovo after releasing three captured American soldiers, reports the Washington Post. Milosevic called for the bombing to stop "simultaneously" with other steps. He pledged to let ethnic Albanian refugees return to Kosovo under UNHCR and the Red Cross (ICRC). Jackson repeated NATO's peace demands: a withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the return of refugees under the protection of an armed international force, preferably composed largely of NATO troops. In an editorial, the Washington Post says the way for Serbia to get out from under the bombing is to acknowledge that refugee return requires a sturdy independent protective force that does not ask the Kosovans to entrust their fate to the people who have been murdering them. In an op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, William Shawcross says UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and the allies hope for a Security Council resolution authorising a coalition of willing nations to deploy into Kosovo, with the ability to use force to protect returning refugees. Since Milosevic is still brutally driving Kosovans from their homes, such a solution is still frighteningly far off. Reuters adds Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin on Friday discussed with Milosevic prospects of deploying an international force in Kosovo to guarantee the safe return of the refugees. [Milosevic Promises to Free POWs + 3 Home, 1 Million to Go – www.washingtonpost.com; Yeltsin, aides mull more steps in Kosovo diplomacy – www.reuters.com; Testing Milosevic – www.ft.com; Gloomy Prospects on the Kosovo Diplomatic Front – www.iht.com]

KOSOVANS: FACING BUREAUCRACIES 3 May 99 – A teenager from Kosovo living on his own in a refugee camp, thought he'd be in Germany with his parents by now. Instead, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong, reports the Los Angeles Times in Skopje. The international organisation that was supposed to be advocating for him lost his file. The German Embassy refused to give him any special treatment, blaming his unfortunate circumstances on his parents. And his parents failed to alert officials at their refugee hostel in Munich that they left their son behind when they were evacuated from Macedonia 2½ weeks ago. Four weeks after being separated from his family during a forced exodus from Kosovo, Mentor Hoti, 15, is trapped in a refugee camp with no idea when he will be reunited with his parents. His saga shows how powerless refugees are in the face of the bureaucracies erected ostensibly to serve their needs. It also illustrates how the evacuation of refugees from Macedonia to numerous third countries has complicated efforts to reunify families split by the Serbian campaign of terror that chased hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians out of their homeland. UNHCR moved the boy's relatives to Germany even though they had declared on an evacuation application that they had lost Hoti. [Teenager Cast Adrift in Refugee Bureaucracy – www.latimes.com]

HUNGARY: SERBS FLEE BOMBING 3 May 1999 – Southern Hungary is filling up with Serbs fleeing the bombing, reports the Guardian. In the past few weeks, Serbian has replaced English and German as the foreign language most often heard on Budapest's streets. Estimates of how many Serbs are here require detective work. The aliens department of the Hungarian police still refers to them as 'tourists.' The numbers can only be approximated when they apply to the Hungarian authorities for help, or to foreign embassies for visas. Istvan Dobo, head of the Hungarian Refugee Office, estimates the number is from 5,000 to 7,000. The Austrian embassy says it had 1,500 applications for visas in the first four weeks of the Nato bombing. The British say 100 a week. The Greeks and the Scandinavian countries each say between 30 and 50 a day. Several Belgrade travel agencies are also bringing in piles of applications from people who want to be sure they have a visa for another country before leaving for Hungary. But most embassies demand that a close family member is already a resident in their country before they will grant a visa. An uncle, or a friend is not enough. This leaves many Serbs facing a stark choice: return to Yugoslavia or stay in Hungary. At the Budapest offices of the Serbian Democratic Association, Hungary's small, long-established Serbian community, its president, Petar Lastic, and his staff have been swamped by requests for help. [Serb 'tourists' take the Hungarian escape route – www.guardian.co.uk]