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

KOSOVO: OTHERS 'ATTACKED BY SERBIAN PLANES' 15 Apr. 99 – Kosovo refugees arriving in Albania late yesterday said a column of vehicles they were travelling in was attacked by Serb aircraft and at least six people were killed and many injured, reports Reuters from Albania. "The planes were flying very low and were Serbian MiGs,'' said a 23-year-old man. He and more than 10 other refugees said the attack took place at 1:30 p.m. between Krusa and Pirane on the Djakovica-Prizen road in western Kosovo. All said they were attacked by Serbian planes. The refugees were clearly in shock and gave identical accounts of the time and location of the attack. The New York Times reports the plight of the refugees has become one of the most politically charged aspects of the Balkan conflict. NATO has used images of suffering refugees to muster public support for the bombing, while the Serbs have presented them as victims of the allies' bombs. The Pentagon said it has received reports of still another attack against a column of refugees by Serbian helicopters and planes. This information was based on reports that refugees had provided to UN officials after crossing into Albania, the Pentagon said. But UNHCR's director in Washington, Karen Abu Zayd, last night said UNHCR had received no such report. [Kosovo refugees say Serbs attacked convoy – www.reuters.com; Fleeing Refugees Come Under Fire; Serbs Put Toll at 64 – www.nytimes.com]

KOSOVO: GROWING FEARS FOR STRANDED THOUSANDS 15 Apr. 99 – Fears for hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians thought to be stranded in the hills of Kosovo grew yesterday as both NATO and UNHCR admitted they did not know where they are located, reports AFP. Sadako Ogata, head of UNHCR, said after talks with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana that her office was "gaining control" of the refugee situation in countries bordering Kosovo. "We have turned the situation around but I am very worried about those in Kosovo," she said. Estimates of the numbers of people living out of doors over recent days have varied between 260,000 (NATO) and 700,000 (US Secretary of State). Solana said NATO was looking at the possibility of organising airdrops of food and other supplies to them. But he cautioned: "It is a very, very difficult situation. We do not know where the majority of the people are." Solana said NATO was working with refugees in Macedonia and Albania to establish where people could have taken refuge. The Guardian reports Britain's international development secretary, Clare Short, yesterday said the humanitarian catastrophe with 800,000 displaced people in Kosovo will get worse while Serb forces continue to pose a threat to NATO planes. The Washington Post reports NATO, White House and Pentagon spokesmen were trying hard yesterday to dampen expectations about the immediate humanitarian crisis. [Fears grow for Albanians stranded in Kosovo – www.afp.com; Crisis on ground will get worse, Short concedes – www.guardian.co.uk; NATO Rules Out Relief Flights as Too Risky – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVANS: THOUSANDS MORE FORCED OUT 15 Apr. 99 – Thousands of refugees, many carrying with them accounts of executions and other atrocities by Yugoslav forces, are again being forced from their homes in Kosovo, creating a new surge of arrivals in Macedonia and Albania that Western officials say could deepen an already grave humanitarian crisis, reports the Washington Post. Refugees are describing nightmarish conditions in which Yugoslav army and paramilitary forces are terrorising civilians short on food and water, executing people at random, and burning and shelling villages as their residents flee. A long Yugoslav train and a handful of buses carried 3,000 people from southern Kosovo to the Macedonian border crossing at Blace early yesterday afternoon. Macedonian authorities said they expected an additional 7,000 refugees by the end of the day. Aid workers and other officials said 30,000 or more refugees from eastern Kosovo could be headed toward the Macedonian border. At least 3,000 refugees also arrived in northern Albania yesterday. A French TV report from western Kosovo last night said an estimated 18,000 people were walking on snowy mountain paths toward Montenegro. The New York Times reports refugees yesterday said Yugoslav forces are expelling ethnic Albanians from across southeastern Kosovo. AP reports thousands of Kosovan Albanian refugees fled into Albania and Macedonia during last night in steady rag-tag columns. [A Grim Story Worsens – www.washingtonpost.com; Serbs Step Up Expulsions in Kosovo Area – www.nytimes.com; Thousands of refugees flee to Macedonia and Albania overnight – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: 525,000 HAVE LEFT 15 Apr. 99 – More than half a million Kosovo refugees have fled or been forced out of the Serb province, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday, reports AP. Sadako Ogata could not say how many remained inside Kosovo. At NATO headquarters yesterday, after talks with NATO's Secretary-General, Javier Solana, Ogata said 525,000 refugees have left Kosovo; 314,000 were in Albania; 116,000 in Macedonia, and 67,000 in Montenegro. AFP adds a spokesman said the UN Security Council yesterday noted its "support to the work of the humanitarian agencies," in particular to UNHCR. [UNHCR: 525,000 refugees outside Kosovo; Number inside unclear – www.ap.org; UN Security Council concerned by Balkan humanitarian crisis – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: BIG AGENCIES ABSENT? 15 Apr. 99 – The Kosovo crisis has been a harsh test for some of the large humanitarian organisations we expect to see in the frontline but which appear to have been overwhelmed by events, reports Le Monde. The International Red Cross (ICRC) and UNHCR, which has a mandate to ensure protection and security for refugees, were both caught short. ICRC has hardly been visible in the mass exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries, although it should have organised a centralised family tracing system. This has not happened. A number of private initiatives have emerged, with agencies like ONG Telecom handing out private phones to refugees in Albania and radio stations broadcasting messages to reunite families. ICRC appears to lack the means to deal with so many needs. A similar paralysis seemed to grip UNHCR when the crisis began. The agency was criticised several times for failing in its primary function of registering refugees. This guarantees them a legal identity and status. UNHCR was also criticised for its absence from decisions about where groups of refugees would be sent. As a result, NATO has swallowed up the empty humanitarian space in Macedonia and Albania. Large humanitarian organisations 'missed the beginning' of the Kosovo crisis, despite their strong and clear international mandates. Critical self-reflection will be due.

MACEDONIA: NEW INFLUX OF PURGED KOSOVANS 15 Apr. 99 – At least 3,000 ethnic Albanians fled to Macedonia yesterday, an apparent result of a Serbian purge in the southern Urosevac region in response to continued NATO air strikes, reports Reuters. The influx through the Blace crossing was the biggest since Belgrade sealed its borders last Wednesday. A Red Cross worker at another crossing in Jazince said about 1,000 more were ready to cross. Police put them on buses where they had to wait for hours before they were taken to the Stenkovic refugee camp. But sources in the government and police said the authorities were anxious to send thousands to Albania. There are about 46,000 in refugee camps now, with about 70,000 crammed into the country's large ethnic Albanian community. AP reports UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said according to refugees up to 50,000 refugees from the area around Urosevac were on the move toward Macedonia. Meanwhile the New York Times reports Macedonia's prime minister yesterday accused President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia of trying to "destabilise" Macedonia by driving tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians across the border and upsetting his country's fragile ethnic and religious mix. Reuters adds about 1,000 Kosovan refugees were kept waiting at the border today. [Biggest wave of Kosovars in a week flees to Macedonia + Macedonia keeps 1,000 Kosovo refugees waiting. – www.reuters.com; Thousands of refugees flood into Macedonia – www.ap.org; Yugoslavia Neighbor Fears an Effort to 'Destabilize' – www.nytimes.com]

MACEDONIA: KOSOVANS TO BE MOVED INTO ALBANIA 15 Apr. 99 – The United States plans to move 20,000 Kosovo refugees from Macedonia to camps to be built on the Albanian side of the border to relieve the burden on the Skopje government, the US aid coordinator said yesterday, reports Reuters. Brian Atwood, administrator of USAID said personnel were already in the area to choose the exact sites for the camps, which will be near lakes in the mountains. "We're trying to relieve this burden on the government of Macedonia and one of the ways we would do it is to build new camps in Albania on the Macedonian border," he said. [U.S. plans to move refugees to Albania – www.reuters.com]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS, 'HUMAN SHIELDS,' ARRIVE 15 Apr. 99 – More than 1,500 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo arrived in Albania yesterday, police said, with some saying they were used as human shields near an ammunition dump after being turned back by the Serbs two weeks ago, reports Reuters. Refugees streamed across the border at Morina near Kukes, arriving in cars and tractors from the areas of Skenderaj, Prizren and Drenica. They said several thousand more were trekking towards the border from Drenica and Djakovica. The Guardian reports refugees arriving in Macedonia yesterday described at length and in detail how for five days before their escape they had been used by the Serbs as human shields. [Refugees arrive in Albania, tell of "human shields" – www.reuters.com; Serb Forces Using Ethnic Albanians As Human Shields – www.guardian.co.uk]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS, CHILDREN, LACK BASICS 15 Apr. 99 – A UN envoy yesterday condemned living conditions for Kosovo refugees in northern Albania as intolerable and said children were suffering most, reports Reuters. Olara Otunnu, the UN secretary-general's special representative on children and armed conflict said he had been appalled by the lack of basic facilities for refugees in and around Kukes. "The situation of the refugee population in the city of Kukes stands out in a category all by itself. And most of those refugees, of course, are children," Otunnu, just back from the Balkans, said in Geneva. "Children are the worst affected sector of the population in this crisis. They are the most traumatised by the violence and expulsion they have witnessed and the most vulnerable to disease in malnutrition in the refugee centres," he said. Otunnu said more than 65% of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have flooded out of Kosovo in the past few weeks were children. He stressed that he did not think relief agencies such as UNICEF or UNHCR were to blame for the situation in Kukes. They needed help from governments, he said. He also presented an action plan to ease the plight of Kosovan refugee children, with proposals to step up tracing operations to reunite families, to train more trauma consellors to work with children, to get toys for refugee centres and support for host families. [U.N. expert slams refugee conditions in Albania – www.reuters.com]

ALBANIA: $70m LOAN FOR KOSOVANS 15 Apr. 99 – The World Bank will lend Albania some US$70m to help it cope with a flood of Kosovo refugees, including a quick-release loan of US$30m due to be paid early next month, a bank statement said yesterday, reports Reuters. World Bank officials have made clear that their hands are partially tied in helping to deal with the refugee crisis around Kosovo. The Bank cannot lend simply for humanitarian purposes, and loans cannot be made to Kosovo or to Yugoslavia because Kosovo is legally part of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia is not a member of the bank. "The core of the emergency needs for the refugees are being addressed by the people and government of Albania with the assistance of the UNHCR and other relief organisations," said the Bank's Country Director, Arntraud Hartmann. [Albania to get World Bank help with refugee crisis – www.reuters.com]

BALKANS: CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR KOSOVANS 15 Apr. 99 – NATO member Greece and other Balkan countries must be ready to accept ethnic Albanians from Kosovo if a second huge exodus occurs, a top UNHCR official said yesterday, reports AP in Athens. A "contingency plan" to send refugees around the region is being drawn up, said Anne Willem Bijleveld, European director of UNHCR. Most of the refugees poured into neighbouring Macedonia and Albania after the NATO bombing campaign began last month. But other nearby countries with the exception of Turkey have so far refused to accept refugees. The refugee flow has slowed, but a new surge would require quick action by Balkan countries, said Bijleveld, who also planned to visit Bulgaria and Romania. "Only once you can be taken by surprise, and we were all taken by surprise. No one was ready for that. If that were to happen, we have to respond immediately,'' Bijleveld said. Meanwhile Xinhua reports Greece has decided to establish a refugee camp in neighbouring Macedonia to help house Kosovan refugees. [UN refugee official seeks Balkan buffer for new refugee wave – www.ap.org; Greece Plans to Set Up Refugee Camp in Macedonia – www.xinhua.org]

KOSOVANS: NATO-PROTECTED ENCLAVE NEEDED 15 Apr. 99 – NATO should set up an "enclave" for Kosovo Albanian refugees protected by ground troops to ensure their safe return, after the withdrawal of Serb forces, foreign policy analysts said yesterday, reports AFP. "The bulk of Kosovo would have to be freed of Serbian forces" to permit the safe return of Kosovan refugees in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, Richard Haass, foreign policy director of the Brookings Institution, told a forum in Washington. Then, NATO could set up an "enclave of most of Kosovo" protected by ground troops, he said. Between 30,000 and 50,000 soldiers would be needed to ensure the safety of the enclave, according to Michael O'Hanlon, a Brookings fellow. In a Newsweek article published Friday, the institute's Roberta Cohen said: "NATO must shake free of its self-imposed shackles against the use of ground forces and move quickly to set up one or more protected areas inside Kosovo for the internally displaced." "Protected areas are a temporary solution aimed at safeguarding people at risk," she added. Meanwhile in an interview with Liberation, France's Health Minister, Bernard Kouchner, says he favours sending ground troops to Kosovo if that stops massacres and the exodus. [NATO should set up Kosovo refugee enclaves: analysts – www.afp.com; Kouchner calls for ground troops to stop massacres – www.liberation.fr]

KOSOVANS: WHAT NOW? 15 Apr. 99 – The horrifying image of fleeing Kosovan civilians attacked yesterday illustrates NATO's dilemma, says an editorial in the Washington Post: It can bomb Serbia's military infrastructure, slowly eroding Slobodan Milosevic's aggressive capability, but doing little to protect Kosovans. Or it can attack the tanks and other forces directly threatening them, thereby putting at risk pilots and civilians used as shields. There can be no retreat from NATO's basic demands that all Serbian forces withdraw and that all expellees return under international protection, it says. But Alan Kuperman of the Brookings Institution, in the Los Angeles Times, says the United States should quietly offer to suspend bombing if Milosevic will take back unarmed refugees, accept a non-NATO peacekeeping force and constrain his forces to patrolling Kosovo's borders. The US primarily should bear the refugee burden financing repatriation and rebuilding, and providing asylum for leaders vulnerable to reprisal. If Milosevic rejects this, NATO would have to weigh absorbing the refugees vs. a ground offensive. Also in the Los Angeles Times, William Pfaff says Milosevic's decision to displace a major part of the Albanian population demonstrates that the human consequences of his acts do not interest him. NATO has actually intervened in Serbia out of moral outrage. The action will have been wasted as a precedent if the humanitarian principle were betrayed by a compromise. We need to formulate grounds for dispassionate international interventions in these cases, he says. [Casualties Seen and Unseen – www.washingtonpost.com; Support of Rebels Was a Mistake – www.latimes.com; Adding a Moral Dimension to Military Intervention – www.latimes.com]

YUGOSLAVIA: BOSNIANS, CROATIANS WITHOUT AID 15 Apr. 99 – More than 900,000 people from Yugoslavia need urgent humanitarian aid as a result of the NATO air strikes, Deputy Labour and Health Minister Maksim Korac said, as quoted by Tanjug news agency, reports AFP. Since the bombing began March 24, "more than 900,000 persons have gone without work or shelter," Korac said in a letter to international aid organisations in Belgrade, the official agency reported. Korac called on aid agency representatives to inform their superiors, and notably Cornelio Sommaruga, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. He said Yugoslavia could no longer care for 700,000 refugees who arrived in 1992 and 1995 from Bosnia and Croatia. [900,000 need aid in Yugoslavia, Belgrade says – www.afp.com]