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

KOSOVO: CREATE HUMANITARIAN SPACE 26 May 99 – The most urgent thing in Kosovo right now is the need for the creation of a humanitarian space, says Cornelio Sommaruga, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in an International Herald Tribune op-ed. This means a physical, political and psychological space in which neutral, impartial humanitarian organisations can work. The greatest suffering right now is among those still inside Kosovo. The condition of the refugees outside Kosovo, while still grim, is stabilising. Inside Kosovo, hundreds of thousands of people, many living in lamentable conditions outside their homes, have still not been seen by humanitarians. This week in Pristina, the Red Cross will restart operations suspended at the end of March for lack of security. We have assurances from President Slobodan Milosevic of complete freedom of movement. NATO has encouraged us. The Red Cross has asked both, and the Kosovo Liberation Army, to show the fullest respect for international humanitarian law and for the symbol of the Red Cross. The work of humanitarians inside Kosovo may make it harder for combatants to pursue their military goals. In the name of International Committee of the Red Cross, I demand that they afford us the space to work. The Red Cross will be try to expand the humanitarian space available in the name of the victims, it says. [All Sides Must Let the Red Cross Work in Kosovo – www.iht.com]

KOSOVO: NOT NECESSARILY PLANNED 26 May 1999 – We do not yet know enough about what has happened in Kosovo to throw about words like 'genocide' or to use the phrase 'ethnic cleansing' without modification, says the Guardian. Ethnic cleansing has certainly happened, but whether all of it was fully willed by the Serbs must remain an open question. What we know suggests that for a year or more the Serbs were certainly ready to clear people out of areas they wanted to deny to the Kosovo Liberation Army, and did not much care where those people went. How the NATO bombing campaign affected this strategy, apart from quickening the pace of operations, is not clear. Yet it is probable that some of what happened was inadvertent or unplanned. The Serbs cannot be excused, but they should not be accused of crimes for which there is so far no hard evidence. [Displaced people... Harassed, but not necessarily worse – www.guardian.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: THOUSANDS MORE FLEE, WITHOUT MEN 26 May 1999 – More than 4,500 ethnic Albanians fled into Macedonia yesterday, including hundreds of women from Kacanik in southeastern Kosovo, many of whom accused Serbian forces of separating hundreds of men from their group before expelling them, reports the New York Times. Almost no men between the ages of 15 and 50 were among the group from Kacanik that arrived at the remote Jazince border crossing. A busload of refugees from Pristina who also arrived yesterday at Jazince said Serbian paramilitaries are continuing to terrorise and expel ethnic Albanians from Pristina. Nearly 25,000 refugees, most of them from Pristina, have poured into Macedonia in the last five days. At the main border crossing in Blace, more than 3,000 refugees crossed the border yesterday saying thousands of other ethnic Albanians just behind them, aid workers reported. The Financial Times reports UNHCR said the renewed influx could be the result of an organised Yugoslav drive to complete ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The Daily Telegraph reports former residents and aid workers on the Macedonian border yesterday said Serb authorities have launched an operation to rid Pristina of tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians still living there. The Independent reports NATO officials said Slobodan Milosevic was waging "refugee warfare" after thousands of Kosovars poured into Macedonia, bringing new and horrifying reports. [A Refugee River, Dammed at the Border – www.nytimes.com; Refugees pour into Macedonia – www.ft.com; Kosovo capital faces new wave of Serb terror – www.telegraph.co.uk; Serbs use 'refugee warfare' – www.independent.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: 3,000 IN FROM NO-MAN'S LAND 26 May 1999 – About 3,000 Kosovar refugees crossed into Macedonia at Blace yesterday, after spending 24 hours in the no-man's land separating Serbia and Macedonia, UNHCR said, reports AFP. UNHCR had expected some 10,000 refugees at the Blace border crossing, but only those who had waited in no-man's land overnight were admitted, UN official Astrid van Genderen Stort said. They were taken by bus to different Macedonian camps, she added. UNHCR said late yesterday it had no information about how many people were massed just across the border in Yugoslavia, but French ambassador Jacques Huntzinger said 20,000 to 30,000 people were waiting on the Serb side. [3,000 Kosovo refugees cross into Macedonia – www.afp.com]

MACEDONIA: UNHCR 'DEALS IN POLITICS,' SAYS GOV'T 26 May 99 – Macedonia said yesterday it was protesting to UNHCR for stopping it from transferring newly-arrived refugees earlier in the week directly to Albania, reports Reuters. Deputy Foreign Minster Boris Trajkovski told a news conference yesterday some of the refugees had wanted to go to Albania and that UNHCR was playing politics by stopping them. "UNHCR is dealing more with politics than with organising the life of the refugees. They (UNHCR) are not here to decide how many people are to enter and how many to be transferred to other countries," he said. But a UNHCR official said the agency was satisfied that a large majority of the refugees in question did not want to go to Albania. "We have said many times we are very willing to transfer refugees to Albania, providing (the transfers) are voluntary, humane and orderly," the official said. Relations between Macedonia and the UNHCR have been prickly since the beginning of the refugee crisis. Meanwhile Reuters also reports UNHCR yesterday warned Macedonia faced a new refugee crisis if Yugoslav forces intended to complete the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. AP adds UN aid officials were negotiating with Macedonia's reluctant government yesterday for permission to expand refugee camps. [Macedonia protests against U.N. refugee agency + UNHCR sees new refugee crisis in Macedonia – www.reuters.com; Fearing refugee overload, UNHCR seeks to expand camps – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: EMPTY SEATS IN EVACUATION 26 May 99 – Evacuation flights of Kosovan refugees to Britain are leaving with empty seats as aid workers accuse government officials of being too strict about which families they choose, reports The Times. Every day scores of disappointed parents are rejected because they do not have any relatives in Britain or have a member of their family needing urgent medical help. The Home Office says it is following UNHCR guidelines. Some countries have staff in refugee camps interviewing candidates to stop fraudulent applications. Relief workers and the Macedonian government are concerned at the time it takes for applicants to be accepted for a flight. So far more than 60,000 have been flown out, which the UN says is the fastest humanitarian airlift it has ever handled. They hope to evacuate at least 100,000. Skopje wants twice that number to go. The fear among UN chiefs is that host countries may stop relief flights once any peace deal is agreed for Kosovo. Some gaps on the flights are because refugees get "a better offer" at the last minute to go to more popular destinations like Germany and Switzerland. AFP adds a spokesman in Ottawa said yesterday that Canada does not expect to take in more Kosovan refugees after receiving 5,000, adding: "The priority is to ensure that European countries that are committed to take refugees do so as quickly as possible." In an op-ed for Le Monde, UNHCR's representative in Paris, Philippe Lavanchy, says Kosovan refugees can ask for refugee status in France under the 1951 Convention, denying charges to the contrary. [Scandal of the empty seats on mercy flights – www.the-times.co.uk; Canada expects to hold off on accepting more Kosovar refugees – www.afp.com; UNHCR, France and refugees – www.lemonde.fr]

ALBANIA: MORE FREED MEN ARRIVE 26 May 1999 – Another line of weeping, shattered ethnic Albanian men trailed out of Kosovo yesterday saying they had been treated like animals by Serbs in a crowded prison, reports Reuters in Kukes. Apart from obvious weakness and malnourishment, the men who arrived yesterday were clearly suffering from the heat. One man carried an elderly ex-prisoner on his back. Another man collapsed on the road. Medical workers poured cold water on his feet and in his mouth and carried him off on a stretcher. On the central square where arrivals are taken off buses, a few men were delivered into the arms of relatives or friends, but most sat or stood in the shade of a UNHCR tent, looking lost. [Kosovo refugees on move, more prisoners freed – www.reuters.com]

ALBANIA: UNHCR, NATO BEGIN RELOCATION 26 May 1999 – About 200 Kosovo refugees began their trek yesterday from camps in northern Albania to locations farther south, hoping for better and safer conditions, reports CNN. The combined effort by UNHCR and NATO was also to ease overcrowding around Kukes. They hope other refugees will follow. "We're trying to empty these camps as soon as possible for a whole variety of reasons. The most important is danger," said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville. The camps are within shelling range of Albania's border with Kosovo. Authorities also said there were concerns that the camps could become recruiting grounds for the Kosovo Liberation Army. The Independent adds that shelling and sniping by Serb forces across the Albanian border – with two rifle shots coming close to a UNHCR worker – added weight yesterday to the assertion that the border area is dangerous for refugees and that they need to be moved. But the Guardian reports aid workers yesterday criticised the drive to remove refugees from the border area, suspecting it is a NATO-led initiative to create a depopulated military zone in preparation for ground action. Aid groups fear the refugees are not being given adequate information, will find worse conditions in new camps, and are pawns in a struggle between the UN and NATO. An Oxfam official said aid groups had written a joint letter to UNHCR asking for a camp closure timetable. "We also wanted to know who was driving this process, the UN or NATO." [Some Kosovo refugees moved deeper into Albania – http://cnn.com; Snipers and shells force evacuation of border camps – www.independent.co.uk; Nato motive in camps questioned – www.guardian.co.uk]

ALBANIA: 'EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY' AT BEST 26 May 1999 – The European Union said yesterday it wants to grant Albania preferential trade terms after the tiny Balkan country accepted a mass inflow of Kosovar refugees, reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Brussels. Hans van den Broek, EU commissioner for foreign affairs, thanked the Albanian government and people for caring for the refugees, saying, "That is European solidarity in the best sense." The New York Times reports government officials estimate that its cost for the refugee crisis so far exceeds US$150m, an enormous amount in a country where the average monthly salary of a government worker is US$71. There is an expectation that the West will ante up substantial amounts of aid to help Albania and the entire Balkans region rebuild after the conflict in Kosovo ends. The country's unconditional acceptance of Kosovo Albanian refugees is softening Albania's negative image. [EU wants to grant Albania preferential trade terms – www.dpa.com; Kosovo Crisis Strains Already Struggling Albania – www.nytimes.com]

MONTENEGRO: MEN SEIZED AS HUNDREDS ARRIVE 26 May 99 – Yugoslav army soldiers seized up to 50 ethnic Albanian men yesterday as around 500 Kosovo refugees tried to cross into Montenegro, UNHCR said, reports Reuters. The mayor of Rozaje, an eastern logging town close to the Kosovo border, said local police had seen the soldiers take away the men but could do nothing to help them. "They couldn't intervene. If they had, civil war would have broken out and we can't let that happen," Nusret Kalac told reporters. UNHCR said one of its employees had seen troops at Montenegro's Dacic border crossing stop an estimated 490 refugees as they walked over the mountains into this small Yugoslav republic. Women and children were eventually allowed to travel to nearby Rozaje, but around 50 men were detained. "We are concerned that (the refugees) do not have free access. What we want to know is what happened to the men," said a UNHCR spokesman in Podgorica. [More ethnic Albanians seized by army in Montenegro – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: WOMEN RAPED, ABUSED – UNPF 26 May 99 – Without accurate estimates of the number of Kosovo women who have been raped, a UN report yesterday indicated widespread sexual violence and warned that women still in Kosovo are under great threat, reports AP. The report by the UN Population Fund (UNPF) is based on interviews by psychologist Dominique Serrano-Fitamant with about 35 women in refugee camps and maternity hospitals in Albania this month. UNPF has sent reproductive health kits to Kosovo including "morning after" pills for rape victims. The Daily Telegraph reports UNPF says Serb forces are committing widespread rape of Albanian women in Kosovo. The Guardian adds that Kosovan women have been subjected to widespread gang rapes, but the report found no evidence these were officially organised by the military. Meanwhile Reuters reports police yesterday said Albanian gangsters in Vlore, Albania, killed a Kosovo refugee teenager and wounded her father after he tried to prevent them kidnapping her for a prostitution ring. AFP also reports NATO spokesman Jamie Shea yesterday said at least 1,000 refugee babies have been born in refugee camps. [UN report indicates widespread rape of Kosovo women – www.ap.org; Women kidnapped, raped and tortured by soldiers, says UN – www.telegraph.co.uk; Serb troops gang raped women, says UN report – www.guardian.co.uk; Albanian gunmen kill Kosovo girl in kidnap attempt – www.reuters.com; "NATO doesn't wish any harm to any baby:" Shea- www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: MORE NATO TROOPS TO HELP RETURNS 26 May 99 – The NATO allies approved plans today to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Macedonia and Albania as part of a peacekeeping force that will await orders to move into Kosovo and help ethnic Albanian refugees return to their homeland, reports the Washington Post in Brussels. The additional troops will bring the number of allied soldiers in the area to nearly 50,000 within weeks, and would make it easier to launch an invasion of Kosovo. CNN reports the 50,000 troops will help ethnic Albanian refugees return to their homes after Yugoslav forces withdraw. "This force ... will speak softly, by which I mean that it will be friendly to everybody ... but it will have very sharp teeth as well as very big teeth if anybody should try to oppose it carrying out its mandate or to threaten its personnel," said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea. The Financial Times reports "KFOR Plus" is intended to implement a peace agreement and not to undertake a ground offensive in Kosovo. [NATO to Send 20,000 More Troops to Albania, Macedonia – www.washingtonpost.com; NATO approves larger Kosovo force with 'big, sharp teeth' – http://cnn.com; Expanded Nato force to help refugees return home – www.ft.com]

KOSOVANS: RETURNS RACE TIME, SAYS ANNAN 26 May 99 – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday said the international community was racing against time to ensure that ethnic Albanian refugees were back in Kosovo before winter, but this might not be possible, reports Reuters. And he said getting the composition of a peacekeeping force for Kosovo right was essential, otherwise the refugees might not agree to go home. "Ideally we would want to get them back before the winter," Annan, on an official visit to Sweden, told reporters. "But we are in a race against time in the sense that if we have a chance and hope of getting the refugees back before the winter we would need to see some progress on the political front soon." Failing that, the refugee camps had to be prepared for winter, he said. Meanwhile AP reports Brian Atwood, the USAID administrator, also in Sweden yesterday, said Yugoslav forces have sown landmines so extensively in Kosovo that they will slow the return of refugees. Clearing the mines would be so time-consuming that the refugees would have to return in phases, leaving many of them to spend the winter in camps in Macedonia and Albania. Because Balkan winters can come early and hard, work to winterise the refugee camps should begin in about a month, Atwood said. [UN racing to get refugees home by winter; Annan – www.reuters.com; U.S. aid official says mines will slow Kosovo refugees' return – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: CARE WORKERS ON TRIAL 26 May 1999 – Three CARE International relief workers accused by Yugoslavia of espionage will go on trial today in Belgrade, CARE officials said yesterday, reports CNN. Australians Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace were detained by Yugoslavian officials at the Lipovac border crossing on March 31, and were charged with spying for Australia. CARE officials have denied the charges and said they believe the three men will be acquitted. CARE's British director, Will Day, said: "Their work in the region involved giving lifesaving relief to up to 70,000 Serb refugees; people who had been ethnically cleansed from Croatia and Bosnia during the previous Balkan conflict." AP adds that Pratt and Wallace were arrested March 31 as they crossed the border into Croatia to drive south to help Kosovan refugees in Montenegro. [Aid workers face trial in Yugoslavia on spying charges – http://cnn.com; CARE: Media observers will help aid workers get fair trial – www.ap.org]

MONTENEGRO: OTHERS FORGOTTEN 26 May 1999 – Refugees from a decade of fighting in the Balkans fear the world only cares about the thousands of ethnic Albanians now fleeing Kosovo, reports Reuters. Like many of the 198 people living in the "Safari Camp," a former tourist campsite on Montenegro's Adriatic coast, Makivic saw no end in sight to his four-year exile. Just down the road, around 3,000 refugees from Kosovo are staying in another former tourist resort. Unlike the Safari Camp, officials from the UN and the Red Cross regularly visit the "Neptune Camp," handing out food and clothes. "They have been suffering just two months. I've been suffering for seven years. There is no future for me and no-one cares," said 40-year old Zeljko, who came from Croatia. NATO has promised to get the Kosovo Albanians back home before the onset of winter, but the hardened Safari crew shake their heads in disbelief and say their new neighbours should get used to the idea of being refugees. [Old Balkan refugees forgotten in Kosovo chaos – www.reuters.com]

BOSNIA: 30,000 SERBS FLEE 26 May 1999 – Around 30,000 Serbs have left Yugoslavia for Bosnia's Serb republic since the start of the NATO bombing campaign two months ago, UNHCR said yesterday, citing local estimates, reports Reuters. Some had moved to Bosnia to escape the NATO bombardments, while others sought to avoid being drafted into the army, said UNHCR spokeswoman Wendy Rappeport. Most of the new arrivals were staying with relatives or friends. [Around 30,000 Serbs from Yugoslavia now in Bosnia – www.reuters.com]

GLOBAL: KOSOVO AS MODEL? 26 May 99 – The ongoing disasters now taking place in countries like Sierra Leone (they also include Angola, Burundi, Liberia and Afghanistan) never get the kind of attention the Kosovo crisis has received, says David Rieff, a writer on global politics, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. The issue is not that what is going on in Kosovo is somehow less awful than what is going on in Africa, but rather that the Kosovans can count on getting the world's attention, and, most crucially, vast resources. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is almost a foregone conclusion that only a minimal effort will be made. The reasons for this are obvious: racism, geopolitical interests and the question of feasibility. If West Africa is ever to be raised out of the vicious circle of war and man-made humanitarian emergency in which it has been stalled for a decade, much of the region needs its own Marshall Plan like the Balkans. The chances are it won't get it. Kosovo could serve as a model for what needs to be done to respond to crises worldwide. The sympathy for the Kosovar refugees might also be a basis for hope. The challenge now is how to devise a humanitarian system that will be less vulnerable to the impossibility of keeping all the world's crisis in people's head at once. [Refugees in Africa Need Help Just as Much as Those in Balkans – www.latimes.com]

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