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

KOSOVO: SERBS FLEE KLA IN SOUTH 14 Jun. 99 – Thousands of Serbs fleeing ethnic Albanian guerrillas in southern Kosovo were clogging the road leading from Pristina to Macedonia yesterday, reports AFP. One man said he had left his village of Musutiste because of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) "terrorists." "They came near the village. They shot at us. They killed five people," all of them men in their 30s, he said. The Serbs were travelling on tractors, trucks and in cars in a line of traffic that included NATO supply trucks making their way to Pristina. Many said that whole villages had taken to the road, packing family and belongings into vehicles and heading for any town that looked safe. When asked where he was going, one man, Goran Ilic, said: "Only God knows." He said he and his entire family had left the village of Suva Reka early yesterday morning and had travelled seven hours in the slow moving traffic. He added that the rest of the village – of 1,500 inhabitants – had also left. BBC News reports hundreds of Serb civilians were travelling between southern Kosovo and Pristina. They were mainly peasants in tractors and trailers in a scene reminiscent of the flight of ethnic Albanians. [Thousands of Serbs flee KLA in southern Kosovo – www.afp.com; Turmoil as Kosovo changes hands – http://news.bbc.co.uk] 

KOSOVO: SERBS CROSS TO MONTENEGRO 14 Jun. 99 – Serb civilians continued to flee Kosovo yesterday, some of them saying they feared attacks by "Albanian terrorists" following the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces, reports Reuters. Citing local police figures, a UNHCR official said 1,146 mostly Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo had passed through Rozaje, a remote town near the border by midday. UNHCR's Louis Storch said 5,233 crossed the border on Saturday. But he said he would not characterise it as an exodus of Serbs from the province. UNHCR estimates that almost 9,700 have crossed into Montenego since Wednesday. Those leaving did not stop in Rozaje, where 15,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees await the moment when they can go home in safety. Instead, most of them either continued to Serbia or to other parts of Montenegro. AFP reports UNHCR on Saturday said it regretted that Serbs were fleeing Kosovo in anticipation of the return of the Albanian Kosovans. [More Serbs flee Kosovo fearing ``terrorists'' – www.reuters.com; UNHCR regrets Serbs leaving Kosovo – www.afp.com] 

KOSOVO: CYCLE OF ANGER? 14 Jun. 99 – Thousands of NATO troops were deployed across Kosovo yesterday, attempting to defuse confrontations between retreating Yugoslav troops, fleeing Serb refugees and Kosovan Albanians returning to shattered homes, reports the Financial Times. AP reports the ethnic Albanian refugees yesterday carried the same loads as Serb refugees leaving: plastic-wrapped belongings, anger and ill-will. Reuters reports US President Bill Clinton early on Saturday praised the courage of Kosovo Albanian refugees and urged them not to seek vengeance on ethnic Serbs when they return home. Meanwhile Jonathan Steele in the Guardian says it would be a real triumph of political wisdom if the return of the Kosovan Albanian refugees could trigger a concerted international push to do more for earlier waves of Balkan refugees, starting with tens of thousands of Serbs who lost their homes in Croatia, as well as other refugees throughout former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia. An estimated 80,000 of Kosovo's 200,000 Serbs have left since March. The peace-keeping force must try to provide secure guarantees, so that the rest do not feel tempted to follow. NATO governments should put real pressure on Croatia to end its obstruction and take back the Serbs from the Krajina. [Shootings as Nato advance into Kosovo gathers pace – www.ft.com; Refugees, NATO troops stream in; Serb troops, civilians out – www.ap.org; Clinton urges refugees not to seek vengeance – www.reuters.com; Break the cycle of abuse – www.guardian.co.uk] 

KOSOVO: FIRST CONVOY OF AID 14 Jun. 99 – The first aid convoy carrying supplies to needy ethnic Albanians moved into Kosovo yesterday hard on the heels of NATO peacekeepers, reports Reuters. Some 50 trucks and vans from UNHCR crossed the frontier from Macedonia with food and medicines heading for Pristina. UNHCR officials said the plan was to head straight for Pristina. But the convoy was carrying some readily distributable packages of food and water if it came across people who needed immediate assistance. One of UNHCR's first tasks would be to assess the humanitarian situation in Kosovo. Aid officials believe up to 500,000 people may be living "hand-to-mouth" in the rugged Kosovo terrain having fled their homes. CNN reports the UNHCR-sponsored convoy of supplies and about 100 aid workers crawled over the mountains to Pristina in a half-day odyssey that in normal times would take just an hour and a half. AP reports Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN interim special representative for Kosovo, led the aid workers into Kosovo. Meanwhile the Daily Telegraph reports a UNHCR plan to fly in aid had to be put on hold after Russian troops took control of Pristina's airstrip Friday. [First aid convoy heads for Kosovo capital – www.reuters.com; Aid workers follow rifle-toting soldiers into Kosovo – www.ap.org; First relief convoy reaches Pristina – http://cnn.com; Allies find bottleneck on road to Pristina – www.telegraph.co.uk] 

KOSOVANS: SOME RETURNING 14 Jun. 99 – Across southern Kosovo, people are starting to trickle back into a landscape that a few days ago was almost devoid of humanity, reports the Financial Times. Ethnic Albanians, who had fled to Macedonia and Albania, are returning in small numbers by car, mingling with military convoys. Thousands of others, who had hidden in the hills in fear of the Serb forces, are walking back to their towns and villages. Travelling in vehicles on the same roads are Serbs, fleeing for fear of Kosovo Albanian revenge. These refugees are moving back despite aid agency warnings about mines and unexploded bombs. The Los Angeles Times reports Kosovar refugees began to trickle back to their devastated nation yesterday, but the homecoming was almost exclusively of men. AFP reports 70 refugees returned to Kosovo on Friday night, taking advantage of the imminent beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, Macedonian police said. The New York Times reports on the return of a refugee from Prizren who drove home from Albania yesterday. [Refugees start to trickle back despite warnings of mines – www.ft.com; For Many Refugees, It Is a Homecoming Without a Home – www.latimes.com; First 70 refugees return to Kosovo – www.afp.com; A 30-Minute Drive Ends in the Hugs of Neighbours – www.nytimes.com] 

KOSOVANS: HOPES FOR ORGANISED RETURN 14 Jun. 99 – NATO said yesterday it hoped most of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees in camps around Kosovo's borders would sit tight and not rush to go home before it was safe, reports Reuters. Spokesman Jamie Shea said there would inevitably be some refugees who would want to return immediately, but most should wait until the KFOR international peace force had made Kosovo safe. "It's worth waiting an extra couple of weeks to go home with all your limbs in place than to take the risk of going home now with all the dangers that are still there," Shea said. "It's important we do this in a systematic, organised way." Shea said a recent UNHCR survey found about half the refugees would wait for around a month before trying to return home, but 23% would want to go home immediately. But AFP quotes NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana as telling Spanish newspaper ABC: "It will be necessary to dispose of the mines. But I believe that in a few days we can start helping refugees return." Deutsche Presse-Agentur adds Kosovo Albanian leaders yesterday called on refugees in Albania to remain until mines were removed. [NATO wants Kosovo refugees to wait to go home – www.reuters.com; Solana calls on Yugoslavs to get rid of Milosevic – www.afp.com; Refugees warned against quick return to Kosovo – www.dpa.com] 

KOSOVANS: SOME WON'T RETURN -IOM 14 Jun. 99 – The majority of Kosovo refugees should be able to return to their homes in the next months, but many who lived in the province's larger towns may decide there is nothing to return to, the International Organisation for Migration said Friday, reports AP. Almost 1,000 people a day continue to leave refugee camps in Macedonia on flights to third countries, said Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman for IOM, which has organised the evacuation. An IOM survey found that almost a quarter of the 106,000 refugees in camps in Macedonia come from Pristina. Chauzy said this could have an impact on returns to Kosovo. "Rurals will look at the land they have left behind less than at their property, but urbans will think, 'We have lost the house anyhow so if we can go to another country, let's do it,'" Chauzy said. "Not everyone will go back." Some countries, such as the United States, have said that refugees will be given the option to stay in the country at the end of the conflict, but others say the refugees are only being taken in on a temporary basis. UNHCR insists refugees must not be forced to go back against their will, either from refugee camps or from third countries. [Some refugees may not want to go home, evacuation organisers say – www.ap.org] 

KOSOVANS: EU TO ANNOUCE $50m AID 14 Jun. 99 – The European Union on Friday was to announce US$52.6m worth of humanitarian aid to deal with the early stages of the effort to return Kosovo's refugees home, EU officials said, reports Reuters. Alberto Navarro, director of the 15-nation bloc's humanitarian office ECHO, said US$10m would go to UNHCR. He said another US$10m would go to provide shelter in Albania and Macedonia for Kosovo refugees who do not go home before winter. The remaining US$30m would be split between NGOs in seven different areas of Kosovo. The money will help provide shelter and essential household goods. Navarro said ECHO had drawn up its plan in conjunction with the UNHCR. Meanwhile the Financial Times reports aid agencies have criticised the way medicines are being distributed to refugees in Kosovo, describing many of the drugs donated as "inappropriate and of low quality." [EU to unblock 50 million euros for Kosovo refugees – www.reuters.com; Medical aid criticised – www.ft.com] 

KOSOVANS: OGATA SEES OPPORTUNITIES 14 Jun. 99 – With a peace settlement there is now a real chance to make sure that all those who have been so brutally driven from their homes in Kosovo will be able to return, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, in an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune. There is also a unique chance to prevent a new tragedy, the possible exodus of Kosovo's remaining Serbian civilians. These two opportunities should not be missed. The international administrators in Kosovo must ensure that those who were responsible for the mass expulsions are not allowed to reap the harvest of the inhumane policy by being able to block ''undesirable'' refugees returning. Serbian forces must leave Kosovo swiftly. The rapid deployment of international troops should prevent the creation of a security vacuum and could help to reassure Kosovo Serbs. UNHCR staff and partners will return to Kosovo on the heels of the peacekeeping force. We need urgently to reach hundreds of thousands of people displaced within Kosovo who have been without assistance for so many weeks. The international focus on Kosovo must also not be allowed to drain resources from Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. Nor should the international community neglect victims of the earlier Balkan wars, including some half a million refugees of Serbian origin from Bosnia and Croatia, who are still hosted by Serbia and Montenegro. The long-term success of the Kosovo peace mission will largely depend on the strength, perseverance and determination of Kosovo's international administrators and of the international troops supporting the peace effort. Much will depend on security and policing arrangements. UNHCR will promote reconciliation. [Don't Let Belgrade Obstruct Free Return of Kosovo's Refugees – www.iht.com] 

ALBANIA: PREPARING TO RETURN 14 Jun. 99 – Thousands of Kosovan refugees, many with their bags already packed, cheered German troops as they filed by the Albanian border town of Morina yesterday en route to Kosovo, reports AFP. The German troops were given an ovation and children picked flowers to present to the soldiers who have been assigned to the southern sector around Prizren. About 100 of the ethnic Albanians earlier ventured out to villages directly across the border to get a glimpse of the terrain freed of its Serb oppressor but returned to Morina to await the German peacekeepers. Fearing a stampede, UNHCR is distributing pamphlets and posters advising ethnic Albanians to wait a little while longer. AFP also reports aid workers in Kukes were preparing to cope with an expected influx of thousands of Kosovar Albanians returning to northern Albania in the hope of getting back to Kosovo behind NATO troops. AFP adds a British military transport plane crashed and exploded in northern Albania late Friday, just missing crowded refugee camps, witnesses and NATO officials said. [Refugees, their bags packed, cheer Kosovo-bound German troops + Aid workers preparing for refugee rush to northern Albania + British military plane crashes near refugee camp in Albania – www.afp.com] 

MACEDONIA: ENTHUSIASM FOR TROOPS 14 Jun. 99 – British tanks and troops spearheading the NATO advance into Kosovo from Macedonia were given a hearty send-off by ethnic Albanian refugees, reports BBC News. Thousands from the Stankovic refugee camp near Skopje lined the road chanting: "Nato! Nato! Go, go go!" Little girls presented flowers to tank crews. British soldiers played down the warm reception. UNHCR is hoping none of the refugees will be tempted to follow in KFOR's wake. UNHCR has spent recent days counselling Kosovars that to return too soon would place them in grave danger. Reuters reports thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees waiting to go home to Kosovo danced, sang and cheered wildly on Saturday as NATO helicopters roared overhead and tanks rolled past on their way into the province. [Rousing send-off for British troops – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Refugees celebrate NATO push into Kosovo – www.reuters.com] 

MACEDONIA: ALBRIGHT PROMISES 14 Jun. 99 – US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright assured ethnic Albanian refugees packed in a camp outside Skopje Friday that NATO peacekeepers would help them return home "to live a decent normal life," reports AP. To cheers, Albright said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs had lost control of Kosovo. "All the world knows about your suffering," she assured them. The Washington Post adds that during Albright's half-hour visit to Stenkovec I, hundreds of refugees pushed against ropes and chanted "Rubin, Rubin" as Albright's spokesman, James Rubin, passed. Albright received a tumultuous welcome of her own. She cautioned the refugees against returning to Kosovo too quickly and urged them to avoid retaliating against Serbian civilians. AP adds the Macedonian Prime Minister, in Taiwan Friday, said the Kosovo peace agreement's success depends on the speedy return of ethnic Albanian refugees and foreign aid to get the region's economy going. [Promises refugees they will go home and run their own lives + Macedonian prime minister says refugee return crucial – www.ap.org; Refugees Rave Over Rubin – www.washingtonpost.com] 

KOSOVO NOTES 14 Jun. 99 – AFP in a feature, says UNHCR had a bad war, strongly criticised for being unprepared for the Kosovan refugee exodus and for its handling of the crisis. AFP reports UNHCR special envoy Denis McNamara Thursday raised with Belgrade the issue of aid workers from CARE Australia who have been charged with spying. The Washington Post reports carries the story of a 12-year-old boy, who hid in deserted villages and barren hillsides in Kosovo for 11 weeks, evading bullets and bombs, separated from his parents. 

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