KOSOVO: FIRED AT, GROUP DROPS LEAFLETS 3 Jun. 99 – The International Rescue Committee (IRC) air-dropped 5,000 pamphlets over mountainous parts of Kosovo yesterday advising refugees on the ground to seek cover when food rations are dropped early today, reports Reuters. The mercy flight encountered anti-aircraft fire that detonated about 2,000 feet below it as it passed over Kosovo. IRC said the plane was not hit and that its first drop of humanitarian daily rations would go forward as scheduled today. The Financial Times reports one of the riskiest missions to bring humanitarian aid to refugees will be launched from the Italian city of Pescara today when cargo aircraft attempt to drop food to thousands of people starving in mountain hideouts inside Kosovo. [IRC air-drops pamphlets over Kosovo; food next – www.reuters.com; Relief agency in risky food drop – www.ft.com]

KOSOVO: UN REPORTS 'ETHNIC CLEANSING' 3 Jun. 99 – The leader of a UN mission to Kosovo has found what he called "indisputable evidence" of Serbian "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovars, as well as "ample evidence" of "serious" damage caused by NATO's airstrikes, reports the New York Times. In a report to the Security Council, Sergio Vierira de Mello, UN emergency relief coordinator, warned yesterday the problems of the people inside Kosovo and Yugoslavia would deteriorate unless the conflict is soon brought to an end. "Even allowing for spontaneous, uncontrolled brutality, the team collected indisputable evidence of organised, well-planned violence against civilians," he wrote. His team found "a depressing panorama of empty villages, burned houses, looted shops, wandering livestock and unattended farms." Signs that the inhabitants had "fled on very short notice, probably in terror, was the most disturbing finding," he wrote. He also singled out the plight of 500,000 Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, who, he said were living in "subhuman conditions." The Times reports Vieira de Mello urged the Security Council to seek a quick peace settlement, saying more than 500,000 people had been displaced. The Independent also reports. [UN Finds Proof Evidence of 'Ethnic Cleansing' in Kosovo – www.nytimes.com; UN finds 500,000 'displaced' – www.the-times.co.uk; Serbs 'went on a rampage of violence' – www.independent.co.uk]

ALBANIA: 'BATTLEFIELD' CROSSING 3 Jun. 99 – Some 46 Kosovan refugees crossed into northern Albania Tuesday despite clashes on the border, which is becoming a virtual "battlefield," UNHCR said yesterday, reports AFP. Two of them suffered minor injuries from flying debris, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said. NATO bombs and Serb shelling "must be deterring people a bit," from entering northern Albania, Janowski said. He said the bombing so close to refugee communities was also a "persuasive" argument that Kosovan ethnic Albanians should leave Kukes, which still houses between 90,000 and 100,000 refugees. The latest clashes have not prompted a change of mind. UNHCR yesterday evacuated 35 refugees from Krume, north of Kukes, while NATO flew 76 vulnerable people from Kukes to Durres. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports UNHCR said intense fighting is raging along the border between Serbian units and the Kosovo Liberation Army. AP adds UNHCR said refugees arriving in Albania this week have brought alarming accounts of killings and the use of ethnic Albanians as "human shields." The Times reports UNHCR described the fighting as the heaviest of the war so far. [46 Kosovars brave northern Albania border amid NATO, Serb bombing – www.afp.com; Intense fighting along Albanian border, UNHCR says – www.dpa.com; UN: Refugees bring new accounts of use of human shields – www.ap.org; KLA pours its recruits into border battle – www.the-times.co.uk]

ALBANIA: UNHCR RETREATS FROM BORDER 3 Jun. 99 – An accidental NATO bombing and fighting along the Kosovo-Albanian border is crippling international efforts to provide safe passage to refugees fleeing Kosovo every day, a refugee official said yesterday, reports AP. NATO jets apparently missed their target and struck inside Albania on Tuesday, hitting government bunkers at Morini and narrowly missing refugees, journalists and aid workers. Journalists were barred from the immediate border area by Albanian police and soldiers, and there were no refugee officials or refugees sighted at Morini yesterday. "Every day we are being driven further and further down the valley," UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville said. "Over the past week, we've had sniper fire, mortars, NATO bombardment and Albanian war manoeuvres. Our operation up there is pretty much in tatters." The Guardian reports the bulk of UNHCR's staff were told to move back from the border. The latest arrivals from Kosovo yesterday had to walk kilometres into Albania before reaching a UNHCR vehicle from which they were offered water. Yesterday UNHCR's last observer was ordered off high ground above Morini from where he could see the frontier. UNHCR does not know how it will now get warning of new arrivals. [NATO bombing, fighting, endanger refugees and aid workers at frontier – www.ap.org; From refugee haven to war zone – www.guardian.co.uk]

ALBANIA: INFLUX BOOSTS ECONOMY 3 Jun. 99 – Albania, Europe's poorest state, has avoided political instability and economic collapse since thousands of Kosovo Albanians began arriving, thanks to hard work, foreign aid and a domestic boom, experts say, reports Reuters. A war spilled over its border. One in six of the population is a Kosovo refugee. Foreign troops and relief workers choke its infrastructure. "They have done an amazing job here and I don't think they are getting the credit they really deserve," said UNHCR team leader David Shearer. The influx of refugees followed by aid workers, NATO soldiers and journalists has sparked a mini-boom. Thousands of Albanians hired by NATO and other international organisations as builders, translators and drivers are earning in excess of US$100 a day, more than the average monthly wage. The arrival of thousands of refugees has also had another unforeseen benefit: "Many are living on farms and getting involved in the work – this will help growth," said the Bank of Albania's director, Fiqiri Baholli. However, experts are concerned that the economy has swung too heavily towards consumption and little of the cash windfall is being invested for the future. AP reports isolated Kukes has enjoyed an economic boost with the influx of refugees and big spenders: aid officials, refugee workers, soldiers and journalists. [Albania survives initial Kosovo shock – www.reuters.com; Tragedy of Kosovo brings boom times to impoverished Albanian town – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: 'IMPRISONED' IN CAMP 3 Jun. 99 – Kosovan refugees at Brazde camp in Macedonia complain they are being imprisoned, not given sanctuary, reports The Times. Families cannot bring them food parcels or clothes. Relatives try to smuggle money to their loved ones trapped inside the wire by stuffing it into cigarette packets or under a chocolate wrapper. Without warning, the uniforms swarm forward, snatching the contraband and pocketing it. The refugees know that it is pointless to complain. The police behaviour at Brazde shows that, whatever pledges the Macedonian Government gives about its willingness to shelter Kosovo's refugees, most of its citizens do not want the ethnic Albanians. Refugees walk the camp in fear of the police, who become ever more aggressive as darkness falls. They have imposed a curfew on the 37,000 refugees to be inside their tents by 10pm. Those they catch afterwards are roughly dealt with. No one is allowed out of Brazde, unless it is to get on an evacuation flight abroad. Further west at the biggest of the camps, Cegrane, refugees can come and go as they please, though they have a fraction of the chance their kin have at Brazde of getting a seat on a plane. [Despair's captives kept from the ones they love – www.the-times.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: BREAD BENEFACTOR 3 Jun. 99 – Islam Musli's bakery in the outskirts of Skopje bakes about 20,000 loaves a day for the throngs of ethnic Albanian refugees sheltered in camps around the country, reports Reuters. "At first he was baking bread without our contribution and taking it to the camps," WFP spokeswoman Lindsey Davies said. "Now he is our main bread provider." Musli, 32, an ethnic Albanian, said he had not thought twice about becoming a philanthropist overnight. "Aid agencies do it. Why not me?" he asked. Musli said people from villages near the border started to come to the Musli Company to ask for bread to feed the refugees pouring out of Kosovo into Macedonia. They were often too poor to pay for it. "Refugee numbers rose day by day and nobody else could fulfil their need for bread," said Musli. WFP soon arrived with tonnes of flour and made a deal to trade wheat flour for bread with Musli, who has dedicated half his bakery's capacity to the refugees. [Bakery benefactor gives refugees their daily bread – www.reuters.com]

BOSNIA: OGATA HEARS TRANSFER REQUESTS 3 Jun. 99 – Kosovo Albanian refugees stranded in Bosnia told UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata yesterday that they wanted to be transferred to third countries, reports Reuters. A representative of some 1,100 Kosovans from a camp near Sarajevo told Ogata they would like to leave. According to UNHCR spokeswoman Wendy Rappeport, Ogata left the door open for transfers out of Bosnia, telling the refugees that UNHCR would "look into options." UNHCR says Bosnia is at the moment taking care of some 75,000 refugees from Yugoslavia – ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Slav Muslims from the Sandzak region of southern Serbia, and gypsies and Serbs from central Serbia. The inflow of refugees from this conflict will strain Bosnia's 1999 federal budget with additional costs of US$130m, Deputy Minister for Civil Affairs Nudzeim Recica said. "We will not be able to cope with this problem alone," Recica said, adding that UNHCR was the only international organisation offering tangible aid. Reuters adds a Yugoslav soldier who deserted by swimming across the Drina River into Bosnia was told he could not seek asylum without personal identification, which soldiers normally do not carry with them, so that he could not stay. [Kosovo Albanians stranded in Bosnia want to go on + Yugoslav deserter says army morale low – www.reuters.com]

ITALY: FLOW INCREASES, SAY UNHCR, IOM 3 Jun. 99 – UNHCR yesterday reported an increase in the flow of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo fleeing into Italy on a flourishing trafficking route, reports Reuters. Spokesman Kris Janowski could not give figures on the number of people who had fled into Italy so far, but said the flow of refugees into the country "is intensifying." "We cannot keep them in the north (of Albania) because it is dangerous," Janowski told a briefing. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said Italian authorities had rescued some 700 refugees on a boat off the coast of Italy last week. "That's probably the tip of the iceberg," said IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy, who said the refugees were paying thousands of dollars to be smuggled into Italy. "Geographic proximity indicates that the flux goes from the southern coast of Albania to Italy. The bulk of the trafficking currently goes from the southern coast of Albania to Italy," Chauzy said. IOM hopes to publish, in the near future, the results of a study based on interviews with refugees to assess the extent of the trafficking problem, he added. [UN says Kosovo refugee exodus to Italy picking up – www.reuters.com]

SWITZERLAND: HUGE INCREASE IN APPLICANTS 3 Jun. 99 – Asylum applications in Switzerland last month were up by 47% from April, with Kosovo Albanians accounting for three-quarters of the new asylum seekers, the Federal Office for Refugees said yesterday, reports AP. Some 5,030 people applied for asylum in May, more than 3,800 of them from the former Yugoslavia. Virtually all of those were from Kosovo. The number of Kosovo Albanians seeking asylum was up 88% from April. That could be explained by the fact many people from Kosovo in Switzerland have brought relatives in since the start of the Kosovo crisis, said Vera Britsch, spokeswoman for the refugee office. More women than men came in May, indicating entire families are on the move, Britsch said. Just over 41,000 people applied for asylum in Switzerland last year, about half of them from Kosovo. More than 20,000 people, around 60% of them from Kosovo, have followed them so far this year an increase of almost two-thirds from the same period in 1998. Switzerland hosts around 200,000 ethnic Albanians, and has agreed to temporarily take in some 2,500 in the wake of the current exodus from Kosovo. [Swiss announce huge rise in asylum applications in May – www.ap.org]

POLAND: DOZENS LEAVE ILLEGALLY FOR GERMANY 3 Jun. 99 – Dozens of Kosovo Albanian refugees being housed by Poland have left reception centres and camps and crossed illegally into neighbouring Germany, Polish Red Cross officials said yesterday, reports Reuters. Over a 100 of the 1,047 refugees that were flown to Poland after fleeing Kosovo have left their shelters, said Katarzyna Stepinska, deputy director of the Red Cross. Ten were caught by border guards and the rest have disappeared, she said. "They are all going to Germany, where they have family members," she said. The Cieplica refugee centre, some 60km from the German border in western Poland, was closed on Tuesday because two-thirds of the 46 refugees housed there had vanished, said Bozena Sajgon, the local Red Cross director. Most of those heading for Germany have left their camps on 72-hour passes and then crossed the border during the night with the help of guides, who charge to smuggle refugees across the frontier, border guard officials said. [Poland's Kosovo Albanian refugees flee to Germany – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: PEACE PLAN PRESENTED 3 Jun. 99 – Russian and Western envoys presented a plan to end the Kosovo conflict to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic yesterday, and the Serbian parliament planned an emergency session to take up the proposal today, reports the Washington Post. Details of the plan were not known, but NATO's conditions include the repatriation of all refugees. A Yugoslav Foreign Ministry adviser, Milisav Pajic, said Belgrade might agree to allow other NATO countries to take part in a peacekeeping force. He said NATO proposals to bring more than 50,000 peacekeepers to Kosovo in order to protect returning ethnic Albanian refugees is "too much." A New York Times editorial says Russian forces should play a leading role in making Kosovo secure for the return of the refugees, along with troops from Greece and other NATO members that Milosevic may abide. But hundreds of thousands of displaced ethnic Albanians, shaken by the brutal Serbian assault on Kosovo, will not return home unless their safety is guaranteed by a substantial number of soldiers from the US, Britain and France. [Milosevic Hears Terms for Peace – www.washingtonpost.com; Kosovo Crossroad – www.nytimes.com]

KOSOVANS: PARTITION? 3 Jun. 99 – The peace plan carried to Belgrade yesterday by envoys from Russia and the European Union could amount to the effective partition of Kosovo, which NATO says it will not countenance, reports the Financial Times. But according to military analysts, the plan delivers the most pragmatic exit strategy for all sides. The division of Kosovo has long been mooted by Serb nationalists in Belgrade, although ethnic Albanians – before the recent mass expulsions – made up about 90% of the Serbian province's 1.8m or so people. Various maps have been privately circulated but sources close to the government believe Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has designs on the mineral-rich north and would share control Pristina. Parts of the north are almost entirely populated by Serbs and, if under Russian control, might forestall the anticipated mass exodus that would symbolise Milosevic's defeat. But if some kind of demarcation line extended as much as 20 miles south to include the mining town of Mitrovica then more than 100,000 ethnic Albanian refugees would most likely refuse to go back. The Guardian also reports. [Proposal could amount to 'soft partition' of Kosovo – www.ft.com; Albanians fear 'Russian zone' could split Kosovo – www.newsunlimited.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: RETURNS DEPEND ON NATO 3 Jun. 99 – The successful return of refugees to Kosovo will depend on NATO's willingness to risk casualties in implementing a peace deal, no matter what terms Belgrade finally agrees to end the air war against Yugoslavia, reports Reuters. "NATO is playing for very high stakes this time around. They got away with being passive in Bosnia, but the cost in terms of refugees not returned has been high and they would need to be much more aggressive in Kosovo," said UNHCR adviser Michael Williams. "NATO has set itself an enormous hurdle. Failing to clear the hurdle would be a big political defeat. NATO will be judged on whether substantial numbers of refugees have gone home to Kosovo within three months of a peace deal." Deployment of a peace force, with NATO at its core, to ensure the return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees to their homes is crucial, Western diplomats insist. In Bosnia, refugees had the right to return to their homes. But now, de facto partition, not reintegration, has been Bosnia's fate. Pitifully few refugees have managed to return to their homes across ethnic lines. [NATO's appetite for risk crucial to peace – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: CAMPS CAUSE INSTABILITY 3 Jun. 99 – The longer NATO fails to return refugees home, the greater the danger that the camps in Albania and Macedonia will turn into cauldrons of nationalist and religious zealotry that could threaten the region for years, reports the Christian Science Monitor. One of the lessons of camps filled with Palestinian refugees, Afghans, and Sri Lankans is that those camps were the birthplace of violent groups that destabilised their regions. Already, among the young Kosovar refugees, their heroes are no longer sports or film stars, but combat-hardened rebels. They aspire to become gun-wielding avengers of families murdered and a homeland plundered. Refugee camps are pressure cookers in which their anger is slowly being magnified by boredom and despair. This threat partly explains why NATO, Albania, and Macedonia hope for a swift return of the ethnic Albanians to Kosovo. It is also why UNICEF and other aid groups are running programmes to ease the anger and frustrations of the youngest deportees. Meanwhile Reuters reports Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel yesterday said he would tell US President Bill Clinton that Kosovo refugees expected a lot from him – "maybe too much." [Refugee camps raising radicals – www.csmonitor.com; Kosovo Albanians 'may expect too much' from US – www.reuters.com]

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