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

KOSOVANS: RESETTLEMENT FORCES PLANNED 6 May 1999 – NATO military commanders are preparing a major expansion of ground forces to handle the enormous tasks involved in resettling hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo once hostilities cease, reports the Washington Post. NATO's supreme commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, said yesterday the "enabling force" deployed in Albania and Macedonia will be "further enhanced and modified." NATO planners said up to 60,000 troops will be required. President Clinton yesterday emphasised the need for NATO forces to be ready to move quickly into Kosovo once a "permissive environment" has been established. "He stressed that we must have plans ready to ensure that the Kosovar Albanians can return to their homes in safety and security," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said. The Guardian reports NATO's leading members are pressing Russia to agree a set of principles on Kosovo which will include an international military force to allow ethnic Albanian refugees to return and pave the way for UN backing for future peacekeeping. The Financial Times adds NATO admitted it may be next spring before all the 800,000 refugees can return. [NATO Readies Plan to Resettle Refugees Later – www.washingtonpost.com; Moscow may join alliance in demanding international force in Kosovo – www.guardian.co.uk; Plan for larger force studied – www.ft.com]

KOSOVANS: OGATA WARNS OF FORCED PROSTITUTION 6 May 1999 – Gangs are abducting young women refugees from Kosovo and forcing them into prostitution, particularly in Albania, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday, reports Reuters. "Human traffickers are a serious threat, especially in Albania. They have already started smuggling refugees across the Adriatic into Italy and the European Union," Sadako Ogata told the UN Security Council. "Young women, often forced into prostitution, and children are frequent victims, particularly when they are hosted in families, and are thus more vulnerable to these threats" she said. "This phenomenon will increase if it is not addressed more forcefully and immediately," Ogata said in a written statement to the council on the Kosovo conflict. She also said there was a "real risk" of forced recruitment of refugees by the Kosovo Liberation Army and urged governments to help Kosovo's neighbours, particularly Albania, in supplying material, training and funds to police. [UNHCR chief says refugees forced into prostitution – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: OGATA URGES WINTER PREPARATIONS 6 May 1999 – Even if a political settlement is reached over Kosovo, countries hosting ethnic Albanians must start preparing now to "winterise" tent camps because many refugees won't want to return home, UNHCR's chief warned, reports AP. Sadako Ogata told a news conference yesterday she had even wondered if the flimsy tents that have been erected in Albania, Macedonia and elsewhere would be sufficient to protect the estimated 695,000 refugees from the summer heat. "I've been assured that for the summer they're probably all right but definitely not for the winter," she said. If the tent cities aren't winterised, "collective centres" might have to be built to house the refugees through another Balkan winter, she said. "I think the implications are that the likelihood of a lot of refugees staying in the host asylum countries Albania and Macedonia are pretty high," she said. Deutsche Presse-Agentur quotes regional UNHCR director Karen Abuzayd as saying: "If it comes to September and we still haven't solved the refugee problem, then Milosevic will have won." In September freezing weather will be added to their hardships. [UNHCR warns that Balkan tent cities must be winterized – www.ap.org; Kosovo refugees: A race against time and the elements – www.dpa.com]

KOSOVANS: 500,000 MORE COULD FLEE 6 May 1999 – A United Nations official yesterday said another 500,000 people could flee Kosovo as Serbian forces attempt to clear the Yugoslav province of ethnic Albanians, reports Reuters. "It could be another half-million, or more," UNHCR's US and Caribbean representative, Karen Abuzayd, told a news conference. Refugee families continue to arrive without fathers, uncles, male cousins and sons and the latest wave of refugees features scores of men with bruises and swelling from beatings by Serb police and paramilitary forces who have intensified their search for members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and its sympathisers, said Abuzayd. Reuters also reports a senior Red Cross official yesterday said about half a million people inside Yugoslavia's borders are thought to be in urgent need of humanitarian aid because of the conflict in Kosovo. Meanwhile AFP reports Brian Atwood, director of USAID, quoting NATO estimates yesterday said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is using between 660,000 and 700,000 Kosovans as human shields in Kosovo. "What he is doing is moving them around, using them as human shields," making it "very difficult for us to plan on the outside for their exit." [Another 500,000 could flee Kosovo, U.N. official – www.reuters.com; Up to 700,000 Kosovars used as human shields, US says – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: NATO MUST QUIT CAMPS, EX-MSF CHIEF 6 May 1999 – NATO soldiers in camps are a threat to refugees, says Rony Brauman, former president of Medecins sans Frontieres, in an interview with Liberation, joining a chorus of humanitarian workers who have criticised mixing humanitarian and military projects. "It's very destabilising for NGOs. Humanitarian work has almost become a gadget, ill-defined, when once it was unifying and symbolised moral authority," says Brauman. "In Macedonia and Albania, airstrikes and humanitarian armies have caught NGOs up in a humanitarian free-for-all. Bombing, assistance and reception are all under the same blanket," yielding media benefits to the military. "Humanitarian work is visible and lends itself well to the camera. That is its strength and weakness. Its legitimacy is undermined by this type of military intervention," he says. "Turning the refugee camps into targets is the main risk. This does not mean denying the fact that the army has a far superior logistical capacity than NGOs * But the militarisation (of camps) puts at risk the lives of refugees and the juridical notion that refugees must be completely protected from political interference. When soldiers hand out high-protein biscuits one day and load bombs the next, roles become confused. This may be inevitable at the beginning of the war, but it must not go on," he says. "The next stage must be a rapid NATO pullout from the camps . . . UNHCR must take a strong position on this," he concludes. [Soldiers cannot guard camps – www.liberation.fr]

MACEDONIA: BORDER SHUT, KOSOVANS FORCED BACK 6 May 99 – Macedonia yesterday suddenly slammed the door on incoming Kosovo Albanian refugees, apparently upset that donor nations could do no better than US$252m in crisis aid, reports AFP. Riot police pushed back 1,000 refugees at dusk at Blace border crossing, shoving some of the asylum seekers and hitting others with batons, witnesses said. "We physically saw people being pushed back," said UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini at Blace. There was no way to see how Serbian security forces responded to the forced returns. A government source said the border was shut to protest the "insufficent results" of the donor conference. The government also said Macedonia cannot accept more asylum seekers with one in 10 now a Kosovan refugee. AP adds state-run television later carried a government statement saying the number of refugees taken in each day would be directly proportional to the number who leave. The Guardian reports aid workers said the closure could not have come at a worse time amid an increase in refugees and indications that Serbian forces are stepping up their campaign to 'cleanse' Kosovo. The Daily Telegraph also reports. The Financial Times reports Macedonian ethnic Albanians' generosity is being tested. [Macedonia slams door shut on more Kosovo refugees – www.afp.com; Macedonia closes the border at Blace – www.ap.org; Macedonia closes border against the tide – www.telegraph.co.uk; Macedonia shuts frontier to refugees – www.guardian.co.uk; Refugee flood tests the generosity of Macedonians – www.ft.com]

MACEDONIA: $252m AID PLEDGED 6 May 1999 – Macedonia won pledges of US$252m of emergency aid from western donors yesterday to help it deal with the influx of refugees and with economic strains arising from the Kosovo crisis, reports AFP in Paris. The World Bank announced donors had also pledged additional financial assistance in the coming weeks to close an overall financing gap of US$400m, and that several donors said they would boost humanitarian aid. Forty-six countries and international organisations took part in the one-day emergency meeting, co-chaired by the World Bank and the European Commission. Macedonia had requested some US$200m to help it cope with the influx of around 200,000 refugees and with a steep drop in trade with neighbouring Yugoslavia that is hurting employment for its 2.2 million people. AP adds Macedonia, overwhelmed by an influx of refugees, yesterday said it will ask the Paris Club for a partial or total writeoff of the debt it owes member nations. [Macedonia wins 252 million dollars emergency aid for Kosovo crisis – www.afp.com; Macedonia to ask debt writeoff; donors offer dlrs 252 million – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: UPROOTED AGAIN 6 May 1999 – Families who have already suffered the trauma of one brutal uprooting from their homes and friends face another dislocation as they leave the squalor and boredom of camp life, hopefully, for temporary exile in Europe and America, reports the Daily Telegraph. Everyone said the same thing: they would prefer to stay but fear for their children's health and well-being if they stay in the camp. Most want to go to Germany or mainland Europe where many have family and where exile seems reversible. Many seemed unenthusiastic about America, the dream destination of most would-be emigrants. Despite the optimism of the parting salute – "See you soon in a free Kosovo!" – you sensed the dread that they were witnessing the dismantling of the society they love. AFP adds the first 400 ethnic Albanian refugees to go to Australia began their long journey early today, boarding buses for Skopje airport from Brazda camp. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports the first 153 Kosovo refugees to arrive in Switzerland touched down at Zurich's Kloten airport yesterday, mostly families with children. [Agony and tears for families in exodus – www.telegraph.co.uk; First Kosovo refugees leave for Australia – www.afp.com; First Kosovo refugees arrive in Switzerland – www.dpa.com]

MACEDONIA: UNHCR PLAN TO MOVE 100,000 TO ALBANIA 6 May 99 – More than half the Kosovo Albanian refugees now jammed into teeming, sweltering camps in Macedonia could be transferred to Albania in the coming days and weeks, under a UN-supervised plan made public yesterday, reports AFP in Skopje. Dennis McNamara, UNHCR special envoy for the former Yugoslavia, said the first refugees to go to facilities now being set up at Korca, in southeast Albania, could be leaving "in the coming days." "We hope that the sites now being constructed (by NATO soldiers at Korca) should provide space for 50,000 to 60,000 people in the coming weeks from Macedonia," he said. Of the 204,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees now in Macedonia, more than 100,000 are living in desperate conditions in tent cities. In a deal involving UNHCR, NATO and the governments in Tirana and Skopje, refugees will be encouraged to consider relocating to Albania under UNHCR supervision, McNamara said. Forced transfers will be out of the question, he said, stating: "It must be voluntary, it must be dignified and carried out in a humane way." Meanwhile Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports Prime Minister Pandeli Majko of Albania yesterday said his country was ready to receive an additional 6,000 Kosovo refugees from Macedonia. [Half of Kosovars in Macedonia face Albania transfer – www.afp.com; Albania ready to take in additional 6,000 refugees from Macedonia – www.dpa.com]

ALBANIA: ILLNESSES SPREAD IN CAMPS 6 May 1999 – The deep, chest-heaving cough can be heard all through the night in encampments in northern Albania that are home to more than 60,000 Kosovo refugees, most of whom were not so long ago underfed and exhausted, reports the Los Angeles Times. Doctors attending to the refugee population in Kukes focused at first on serious war wounds extracting bullets and shrapnel, reconfiguring faces struck with rifle butts, treating severe burns and cuts. But as the flow of refugees has slowed, medical personnel have turned their attention from life-threatening trauma to the respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments that are turning the unsanitary, open-air campgrounds into massive sick bays. Camp doctors are not yet sounding alarms. But with more refugees expected from Kosovo and with Kukes' vast camps already crowded, health workers are far from ready to declare the public health situation under control. In the camps, flu-like symptoms are spreading swiftly from refugee to refugee, fanned by chilly temperatures, strong rainstorms, poor hygiene and weakened immune systems. To keep sickness from spreading, relief workers have been improving water systems and stressing proper hygiene. [Illnesses Spreading Swiftly in Refugee Camps – www.latimes.com]

ALBANIA: KUKES DANGER ZONE 6 May 1999 – Armed men attacked the Morina border post between Kosovo and Albania Tuesday night, stealing everything they could find – including food aid and blankets meant for Kosovan refugees Kosovo, reports Liberation. Twice that day, refugees heading for Kukes from Morina were robbed of their belongings, including their tractors, by armed bandits. "We have employed as many forces as we can to control the situation, but we lack men, vehicles and radios," said the local police chief. He also expressed concerns about the risk of destabilisation from "infiltration of Serb agents among the refugees." Each day the message is repeated, refugees must leave Kukes. UNHCR's Ray Wilkinson yesterday raised the possibility of closing the camps. Ten thousand refugees are crammed into the town that had a population of 20,000 before the conflict. Kukes is also within firing range of Serb missiles, while armed clashes have taken place between ethnic Albanian and Serb forces on the border, and NATO has bombed nearby southern Kosovo. Refugees there are still waiting for their families and friends, and are reluctant to move on. [Refugees robbed by mafia and bundled into overcrowded camps – www.liberation.fr]

USA: FIRST KOSOVANS ARRIVE 6 May 1999 – Looking haggard but relieved, the first wave of ethnic Albanians who had been driven from their homes in Kosovo and then herded into camps in Macedonia arrived yesterday at a makeshift refugee village in New Jersey, reports the Washington Post. The 453 refugees began stepping onto the tarmac at McGuire Air Force Base yesterday afternoon after a 12-hour flight. Later they were greeted by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman at their new temporary home at the Army training centre at Fort Dix. The refugees can apply for permanent residence in a year if they want, but most hope to return to Kosovo once NATO can ensure their safety. The New York Times reports Marguerite Rivera Houze, Undersecretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, said Washington had promised officials in Macedonia that the US would take 2,000 refugees a week from the overcrowded camps. But with Fort Dix only geared to accommodate up to 3,000 refugees, the US government has opened discussions with officials in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria about the possibility of sheltering refugees there, if only temporarily. [Refugees Make U.S. Landfall – www.washingtonpost.com; Carrying Little but Hope, Albanian Refugees Begin Arriving – www.nytimes.com]

CORRECTION 6 May 1999 – Britain is considering taking in 1,000 Kosovan refugees per week, not 1,000 a day, as yesterday's piece 'Britain: 1,000-a-day airlift?' wrongly suggested in its title.

KOSOVO NOTES 6 May 1999 – AFP reports UNHCR yesterday told of new refugee accounts of atrocities said to have happened in the "killing fields" of Djakova in western Kosovo. Reuters reports sales of a poster painted by Queen Margrethe of Denmark has raised more than US$1.5m for Kosovo refugees, the Ritzau news agency said yesterday. In an op-ed in The Times, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, says he hopes the Balkans crisis yields a wider recognition that people still have urgent need of sanctuary, and that Britain must be prepared to provide it.

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