DISCLAIMER
The following summary of refugee news has been prepared by UNHCR from publicly available media sources. It does not necessarily reflect the views of UNHCR, nor can UNHCR vouch for the accuracy or the comprehensiveness of the information provided. 
Country links are to relevant UNHCR country profiles where available, otherwise to UNHCR programme details from the "1999 Global Appeal"

KOSOVANS: OGATA URGES FORCE AMID WORRIES 26 Apr. 99 – UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata said Friday that a "fairly strong" international force must be deployed in Kosovo to create a safe environment for ethnic Albanians, reports AP. "I am not a military strategist so I don't know how this ground troops deployment is going to take place," said Ogata. If the troops have to fight Serbian forces, it may bring more hardships to civilians "in the short run." Ogata said NATO airstrikes have initially only made the humanitarian situation worse even though they may eventually help solve the Kosovo crisis. "Air action was supposed to lead to a political solution and I am still hopeful that this will lead to an early political solution, but in the immediate sense it has not prevented the outflow of refugees," Ogata said. She said she also was "very concerned" about the impact of airstrikes on civilians in Serbia. Meanwhile in the Washington Post, Nicholas Gage, a writer on the Balkans, says the whole world is becoming increasingly anxious about how the crisis can be resolved. President Clinton has made it clear Slobodan Milosevic must pull his forces out of Kosovo, allow the refugees to return and accept an international force in Kosovo to protect them. But if peace comes only at the cost of total submission and humiliation of Serbia, it could create anger in Russia and dangerous risks for the entire world. One way out would be, if Milosevic accepts all of NATO's terms, to hold a new conference to work out how to implement them – with a cease-fire during the talks. [Refugee chief: `fairly strong' international force needed in Kosovo – www.ap.org; One Way Out – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVANS: UN AGENCIES REQUEST $625m 26 Apr. 99 – The United Nations has asked donor countries for additional funds to provide shelter and food for the growing number of refugees from Kosovo, reports BBC News. The UN said an extra US$625m were needed for the refugees, whose numbers were expected to reach almost one million by the end of June. Reuters reports the amount requested is based on the needs of 950,000 refugees and is intended to cover operations from April to June. UN spokeswoman Therese Gastaut said the agencies had so far received US$180m to cover the Kosovo relief operation. The agencies said they would soon outline contingency plans for coping with up to 1,250,000 people in the second half of the year. UNHCR spokeswoman Judith Kumin said that figure was based on the agencies' assumption that they would still have to cater for a large number of people after June. Meanwhile the New York Times reports a study by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank concludes Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Macedonia will need a total of US$1.826bn in outside assistance to cover increased balance of payments deficits as a result of lost trade and the cost of caring for refugees. [UN asks for more money in Kosovo refugee crisis – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Cost Of War In Kosovo Could Cost Border Countries $2.5 Billion – www.nytimes.com]

KOSOVO: MORE KILLINGS REPORTED 26 Apr. 99 – Kosovo refugees arriving in Macedonia have said Serb paramilitaries killed 56 ethnic Albanians in attacks on three villages in the south of the province, a UN humanitarian official said yesterday, reports Reuters. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond quoted the refugees as saying the attacks were on villages north of the Kosovo town of Urosevac and occurred between April 16-18. The victims included ethnic Albanian women who were raped before being murdered, he said. Redmond said refugees reported that masked Serb paramilitaries rounded up residents in the three villages – Hallac Ivogel, Ribar Ivogel and Slavi – near Lipljan, south of Pristina. Meanwhile AP reports women refugees say Serbs are hunting down young women to rape as they loot, empty and burn Kosovo's ethnic Albanian communities. The Guardian reports refugees arriving in Albania yesterday provided eyewitness testimony which corroborates reports of one of the most horrific mass executions by Serbian troops at Izbica where 152 people were allegedly cut down by Serb machine guns on March 28. The Los Angeles Times reports some ethnic Albanians had to leave behind newborn children in hospitals. [UNHCR reports new Serb killings in Kosovo – www.reuters.com; Refugees tell of Serbs seeking women for rape in Kosovo – www.ap.org; Eyes in the hills witness death of a village – www.guardian.co.uk; Families Bear Brunt of Conflict – www.latimes.com]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS MOVED 26 Apr. 99 – Life is returning to normal in the border town of Kukes where over 350,000 Kosovo refugees have stretched resources to breaking point, reports Reuters. UNHCR officials said only around 50,000 refugees remained there and were being encouraged to seek shelter deeper inside Albania. But authorities are not dismantling tented camps for fear of another huge influx. "We definitely have to remain on standby . . .We have absolutely no idea what is going on on the other side and we have to prepare for the worst," said UNHCR spokesman Ray Wilkinson. AFP reports most Kosovan Albanians and their tractors headed to Tirana Friday. But AP reports hundreds of Kosovan refugees were forcibly moved by Albanian police to clear out their makeshift camp near the border. BBC News reports UNHCR has criticised the Albanian authorities for forcibly removing Kosovo refugees. Wilkinson said all movement should be voluntary and refugees should be encouraged rather than forced to go, adding that a formal complaint might be made to Tirana. [Albania's main border camp empties of refugees – www.reuters.com; Refugee tractor exodus trundles toward Tirana – www.afp.com; Refugees expelled by Albanian police as crime, tension increase – www.ap.org; UNHCR criticises forcible removal of refugees by Albanian authorities – http://news.bbc.co.uk]

ALBANIA: NATO AID 'SCARECELY OPERATIONAL' 26 Apr. 99 – Italian Civil Defence Minister Franco Barberi, in a report yesterday, sharply criticised NATO's operation to aid Kosovo refugees in Albania, saying it was strangling in bureaucratic red tape, reports AFP. "Operation Allied Shelter has been much talked about in the media but has scarcely become operational," Barberi told Corriere della Sera, which interviewed him in Tirana. Condemning the "unthinkable delays" in the organisation of aid to the refugees, which he said were due to bureaucratic complications, he accused international bodies in Albania of trying to palm off responsibilities on each other. "We must once and for all set up standardised and coordinated measures between the various international organisations," he said. Meanwhile the Washington Post reports it is hard to find a Kosovo Albanian who knows the whereabouts of his relatives in the flood of more than 360,000 refugees now living in Albania. Families have been displaced by the forced exodus, and broken. UNHCR and the Red Cross are about to begin a registration effort to list all the refugees and start the work of family reunification. It is a massive task, however, slowed until now by the more pressing needs to feed and shelter the refugees. [Italian minister slams slowness of NATO's refugee operation – www.afp.com; Broken Families Seek Reunion – www.washingtonpost.com]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS RECRUITED BY KLA 26 Apr. 99 – While the Kosovo Liberation Army recently has swelled with volunteers, the guerrilla group also has forcibly recruited some refugees in northern Albania, according to refugees and foreign workers in Kukes, reports the Washington Post. KLA fighters maintain roadblocks and halt traffic on main roads used by arriving Kosovo refugees. They have pulled an unknown number of men out of their cars or farm wagons as conscripts, according to refugees and foreigners. An official of the KLA's political wing said Saturday that force had been used only in isolated cases, and that an order had been issued to halt the practice. Nevertheless, the forced recruitments have aroused concern among international organisations caring for refugees. "We are concerned about the reports of conscription of refugees" and the danger of refugee camps becoming too closely linked to the KLA, said UNHCR spokesman Jacques Franquin. "We don't see evidence that KLA is recruiting in camps [but] the refugee population and KLA are closely linked . . .We fear one day the Serbs may target the refugee camps because they regard them as KLA bases," Franquin said. He said that is one reason UNHCR is pressing refugees in the Kukes area to move to southern Albania, away from the border with Kosovo. [Kosovo Rebel Army Not All-Volunteer – www.washingtonpost.com]

ALBANIA: MORE KOSOVANS VIA MONTENEGRO 26 Apr. 99 – The number of Kosovo refugees coming from Montenegro into Albania continues to rise, Radio Tirana reported Saturday, reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur. About 1,500 refugees, mostly women, children and old people, crossed through the border point of Hani i Hotit. They were accommodated in the north Albanian city of Shkoder, where the number of refugees from Montenegro has risen to 40,000. [1,500 Kosovo refugees cross from Montenegro into Albania – www.dpa.com]

MACEDONIA: THOUSANDS MORE ARRIVE 26 Apr. 99 – Some 4,000 more Kosovo refugees arrived in Macedonia this weekend, UNHCR said yesterday, reports AFP. UNHCR spokeswoman Judith Kumin said 1,800 refugees arrived in Blace, on the border, early Sunday, joining 2,200 others who had arrived the day before. The new arrivals brought the number of Kosovo refugees Macedonia to 137,000, said UNHCR, which is calling for permission to build new camps. AP reports refugees crossed into Macedonia by the trainful and busload Saturday, leaving aid workers shuffling and squeezing in earlier arrivals at crowded camps. Meanwhile Reuters reports life for newly arrived refugees was more welcoming in some of Macedonia's farming villages: Bags of crisps, tea and a pile of local tobacco greeted about a hundred newcomers at one village after they were brought down from the mountains, where they had been hiding after crossing into the country illegally. [4,000 more refugees in Macedonia over weekend – www.afp.com; Macedonia's camps squeeze in thousands more refugees – www.ap.org; Tea and sympathy as refugees arrive in Macedonia – www.reuters.com]

MACEDONIA: UNHCR REQUESTS MORE CAMPS 26 Apr. 99 – UNHCR has asked Macedonia for permission to build more refugee camps, to cope with the constant influx of Kosovo Albanian refugees, a spokeswoman said yesterday, reports AFP. "We are beyond capacity limits in the existing camps," UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said. "We have requested authorisation for setting up three new camps with a total capacity of 30,000 people," she added. In the village of Cegrane, south of the mainly Albanian-populated town of Tetovo, one of the three camps is already being built. Reuters adds UNICEF said yesterday it would conduct a mass vaccination programme for Kosovan children in refugee camps in Macedonia. The New York Times reports hundreds of the uprooted intelligentsia of Pristina have gone to Tetovo. [UNHCR seeks to build more refugee camps in Macedonia – www.afp.com; UNICEF to vaccinate refugee children in Macedonia – www.reuters.com; Uprooted and Idle, Kosovo's Cultured Pace Their Haven – www.nytimes.com]

MONTENEGRO: 'REBELS' SEIZED 26 Apr. 99 – Yugoslav army reservists and paramilitary troops kidnapped two ethnic Albanians from a convoy of refugees near the border with Kosovo, the Montenegro government said Saturday, reports AP. The two cousins were kidnapped Friday and accused of being Kosovo rebel fighters, according to accounts provided by witnesses to Montenegro authorities. But the government of Montenegro said those killed were in fact refugees from Kosovo. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reports two foreign journalists detained in Montenegro have been ordered into detention for 30 days before trial. Erich Vajone, a cameraman with the French television station TF-1, was trying to film a report on the killing by uniformed men of six refugees from Kosovo. [Two ethnic Albanians reportedly kidnapped by Yugoslav army – www.ap.org; Military Court Confines Journalists – www.latimes.com]

ITALY: KOSOVANS PICKED UP 26 Apr. 99 – Police said they picked up more than 400 illegal immigrants and refugees, many of them from Kosovo, along the southern Italian coast on Saturday morning, reports Reuters in Otranto. The immigrants and refugees, thought to be mainly ethnic Albanians from the conflict in Yugoslavia and Kurds, had disembarked from a fleet of small boats which later set sail again. They said some Kosovo Albanians refugees had paid US$435 per person for their one-way ticket to the Italian coast. Police said all 437 arrivals had been taken to a reception centre in Otranto. [Hundreds of immigrants, refugees hit Italian beaches – www.reuters.com]

EUROPE: KOSOVAN AIRLIFT RESUMES 26 Apr. 99 – The first of about 800 ethnic Albanian refugees boarded planes for new host countries yesterday, reports CNN. The airlift took about 150 refugees from Macedonia to Britain and the Netherlands early yesterday, while others were due to be flown to Spain and Turkey. The flights are being organised by UNHCR, which has received promises from 28 nations to temporarily house 115,000 displaced Kosovans. "The evacuation is completely voluntary, and many people change their mind at the last minute," a UNHCR official said. But there have been no airlifts from Montenegro, where conditions at camps in Rodaje are miserable. AFP reports UNHCR and Germany have called on the European Union to honour its pledge to open its doors to at least 44,000 ethnic Albanian refugees. EU countries have so far taken in just 18,000, although a total of 85,000 places have been pledged. European leaders have called on the refugees to be kept, where possible, near to Kosovo. Reuters reports Sweden received its first planeload of Kosovo refugees on Friday amid a bomb threat. Reuters also reports Switzerland said Friday it has agreed to take in up to 2,500 Kosovo refugees evacuated from Macedonia. Xinhua reports Finland said Friday it has agreed to take 1,000 ethnic Albanian refugees. Meanwhile the Washington Post reports there is a general spirit in Kirklareli refugee camp in Turkey that things could be worse much worse, that the place is safe, but also comfortable and welcoming. [Refugees look for way out of camps – http://cnn.com; European countries urged to take more Kosovo refugees – www.afp.com; Kosovo refugees arrive in Sweden amid bomb threat + Swiss agree to take 2,500 more Kosovo refugees – www.reuters.com; Finland to Take 1,000 Kosovo Refugees – www.xinhua.org; Turkish Refugee Camp A Welcome Change for Kosovars – www.washingtonpost.com]

BRITAIN: FEW KOSOVANS TAKEN 26 Apr. 99 – A group of 161 Kosovo Albanian refugees, the first to come to Britain since NATO airstrikes began last month, arrived yesterday to stay in hostels in the northern town of Leeds, reports AP. The government rejected UNHCR criticisms, saying the priority was to look after refugees in the region and return them as soon as possible. The Sunday Telegraph reports ministers were attacked Saturday by Amnesty International for failing to take more than a few hundred refugees the Kosovo crisis. [First Kosovo Albanian refugees arrive in Britain – www.ap.org; Britain `guilty of shameful curbs' on Kosovo refugees – www.telegraph.co.uk]

YUGOSLAVIA: CROATIAN REFUGE 'BOMBED' 26 Apr. 99 – One person was injured late Saturday when NATO bombed a mountain refuge housing Serb refugees from Croatia, southwest of Belgrade, Tanjug news agency said, reports AFP. The director of the shelter Velicko Lukic suffered minor injuries in the attack, Tanjug said, adding that he had been taken to hospital in Luznica. None of the refugees were hurt. The refuge, located on Mount Gucevo near Loznica, was badly damaged and has been evacuated, Tanjug said. But Reuters reports Tanjug said a Croatian Serb refugee was injured. [NATO bombs refuge for Serb refugees: Tanjug – www.afp.com; NATO bombs Serb transmitter, refugee hurt – www.reuters.com]

This document is intended for public information purposes only. It is not an official UN document.