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

KOSOVANS: HUNDREDS STILL FLEE VIOLENCE 8 Jun. 99 – Hundreds of refugees continued to flee Kosovo over the weekend, saying they saw no sign of a withdrawal of Serbian forces and alleging that violence and destruction were continuing, UNHCR said yesterday, reports AFP in Geneva. "The situation on the ground in Kosovo is still quite grim," said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski, adding: "Refugees told stories of continued wanton violence and destruction of property by Serb forces and no early signs of a Serb pull-out." But he said the numbers of new refugees had progressively diminished, from 410 on Friday to slightly more than 150 on Sunday. He said refugees outside Kosovo would begin to return only after Serbian forces have been evacuated and replaced by an international force. [Refugee flow continues amid violence: HCR – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: REPATRIATION TIME SHORT 8 Jun. 99 – The UN emergency relief coordinator said yesterday it would probably be impossible to rehabilitate Kosovo's refugees before winter even if a peace deal were implemented at once, reports Reuters in Washington. "We have basically three months, if we were to start today, to do probably the impossible which is the repatriation and resettlement of refugees and internally displaced'' before winter, said UN Undersecretary-General Vieira de Mello. He said there were between 1.3 and 1.5 million people either hiding in woods or hills inside Kosovo, in refugee camps in neighbouring countries or sheltering abroad. "We will have a daunting task in terms of rehabilitating shelter, schools, other basic services, in particular health, but also to revive economic activity as well as to promote the recovery of agricultural production, and all of this before the winter,'' he said. He said refugee returns would inevitably be a "mixture of organised and spontaneous return.'' De Mello said funding for the humanitarian operations must be quicker than for Bosnia, adding it was too early to estimate how much would be needed in Kosovo. "The cost of one day of war would probably cover the humanitarian needs for some time,'' he said. De Mello also warned of a potentially calamitous situation in Serbia, where a major humanitarian operation would also be needed by winter, especially to help some 500,000 Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia. [Time short to return Kosovo refugees; UN expert – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: NATO PREPARES `KFOR` FORCE 8 Jun. 99 – NATO is preparing to flood Kosovo with thousands of troops as part of Operation Joint Guardian, the force that aims to allow the refugees to return home, reports BBC News. Operational details are being finalised but the principles were agreed at a special force generation conference on 1 June when 30 countries – the 19 NATO members and 11 "partners for peace" pledged a total of 47,868 troops for the new peacekeeping force – KFOR. Subject to a United Nations resolution, KFOR will operate under UN auspices but will remain under NATO military command. NATO says Yugoslavia's withdrawal is the critical first stage of "sequencing" the arrival of KFOR and the return of refugees. While KFOR will seek military control, troops must create safe conditions for the race to deliver humanitarian aid. Thousands of Kosovo Albanians are believed internally displaced and aid agencies want swift access to these groups, many of which are expected to be suffering from malnutrition and the effects of living in the open. KFOR will also need to begin the immediate reconstruction of homes, roads, bridges, communications systems and electricity supplies for returning refugees. [KFOR: How it will work – http://news.bbc.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: RUGOVA `OBSESSED BY RETURNS` 8 Jun. 99 – Moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova said yesterday he was "obsessed by the return of refugees" to Kosovo and stressed that he and the KLA militia favoured its independence, reports AFP. "My first objective is the return of the Kosovars. We must absolutely have people there to rebuild Kosovo with the help of third countries," he said during at a conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. "I am ready to collaborate with the international administration, with NATO, with all civil and military parties," added Rugova. AP reports Rugova stressed the priority now was to repopulate the region emptied by the refugee crisis. [Rugova "obsessed by return of refugees" to Kosovo – www.afp.com; Rugova says priority is return of refugees to refill Kosovo – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: RETURN ONLY MEASURE OF SUCCESS - BLAIR 8 Jun. 99 – I very much welcome Slobodan Milosevic's acceptance of our terms. But I will not be celebrating until the day the refugees I met in Macedonia and Albania return to their homes, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune. Their return is the only real measure of our success. Now we have a new moral cause. Once we have pinned down the details of this deal, we must rebuild the Balkans and remove the cancer of ethnic conflict from it forever. That means that we have to help rebuild the homes of the Kosovar Albanian refugees so they can return. We have to provide the troops and the civil administration to make their homeland safe. We can return the Kosovar Albanians to their homes, but we cannot begin the process of reconciliation or make the region safe for the long term while a dictator remains at the heart of it. [Excerpts from a commentary in Newsweek – www.iht.com]

KOSOVANS: TAIWAN PLEDGES $300m 8 Jun. 99 – Taiwan's president Lee Teng-hui has promised US$300m in aid for Kosovo refugees, largesse likely to raise the diplomatically isolated island's profile in a region seen as a potential source of new allies, reports the Financial Times. The aid will include emergency help and future reconstruction assistance. Reuters quotes Lee as saying: "Being a country that promotes human rights and to exercise our humanitarian spirit, we are willing to offer our aid to those suffering in Kosovo.'' AP reports Lee said Taiwan also wants to arrange for Kosovo refugees to receive short-term technical training in Taiwan. Foreign Minister Jason Hu said exact amounts of aid, target recipients and the timing of its delivery had not yet been determined. [Taiwan to give US$300 in aid – www.ft.com; Taiwan pledges US$300 mln in Kosovo refugee aid – www.reuters.com; Taiwan promises U.S. dlrs 300 million for Kosovo refugees – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: HIGH-TECH TRACING 8 Jun. 99 – Relief agencies are confronted with Kosovan refugees spread all over the region and beyond, whose safe return to their home cities and villages has yet to be assured, reports the New York Times. The Internet and information technology can be harnessed to help them, believes Olga Villarrubia, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross's Tracing Agency. Together with corporate partners like Compaq and Ericsson, the Red Cross launched last week the Family News Network, which it says is the first refugee-tracing system based on Internet technology. It allows refugees in the Balkans and members of their families living in European countries to locate relatives and friends and to send them messages. Ericsson is also building a mobile phone network to provide communications between camps. The tracing efforts rely partially on registration of refugees by UNHCR, which is deploying sophisticated computer systems in the field to accelerate the process and issue new identification documents. "Registration is crucial in order to get a basic demographic profile of the refugees population and allow proper planning, target assistance and distribution of relief supplies, and help the reconstruction efforts," said UNHCR public affairs officer Larry Fioretta. With help from Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq and Securit, UNHCR and IOM have developed registration kits including laptop computers, cameras and printers, which will allow delegates to register the refugee, send the data to a central database in Geneva, and issue official photo identification plastic cards in minutes. The cards also carry a barcode, making it easier to track refugees movements. UNHCR has put a lot of hope in the initiative. [New Technologies Employed to Trace Kosovar Refugees – www.nytimes.com]

KOSOVANS: ARTISTS` AID FOR CHILDREN 8 Jun. 99 – Stars from the worlds of art, film and music have joined forces on a fundraising book for young Kosovo refugees, reports BBC News. Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George and Chris Olfili are among the 27 professional artists who have donated simple line drawings to Colour For Kosovo. Sir Paul McCartney and Angel of the North sculptor Antony Gormley have also tried their hand, while film star Paul Newman has donated US$16,000 to cover the printing costs. Karen Wright, co-chairman of the Colour for Kosovo committee, which put the book together described the book as "a gift with love." All the profits will go directly to the children's charity UNICEF for its work with the young victims of the war. The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph also report. [Artistic star turn for Kosovo – http://news.bbc.co.uk; With love from Damien, Gilbert, George and co – www.guardian.co.uk; Artists' aid for children – www.telegraph.co.uk]

KOSOVO: RED CROSS REACHES DISPLACED 8 Jun. 99 – The International Red Cross said yesterday it had reached displaced people in Kosovo with its first direct food aid in 2˝ months, reports AP in Geneva. Red Cross workers, who have been back in Kosovo since May 24, handed out more than 4,000 food parcels over the weekend, according to an ICRC statement. Large crowds in Podujevo in northern Kosovo and in the village of Godance, near Stimlje in the south told the relief workers that their families urgently needed the food, it said. The obvious need of the recipients confirms the Red Cross' concerns that severe food shortages are widespread in the province, a spokesman said. Many displaced people said they also needed clean water and were extremely anxious to contact their relatives, but had been unable to get to telephones. [Red Cross: first relief to refugees in Kosovo – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: VILLAGERS FLEE BORDER ATTACK 8 Jun. 99 – Ethnic Albanian women and children, among them refugees from Kosovo, fled the Macedonian village of Jazince last night after Serbian shells hit their homes, renewing fears that the war could spill over into Macedonia, reports the Guardian. More than 30 shells hit a compact area of the predominantly ethnic Albanian border village in what aid workers said was the first such attack of its kind on the country. No casualties were reported. The New York Times reports a grim procession of men walked their wives and children out of the picturesque village yesterday. Among them were some of 300 refugees from Kosovo. Differing explanations for the border attacks were illustrated by a group of 261 men and four women who walked over a mountain pass near Jazince into Macedonia yesterday. One of the refugees said most of the group had endured a six-day journey after being separated from their wives and children by Serbian forces a month ago. But a Macedonian police official said the Macedonians believed that the men were Kosovo Liberation Army fighters. [Serbs shell Macedonian village – www.guardian.co.uk; Serbs Shell Border Town, Rekindling Kosovar Fears – www.nytimes.com]

MACEDONIA: MISERY, NERVES IN CAMPS 8 Jun. 99 – The recent days' push-pull of hope and disappointment about Serb forces withdrawing and a possible return to Kosovo has been especially exhausting for the emotionally and physically drained Kosovo Albanian refugees, reports AP. News of each successive development spread like wildfire through the refugee camps. Yesterday, refugees in the dirt aisles of the Stenkovec camp, home to nearly 20,000 people, looked heat-dazed and listless. The Times reports life continued its miserable routine at Brazda camp yesterday – the collapse of the talks raising little surprise. Refugees said they had never expected Slobodan Milosevic to agree to NATO's demands for withdrawing troops nor to guaranteeing their safe return. Aid agencies, who had greeted the news of a possible peace deal with as much caution as the refugees, are preparing for winter in the Macedonian refugee camps. But for the moment, their greatest fear is the heat. Doctors fear many of the elderly will die as temperatures rise. Brazda is under reconstruction to make it more tolerable during the summer months. [Refugees' already-frayed nerves tested by on-again, off-again – www.ap.org; Misery continues as exiles' worst fears are realised – www.the-times.co.uk]

ALBANIA: FREED MEN ARRIVE 8 Jun. 99 – Serb forces battled on with Kosovan fighters yesterday around mount Pastrick in northern Albania as recently released Albanian Kosovars arrived at the Morina border town, reports AFP. The new refugees, many of them exhausted, were men who had been freed from detention after several days of interrogation. Every day, between 100 and 200 such people arrive in Morina. They said the arrests were taking place at the same rate as the releases. AP quotes UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Dean as saying: "My guess is that part of the purpose (of the imprisonment) is to traumatise them,'' adding that prisoners appear to have been assaulted more brutally in recent days. Members of a group of 87 men who crossed into Albania Sunday, she said, spoke of Serb police stopping their frontier-bound buses several times, and then beating them before letting them proceed to the Morini crossing. [Shooting continues in north Albania as more refugees arrive – www.afp.com; U.S. B-52 strikes target Serb frontier positions – www.ap.org]

ALBANIA: `GREATEST DANGER` FOR 100,000 8 Jun. 99 – The breakdown of Kosovo peace talks and intensified fighting along the Albanian-Yugoslav border have increased concern among humanitarian organisations about the safety of the more than 100,000 refugees still camped around Kukes in northern Albania, reports the Los Angeles Times. Heavy NATO bombing and Serbian shelling yesterday near the Morina border crossing raised fears among international aid workers that the brinkmanship could spill over the border into Kukes. ''For us, there has never been a period of greater danger,'' said Stephen Green, head of WFP in Kukes. More than a thousand refugees were evacuated from Krume, about 10km further north, and from surrounding villages yesterday and Sunday after one person was killed and six others wounded in shelling there. Several NATO bombs also fell on the Albanian side of Morina border crossing last week. ''There is clearly a military situation here that is worrying . . . The fighting has gotten closer. It is not in Albania yet, but there is an increased presence of the KLA. ... It is not safe for the refugees,'' said UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Quentier. Aid workers said Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas have been searching for new recruits in the refugee camps. In particular, they said, the KLA has been seeking doctors and medical technicians. [Aid Workers Worry That Brinkmanship Will Harm Refugees – www.latimes.co.uk]

ALBANIA: MORE UNCERTAINTY 8 Jun. 99 – For hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians who have been forced from their homes, the most recent chapter in the Kosovo crisis has only added more maddening uncertainty to the uncertain life of a refugee, reports the New York Times. Though it stopped neither the NATO bombing nor the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels, the tentative peace agreement had completely changed the focus in the camps around Kukes. The question of what to do when winter arrived gave way to plans for an orderly return. The drive to move refugees away from camps near the border – away from the fighting and the overstrained town of Kukes – had been picking up steam. But yesterday the NATO buses to camps in southern Albania were cancelled because so few people signed up. Around Kukes, they did not ever really trust Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to honour his pledge. Some refugees said NATO should send ground troops into Kosovo, even without an agreement. [Kosovo Refugees Cautious After Recent Seesaw on Peace – www.nytimes.com]

ALBANIA: RETURN PLANS 8 Jun. 99 – United Nations agencies are working around the clock on plans for the orderly return of Albania's 443,000 refugees at the right moment, reports the Daily Telegraph. A week ago UNHCR was concentrating on plans to move refugees from northern Albania to more permanent camps in the south, assuming most would be there through the winter. At the weekend, most of these plans were being stood on their head. It seemed probable that the vast human movement would be from south to north. WFP declares that it can get food into Kosovo quickly after a ceasefire. More than a million rations have been prepared in Greece and Italy, with 30 lorries to move them. WFP says it has enough food in the region to feed 800,000 for two months and would have, within two weeks, a three-month supply for those inside Kosovo. UNICEF`s aim is to get 50 primary schools open in six months. To get some teaching going quickly, it is providing educational "school in a box" kits. UNICEF has also taken charge of an essential mines awareness campaign. Because most have lost everything, UNHCR plans to provide a relief pack, probably including blankets, mattresses, a kitchen set and stove. [UN prepares to help 443,000 go home – www.telegraph.co.uk]

MONTENEGRO: PANIC OVER TROOPS 8 Jun. 99 – Montenegro has appealed to NATO not to let any Serb troops retreating from Kosovo pass through it, government sources said yesterday, reports Reuters. NATO said last week that as part of a proposed peace deal with Belgrade, soldiers exiting Kosovo could return to Serbia via routes across Montenegro. However, this would mean that possibly thousands of soldiers would travel through the eastern Montenegrin logging town of Rozaje, where around 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees are staying in mosques and disused factories. Montenegro has taken in 94,646 refugees from Kosovo over the past 2-1/2 months and international aid agencies fear that the arrival of the very troops who forced the ethnic Albanians out of their homes might cause panic. Montenegrins living in the Kosovo border area, many of whom are Muslims, are also unhappy about the idea. UNHCR has been sending most of the refugees down from the border to camps in the Adriatic coastal resort town of Ulcinj. However, UNHCR`s Robert Breen said yesterday it was getting increasingly difficult to find accommodation for the new arrivals. "We need tents, tents and more tents,'' he said. [Montenegro wants to keep out retreating Serbs – www.reuters.com]

GERMANY: WELCOME FOR NOW 8 Jun. 99 – Despite the prospects for a cessation of hostilities in Kosovo, little has changed for the refugees, especially for those now many kilometres away from home, reports the Christian Science Monitor in Berlin. Several hundred refugees are still being flown out of Macedonia to complete Germany's allowance of 15,000 refugees. Britain, France, and the United States have taken about 5,000 Kosovo refugees each. In the early 1990s, Germany took in more than 300,000 Bosnian refugees. But after the Dayton peace agreement refugees were put under intense pressure to return to Bosnia. Until a secure repatriation is possible, Kosovo refugees in Germany will be allowed to remain. But German authorities are generally disinclined to bring together separated families. Because of a significant Kosovo Albanian community in Germany, the government fears a policy of family reunification would cause a huge influx. "One problem is that refugees don't want to go to certain countries," says UNHCR spokesman Stefan Telöken. "They want to be placed in countries that already have Kosovo Albanian communities, such as Germany, Switzerland, or Austria." An unknown number of Kosovo Albanians have also made their way to Germany on their own. They have the lowest legal status – no more than a temporary suspension of deportation – valid for six months. [Shaky welcome for Kosovo's refugees – www.csmonitor.com]
 

BALKANS: LOOK AT BOSNIANS, CROATIANS TOO -OGATA 8 Jun. 99 – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has urged the international community to address the issue of refugees from the other Balkan wars when the Kosovo conflict is settled, reports BBC News. Sadako Ogata said at the end of a visit to Bosnia and Croatia that thousands of people are still homeless after wars in those countries. She told reporters that their situation should be put on the agenda as soon as peace in the region becomes consolidated. Reuters adds Ogata said returning Kosovo's ethnic Albanians to their homes would offer a chance to repatriate thousands of displaced from other Balkans wars this decade. "There will be attempts to look at the overall situation of the region. We have also not only the Kosovo refugees but we have still refugees and displaced from the Bosnian war and even before, from the war that took place in Croatia, and they are not fully solved yet,'' Ogata told a news conference. "I think this is a chance to look at the overall question of displacement, and as the consolidation process moves, I think the overall question of displacement and the economic need to rebuild communities should be put on the agenda.'' [UN urges Balkans refugee solution – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Kosovo chance to return other Balkans refugees-UN – www.reuters.com]

SERBIA: CROATIANS, BOSNIANS SUFFER 8 Jun. 99 – Half a million Serb refugees from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia live in Serbia, and 177,000 in Belgrade alone, says UNHCR, reports the New York Times. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN`s emergency relief coordinator, who met with some of the refugees during a recent visit, described their living conditions as "subhuman." They have been joined by 11,500 refugees from Kosovo, most of them Roma, or gypsies, and ethnic Serbs, who have fled Kosovo over the two months of NATO bombing. The refugees live all over the country in disused army barracks, workers' camps, holiday homes and hotels. They are stateless, with no citizenship, no valid passports, no vote and few rights. If they work, they do so illegally. The Yugoslav government, enduring a failing economy, helps the refugees by providing some free food, but little else. Now government officials and local aid organisations are bracing for a new wave of refugees: Serbs from Kosovo. Many are expected to flee as NATO takes control and Albanians return. If Albanians come back in large numbers, NATO forces may be unable to control revenge killings, aid officials warn. That in turn could precipitate a wave of new refugees, on a scale similar to the exodus of Serbs from Krajina in 1995. Then 170,000 Serbs fled their homes in two days. Many of them arrived in Belgrade in tractors and horse-drawn carts and today still occupy most of the public buildings. [The Refugees of a Past War Still Suffer – www.nytimes.com]

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