19 July 1999

Text: UNHCR on Kosovo Relief Effort

(Concerns about ethnic hostility and mines prevail) (1630)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued the
following fact sheet July 19 on the relief efforts for Kosovo in the
aftermath of NATO bombing and the return of hundreds of thousands of
displaced persons.

Following is the text of the statement:

(begin text)

UPDATE: KOSOVO EMERGENCY
19 July 1999

UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

KOSOVO ALBANIAN DISPLACEMENT AND RETURN: UNHCR ESTIMATES

Returns to Kosovo

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Republic of Montenegro
July 16-18                         915 
Cumulative                      50,100
Remaining in country            30,400 

Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia 
July 16-18                       1,100
Cumulative                     214,600
Remaining in country            28,500

Albania
July 16-18                       5,137
Cumulative                     399,800
Remaining in country            27,600

Bosnia-Herzegovina
July 16-18                          na 
Cumulative in country            6,100
Remaining                       14,900

Other Countries
July 16-18                       2,204
Cumulative in country           17,200 
Remaining                           na    

TOTAL
Remaining                        9,356
Cumulative in country          687,800
Remaining                      101,400


FUNDING
The U.N. will issue its revised consolidated appeal for the Kosovo
emergency and post-Dayton operations early next week, on the eve of
the first donors' conference for Kosovo being convened in Brussels on
28 July by the European Commission and the World Bank.
 
Meanwhile UNHCR has received a welcome new infusion of funds for its
Kosovo program. On 16 July, the government of Japan announced a fresh
contribution of $18 million to UNHCR's Kosovo emergency operation, of
which $2 million are earmarked for prefabricated shelter. This brings
Japan's total contributions to UNHCR for the Kosovo operation alone to
$41.1 million.

RETURNS
Over the 3-day period 16-18 July, over 9,000 refugees returned to
Kosovo, many coming from countries outside the area, to which they had
been evacuated or fled during the conflict. The total number of
returnees to date is approaching the 700,000 mark, while the number of
refugees remaining in the neighboring countries and territories has
fallen to just over 100,000.

KOSOVO
A high level of tension between the different ethnic groups in Kosovo
still prevails, with members of minority groups being attacked,
sometimes fatally, on a daily basis. UNHCR is faced with a dilemma:
how to reconcile its advocacy role for preventive and protective
measures to safeguard the right of minorities to remain in their homes
with the need to facilitate access to safety for those in
life-threatening situations.

In a positive development on Sunday, 75 Roma who had sought protection
from UNHCR and KFOR in Prizren decided to return to their homes in the
village of Landovica, 10 km north of Prizren on the road to Djakovica.
The Roma had asked to be taken out of their village on Friday, and
moved to the sports center in Prizren town, after at least 7 Roma
houses were burned down and others were looted and vandalized. The
house burnings started in the night of 14-15 July and continued in the
night of 16-17 July. Landovica is a heavily damaged village where
until recently the few untouched houses belonged to Roma, thus
fuelling resentment on the part of returning Albanians. On Saturday
morning, KFOR arrested two Albanians in connection with the house
burnings.

Another community of around 200 Roma in the Istok area have asked to
be moved out if the current level of KFOR protection is reduced. In
the Mitrovica area, two large groups of Roma, numbering 200 and 400
persons, have taken refuge in a school and a warehouse. 106 members of
the Roma population in Stimlje walked to Urosevac on 17 July because
they felt unsafe in their home areas and subsequently fled to the FYR
of Macedonia.

In a similar pattern but involving a different ethnic group, following
the killing of 4 Albanians on 14 July in the tiny village of Muchibaba
in Gnjilane municipality (pre-war population less than 1,000, nearly
all Albanians), all the remaining villagers decided to leave and KFOR
escorted them to stay with friends and family in other areas.

Meanwhile one Serb on average is reportedly killed every night in
Kosovo, and elderly Serbs are regularly thrown out of their homes and
must be given shelter. The Serb population remaining in Pristina is
subject to systematic harassment and the divide between Serbs and
Albanians in Mitrovica is widening. The Prizren monastery still
shelters more than 180 Serbs under precarious conditions. Some 280
Serb families remain in their homes in Prizren, but dare not leave
them, even for the most basic errands.

In general, the security situation in Kosovo leaves much to be
desired. Many residents to whom UNHCR staff have spoken in Kosovo, and
especially in the western part of the province, increasingly blame the
poor security situation on gangs from Albania.

With the help of the German agency THW (Technisches Hilfswerk), UNHCR
has distributed 2,000 emergency shelter kits last week in the Orahovac
area, and plans to distribute 16,000 more. These are the first of
UNHCR's planned 50,000 kits to be distributed to beneficiaries. In
addition, since returning to Kosovo in mid-June, UNHCR has provided
displaced people and returnees there with 11,000 tents, 380,000
blankets, 240,000 mattresses, 250,000 hygiene kits, 150 metric tons of
soap and tens of thousands of jerrycans, kitchen sets and plastic
sheets.

MINES AND UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE
A World Health Organization (WHO) survey has found that around 150
Kosovars have been killed or maimed by explosions of mines or ordnance
in the month since they began returning home. During this period there
were 10 anti-personnel mine injuries per 100,000 persons in Kosovo. 71
percent of the victims were under 24 years of age, and the majority
were men and boys. WHO expects the rate of mine accidents to remain
high, as the population returns to work in the fields and begins to
collect firewood for the winter.

In Prizren and Djakovica, up to 45 percent of hospital beds in
surgical and orthopaedic wards are occupied by victims of mine and
ordnance blasts. Mine clearers fear there may be hundreds of thousands
of mines not yet detected as well as a large number of unexploded NATO
bombs in the tiny province, which now ranks with Cambodia and
Afghanistan for its mine risk.

Mine awareness activities continue in and out of Kosovo. In Montenegro
a joint World Vision/UNICEF/UNHCR awareness campaign has been
completed in Ulcinj, Rozaje, Tuzi, Plav and Berane, and a mine safety
seminar was conducted for NGO staff, as many travel in and out of
Kosovo. In addition, 5,000 mine awareness brochures have been produced
and distributed, as have thousands of t-shirts, caps, jackets, badges
and signs carrying land mine danger slogans.

ALBANIA
UNHCR will remain engaged in Albania in the post-emergency phase, and
is urging partners to do so as well. Quick Impact Projects are being
developed to address rehabilitation needs following the departure of
refugees. These may include the rehabilitation of tented camp sites,
repair of buildings which had been occupied by refugees and of
affected water, drainage and sanitation systems as well as roads and
transportation facilities. In addition, the upgrading and
winterization of collective centers will continue. Already around 50
Non Government Organizations (NGOs) have indicated an interest in
remaining in Albania to work on post-emergency projects. Funding for
rehabilitation projects is expected to be available from a number of
bilateral and multilateral sources.

The President of the World Bank, Mr. James Wolfensohn, is currently
visiting Albania. UNHCR will welcome him in Kukes today and arrange
his visit to a host family as well as to refugee camp sites which used
to house tens of thousands of refugees and which are now virtually
empty.

All Kosovar refugees have now also left the camps in the Korce area in
southeastern Albania, where they arrived in early April when the
government of the FYR of Macedonia transferred around 10,000 to
Albania from the Blace border crossing. All have returned to Kosovo,
either via Kukes, where they were being transferred by air until the
landing strip in Kukes collapsed, or directly to Pristina airport.

A special session of Albania's Parliament addressed the question of
refugee camp security on Friday 16 July. UNHCR was represented. The
main issues under discussion were the looting of assets from camp
sites and the need to strengthen the capacity of the Albanian police
to respond to this situation.

UNHCR and partners continue to transfer assets from Albania to Kosovo.
This supply line began on July 8 and has continued since then. A
convoy team coordinated by the UK Department for International
Development has been moving tents, hygienic articles, kitchen sets,
plastic sheeting, mattresses, blankets, sugar and rice into Kosovo.
Three water trucks and 6 dump trucks have also been transferred.
Altogether 50 water/sanitation trucks will be shifted to Kosovo.

MONTENEGRO
The number of Kosovars remaining in Montenegro has fallen to around
30,000, but may soon be equaled by the number of non-Albanians who
have arrived in the Republic since the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo.
UNHCR estimates that around 23,000 Serb, Montenegrin and Roma
displaced people from Kosovo have come to Montenegro. While some have
moved on to Serbia, most remain in the Republic. The Roma Union in
Montenegro has told UNHCR that they expect more Roma to arrive from
Kosovo. More than 100 Roma moved into Montenegro on the weekend, along
with an even greater number of Serbs from Kosovo.

During the first two weeks of July, UNHCR has actively supported the
Montenegrin Red Cross efforts to assist the newly displaced, who are
sheltered in 16 municipalities in the Republic. UNHCR provided
thousands of mattresses and blankets, as well as tents and cooking
stoves. Many of these items were provided to the Roma settlement
outside Podgorica.

(end text)