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: BONINO SAYS AID 'LACKS COORDINATION' 10 May 1999 – The European Union's acting commissioner for humanitarian affairs, Emma Bonino, has criticised the international relief effort to help Kosovo Albanian refugees for what she says is a lack of co-ordination, reports BBC News. "We really have to improve coordination – There is not a lack of humanitarian assistance; there is a lack of discipline, prioritisation and coordination," she said in Tirana. Bonino's comments came after lengthy discussions with relief workers and government ministers running refugee camps in Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania. The humanitarian aid head is trying to assess how best to allocate around US$150m of EU aid among countries which have accepted refugees. Reuters reports Bonino told Montenegro on Friday that its help for Kosovo refugees would not be forgotten just because it was part of the Yugoslav federation, adding she was impressed at how it had given to some 70,000 ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo. [EU's Bonino slams aid efforts – http://news.bbc.co.uk; EU official commends Montenegro's help for refugees – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: BOMBING CONTINUES DESPITE MISTAKES 10 May 99 – NATO launched new attacks yesterday on Yugoslav army positions in Kosovo despite continuing outrage over the mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy the previous day, reports AP in Belgrade. Tanjug news agency said NATO had attacked Yugoslav army positions yesterday with cluster bombs in Djakovica, causing extensive damage and sending columns of ethnic Albanians fleeing the area. But NATO leaders vowed to continue their airstrikes until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepts their demands for Kosovo, which includes the return of ethnic Albanian refugees and an international force to police a peace agreement there. The Los Angeles Times reports an elderly Croatian refugee was killed when the Hotel Jugoslavia, near the Chinese embassy, was also bombed late Friday. The Los Angeles Times also reports the US military accumulates information on its bombing targets from a wide variety of sources, including interviews with refugees. [NATO launches new attacks despite saying Chinese embassy hit a mistake – www.ap.org; NATO Apologizes Profusely for Chinese Embassy Bombing + 'Surgical' Air War Sometimes a Stab in the Dark – www.latimes.com]

KOSOVANS: UN ENVOY BILDT NAMES PRIORITY 10 May 99 – Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, named on Friday as a UN special envoy to help find a political solution to the Kosovo crisis, said he expected to speak to key players in the conflict over the weekend, reports Reuters. Bildt said the refugee situation was a priority because snow would fall in the Balkan mountains in October, Bildt said. "Seven hundred thousand people can't be living in tents then...The humanitarian situation, the refugee situation is truly alarming among those that are outside," Bildt said. "Then of course we don't really know about all those inside Kosovo. It might be that all those unlucky ones we see on television are in fact the lucky ones," he said. The Financial Times adds Bildt said his first plan was to create an open framework for dialogue between the UN, European Union, Russia and the US. "There must be more co-ordination of strategic aims . . . The campaign has so far failed to stop the war and create the conditions for refugees to return. It is essentially a failure," he added. [U.N. envoy Bildt to contact key players on Kosovo – www.reuters.com; Annan orders UN team to Belgrade to help seek peace – www.ft.com]

KOSOVO: DISPLACED 'PROTECTED BY KLA' 10 May 99 – Hundreds of thousands of uprooted Kosovo Albanians are huddled in woods and fields inside Kosovo under the protection of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, a rebel leader said yesterday by telephone from Kosovo, reports the New York Times. "Their situation is very difficult," said Hashim Thaci. "The food supply is running very low, the medical care is minimal and hygienic conditions are very bad. We have the first signs of epidemics of various diseases among the children." He said most of the civilians were under improvised tents. Reuters reports NATO yesterday said KLA were providing pockets of sanctuary for the displaced inside Kosovo. NATO military spokesman General Walter Jertz said: "When we look at where the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Kosovo Albanians are taking shelter, these locations very often coincide with many of the (KLA) controlled areas." The Independent and the Financial Times also report this. Meanwhile Reuters adds EU humanitarian aid commissioner Emma Bonino yesterday said the 690,000 displaced ethnic Albanians trapped in Kosovo are a ticking "human bomb" which could blow at any time. [Situation Grave for Uprooted Civilians, Kosovo Rebel Leader Claims – www.nytimes.com; KLA protecting Albanians in Kosovo; NATO + Displaced in Kosovo a ticking human bomb; Bonino – www.reuters.com; Refugees shelter in KLA strongholds – www.independent.co.uk; Service to be held for Sehmi Agani – www.ft.com]

ALBANIA: THOUSANDS ARRIVE FROM PEC 10 May 1999 – Kosovan refugees continued to cross the Albanian border yesterday, putting further strain on bursting facilities, reports AFP in Kukes. UNHCR said almost 10,000 more refugees had fled Kosovo on Saturday. Albanian police said that more than 1,500 people had crossed the border at Morina yesterday, in addition to the more than 8,000 who arrived Saturday, and that more were nearing the frontier on trailers pulled by tractors. But the new arrivals found the facilities at Kukes were strained to overflowing and there was no shelter to be found. AP reports thousands of ethnic Albanians from villages around Pec in southwest Kosovo streamed into northern Albania on Saturday, describing an apparent new Serb campaign to force them out of the province. Refugees also said Serb forces seized young men from their tractors as they headed toward the Albanian border. AFP also reports UNHCR's special envoy to the region, Dennis McNamara, yesterday said the flow of refugees out of Kosovo was being controlled by Belgrade to a degree he had never witnessed before. "The tap goes on and off. Its the most control I've seen in a refugee situation, control in the negative sense," he said. [Endless flow of refugees into bursting Albania and Macedonia + Kosovo refugee flow a tap controlled by Belgrade: UNHCR – www.afp.com; Villagers from Pec area stream into northern Albania – www.ap.org]

ALBANIA: CAMP DISAPPROVED OF 10 May 99 – Two aid agencies have tried to revamp a former deportation centre for political dissidents into a model settlement for Kosovo Albanian refugees, reports Le Monde. The remote village of Fazje, in northeast Albania, has been rebuilt with the help of Action humanitaire francaise (AHF) and Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk (THW). Some 800 Kosovans live there now; 400 of them children. "Elsewhere up to 25 people would be jammed into a tent, but there are only 15 people per tent. The tents are spaced out by at least four metres. . . We want to give them decent conditions to live in," said Michel Sounalet, AHF's camp director. UNHCR and NATO have decided to empty the area of all refugees. UNHCR now sees the Franco-German experiment as a bad example. Meanwhile local authorities have asked whether it can shelter some of the 4,000 Albanians displaced by shelling on the border. [Fazje, deportation centre turned into refugee camp – www.lemonde.fr]

ALBANIA: NEW ARRIVALS SLEEP OUT 10 May 99 – Scores of Kosovan Albanian refugees spent the night out of doors in Kukes after finding no room in any of the shelters prepared for them by UNHCR and local authorities, reports AFP in Kukes. Around 6,000 Kosovan refugees who crossed the border Saturday at Morina made their way to Kukes. In order to cope with the new influx of refugees and pending their transfer further south where the authorities say they will be safer, the local authorities on Saturday opened the town's "Palace of Culture" so the new arrivals would have somewhere to sleep. But the Palace of Culture was soon full up like the three large tents erected by aid workers beside the main square in Kukes, and many refugees were resigned to sleeping outside under blankets provided by UNHCR. "Everywhere is full, there is no more room," said a UNHCR worker. AFP reports UN relief workers and Albanian authorities called on Kosovan refugees yesterday to move out of Kukes after many of the 8,000 ethnic Albanians who arrived overnight found no room to sleep. As part of a new campaign to be launched Tuesday, UNHCR representatives will pay a visit to all of the tent camps to explain to refugees that they must go to other parts of Albania. [Refugees sleep rough in Kukes for lack of room + UN, Albania step up effort to move refugees out of Kukes – www.afp.com]

ALBANIA: MANY HOST FAMILIES CAN'T COPE 10 May 1999 – Many of the hosting families who, despite miserable conditions, house more than half the 400,000 refugees who have arrived in Albania in the last six weeks say they can no longer cope, reports AFP. In Tirana "only half the host families are given humanitarian aid," said a local official, Makbule Ceco. These families support some 68,800 of the 87,500 refugees in Tirana, but faced with problems of aid supplies about 100 host families have already given up, she added. Meanwhile a UNHCR worker pointed out the difficulties in helping dispersed host families. "How can we distribute help to families? I'm alone here and only have one car," said Caren Seljiaj, in Korca region. "The simplest thing for us is to get them together in the camps run by the non-governmental organisations." [Kosovo refugees' hosts face tough trials among chaos – www.afp.com]

MACEDONIA: CAMP EXPANSIONS AGREED, BONINO 10 May 99 – Macedonia is willing to take in more Kosovo refugees and expand the capacity of its camps, European Union humanitarian affairs commissioner Emma Bonino said in Skopje yesterday, reports AFP. "The (Macedonian) prime minister (Ljubco Georgievski) said they are willing to expand the capacity of camps or even to allow new camps. Availability for new camps: up to 20,000," Bonino said at a press conference at Skopje airport before leaving Macedonia. She said that the atmosphere during the meeting with Georgievski "was very positive." Bonino on Saturday criticised Macedonia's move to close its borders to Kosovo refugees. The EU commissioner visited the Blace border post and Stenkovec refugee camps on Sunday, and said she wondered if the Macedonian border was not in fact closed by Serbs. [Macedonia willing to take in more refugees, says Bonino – www.afp.com]

MACEDONIA: OFFICIALS SEEK AID, SLAM UNHCR 10 May 99 – Macedonia's border crossings with Yugoslavia remained mysteriously empty on Saturday while the government stepped up its pleas for more Western help and its verbal barrage against UNHCR, reports Reuters. Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Trajkovski told the government Vecher daily that Western pressure to accept more refugees in return for more aid was "literally blackmail." "If we let more people in, we will explode. If we don't, we will not see a penny (of aid)," he said. Dosta Dimovska, a powerful deputy prime minister, told another government daily, Nova Makedonia, that US$250m in emergency cash aid promised earlier this week by donor nations and international financial agencies was not enough. Dimovska accused foreign media of failing to appreciate government efforts to help Kosovans, but she reserved her harshest criticism for UNHCR. "Humanitarian organisations and especially the UNHCR behave like political bodies often giving political comment and suggestions...while no one has control over its financial transactions," she said in the newspaper. [Macedonia border quiet, govt urges refugee aid – www.reuters.com]

MACEDONIA: FEW WANT MOVE TO ALBANIA 10 May 99 – UNHCR yesterday said fewer than 50 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo were willing to move from camps in Macedonia to southern Albania, where they could accept 5,000 to 6,000 people, reports AP in Skopje. That left the status of plans to move the refugees on hold. According to UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, although hundreds of Kosovo Albanians initially expressed an openness to the transfer, they are now having difficulties finding enough people to fill a bus. "Initially in the registration process about 600 people indicated they had relatives in Albania and they were willing to go," Redmond said. "But so far we have less than 50." Redmond said aid staff are currently looking for refugees who would be willing to make the move. "As far as we are concerned, any movement out of Macedonia to camps in Albania should be voluntary," Redmond added. [Aid agencies searching for refugees to send from Macedonia to Albania – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: UNHCR PROBES AIRLIFT BRIBERY 10 May 1999 – Kosovan refugees have been bribing their way on to the shortlists for mercy flights using corrupt middlemen operating a virtual "travel agency" charging up to US$800 a person, reported The Times on Saturday. UNHCR has begun an investigation in Macedonia. Sivanka Dhanapala, a UNHCR research officer at the Brazda camp, said: "It seems that a Kosovar Albanian refugee who has access to the camp and the tents is inserting names somewhere between the stages of selection and booking people on flights. We have heard rumours that anything from 500 to 600 German marks is involved, even up to 1,500. Nobody has confirmed it but we have launched an investigation." Officials also suspect that refugees put in homes with Macedonian families are trying to sneak back into the overcrowded camps because they have realised it is the only way to register for places on humanitarian flights to Europe and America. Meanwhile the Independent reports the biggest mass airlift in modern history has now been established with upwards of 2,000 people plucked from the mushrooming tent cities in Macedonia. [£500 bribes buy flights to freedom for refugees – www.the-times.co.uk; Airlift rescues thousands from the hell of tent cities – www.independent.co.uk]

ITALY: KOSOVANS RESCUED AT SEA 10 May 1999 – Ninety-one Kosovan refugees making for southern Italian shores were rescued yesterday after their fishing boat sprang a leak, coastguards said, reports Reuters. Motorboats, ships and a helicopter were enlisted to help save the would-be immigrants and administer first aid, the Rome-based coastguard office said in a statement. "All the refugees...appear to be in good health," the office said, adding that they had been taken to the southern port city of Bari. AFP reports passengers said they had boarded the boat at Ulcinj, in Montenegro, and had paid between US$800 and US$1,200 for the crossing. [91 Kosovo refugees saved from sinking fishing boat – www.reuters.com; Kosovar refugees reported rescued at sea off Italy – www.afp.com]

E.U: KOSOVANS REVEAL POLICY DISARRAY 10 May 1999 – The crisis in Kosovo has exposed the disarray in asylum policies among European Union member states, leading to a disorganised response and increasing recriminations about the lack of fair burden-sharing, says Quentin Peel in the Financial Times. NATO allies appear to be torn between their recognition that the bombing campaign against Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Yugoslavia has aggravated his campaign of ethnic cleansing, and their fear of taking in refugees who may not want to return to Kosovo. Britain and France were loth to give their blessing to an evacuation of refugees from the region, because it would amount to admitting that Nato's bombing campaign had failed. "Once you say they can come to western Europe, you have given up on the original policy," according to one senior EU diplomat. "That was their fear." But Britain and France have also been blocking, for 18 months, a proposal by the European Commission for emergency rules to cope with just such a flood of war refugees. "It would commit all the member states to open and close their (asylum) protection regimes on a temporary basis," a European Commission official said. "We said at the time, if you think you have had a problem in Bosnia, just wait for what will happen in Kosovo. But Britain and France were opposed. They don't like the idea of burden sharing." The other problem for both Britain and France is that allowing in large numbers of refugees would call into question their very restrictive policies towards existing asylum seekers. Refugee agencies, at least, are planning for the medium-term. But the Nato combatants are still not prepared to contemplate any solution which admits that Milosevic's ethnic cleansing has succeeded. [The quality of mercy – www.ft.com]

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