AT A GLANCE
- Thousands of refugees cross into Albania, bringing accounts
of atrocities around Djakovica in western Kosovo.
- Trains offload at the FYR of Macedonia 8,400 refugees;
arrivals cite threat of starvation as one of the reasons for departures.
- The FYR of Macedonia agrees to expand capacity of the newly
established Cegrane camp from 25,000 to 40,000.
- The estimated number of refugees and displaced people in
the region has reached nearly 695,000, including 404,200 in Albania, 211,340 in the FYR of
Macedonia and 62,000 in Macedonia.
Major Developments
ALBANIA
More than 7,000 refugees crossed the border into Albania
at the Morini crossing Tuesday. Many told stories of the widespread abduction of hundreds
of young men and the deliberate killings of at least some of them.
A total of 3,260 people left Kukes, the majority staying
only one night before moving further south. A greater emphasis has been placed on this
rapid movement through the town in the last few days and has been extremely successful. A
total of around 260,000 people have now moved through this transit point inland.
The closure or transfer of the tented refugee camps in
Kukes is also under active consideration. No decision has been taken at this time but
UNHCR, government authorities and other concerned agencies are exploring this option as
one way to alleviate the bottleneck of refugees at Kukes. Around 100,000 refugees remain
in the mountainous area, an estimated 30,000 in tents. UNHCR and the government have been
trying to encourage this hard core of refugees to leave Kukes and seek more permanent
accommodation elsewhere for a variety of reasons: the unstable security situation near the
border, the extreme difficulty in sustaining such a large population in a remote area, and
the added difficulties the presence of so many semi-permanent refugees poses in trying to
cope with new influxes.
The Kukes area was always considered as a transit point
for incoming refugees and not a semi-permanent region and the government and UNHCR would
like to see that situation resumed.
There were at least four different groups of people who
crossed the border on Tuesday.
Some refugees continued to come from the Djakovica area
and some reported new atrocities in the region. These reports from Djakovica have been so
consistent that the region undoubtedly has been one of the most violent and cruel in the
whole of Kosovo, turning it at times into a virtual killing field.
One of the most vivid stories Tuesday was from a young
female nurse who herself had been on the run for some time. She reported that about two
weeks ago three men in their 60s were executed in cold blood with a single bullet to the
head from close range. She was able to reach one man who was still alive, but was unable
to do anything else except watch him die as she cradled his head in her lap. She reported
seeing other dead bodies in the region.
Later in the day Tuesday several hundred people arrived
mainly on tractor trailers, some on foot, from Zrze, a village in Prizren. These people
had been told to leave Tuesday and within a few hours were en route to the border, but
there was apparently no further major harassment against them.
Their departure appeared to signal the total cleansing of
that village.
Two other groups arrived from a series of villages in the
Suva Reka and Mitrovica regions and from the surrounding hills where they had fled. These
two groups consistently reported stories of large numbers of men being separated from
their families, of seeing bodies and of individually witnessing atrocities.
None of these reports can be independently confirmed, but
like the killings in Djakovica a week earlier they were very consistent and specific in
detail.
These two groups were among the most traumatized of any
refugees crossing the border in recent weeks. Many women children and even the men were
crying uncontrollably. One tractor trailer carried only young children and a few old women
who all defiantly gave ‘v’ for victory signs as they reached the
border—even as tears streamed down the faces of every single one of them.
Another tractor trailer virtually crashed through the
border past startled police. It was carrying one young man who had been shot by Serbian
authorities two days earlier. At least three people with gunshot wounds crossed into
Albania Tuesday.
The most overwhelming and consistent element of the
stories of refugees arriving from the Suva Reka-Mitrovica areas and the mountains was the
disappearance of large numbers of men. In the last few days men were rounded up from the
various villages before the trailer tractors left or were pulled off the tractors
themselves. The reports suggest the disappearance of hundreds of men from these two
groups. Several refugee witnesses said the figure could be as high as 2,000-3,000. None of
these figures can be verified.
Many refugees told of individual atrocity stories. Several
refugees interviewed by UNHCR field staff said there was a major incident in a village
called Studime near Vucitrn. Serbian forces reportedly attacked the area three days ago
and police then moved in and separated many men out. One man reported 24 people from his
family had been killed and he had personally seen the corpses. Other refugees said the
figure could be as high as 100 dead.
In another incident, other refugees said hundreds of
people had been taken to a large field in the village of Smrekovnica in Vucitrn where as
many as 500 men were subsequently led away. Their fate is unknown.
One tractor driver from Veliki Kicic in the Mitrovica area
said during the confusion of the villagers’ flight there he saw all the men separated
from the convoy and six or seven killed on the spot.
The fourth group of people said they had fled their
villages around two weeks ago and hid in surrounding hills and mountains. Food had become
extremely short and then Serbian forces attacked them. Some men were reportedly killed and
hundreds of survivors were then taken to a large factory (which was named Damper) in the
town of Vranic in Suva Reka. They were held for one night, many of the men were again led
away, and the mainly women and children were sent to the border.
FYR OF MACEDONIA
Trains offloaded some 8,400 refugees in the FYR of
Macedonia over the past 24 hours.
As huge numbers continued to arrive, the Skopje government
agreed to expand the newly established camp at Cegrane, bringing its capacity to 40,000
from 25,000.
Some of the arrivals told reporters that the threat of
starvation was one of the reasons that prompted them to leave, particularly in the
Podujevo region, where Serbian security forces have been on the offensive against the
Kosovo Liberation Army since December. They said shops had been looted and burned and
there was no food available in the area.
Some of the arrivals were badly beaten and showed injuries
on their backs, thighs and arms. One man who used to work for the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe said he could not move his fingers because his hands
were so swollen.
UNHCR staff identified 42 of the 102 men who had been
separated from their families last Saturday at Prugovac, 15 kilometers from Pristina.
The men said they were taken to the police station in
Pristina and questioned about KLA. These men were presumably those who were found to be
"innocent" and they were told to board the train. The others are still detained
and were reportedly moved to Lipljan. Most of the women are now in Cegrane so the men will
be taken there.
The arrivals also said that Glogovac, which previously had
a population of about 70,000 and which in March was swollen with tens of thousands of
displaced people, was being emptied. Police were reportedly going door to door in nearby
villages and were sending buses full of people to Pristina, where they were put on trains
to the FYR of Macedonia.
Several men told UNHCR they had witnessed mass killings
two days ago in a small village called Vrbovac. About 15 men and women were reportedly
massacred by paramilitary. Those who survived the incident ran into the hills, where they
spent two days before being chased out by other military/police/paramilitary and bused to
Pristina. The report could not be confirmed independently.
HUMANITARIAN EVACUATION PROGRAM
Departures under the humanitarian evacuation program from
the FYR of Macedonia to third countries totalled 1,130 on Tuesday, including 154 to
Austria, 248 to Canada, 168 to Denmark, 152 to the Netherlands, 159 to Norway, 41 to
Romania and 208 to Turkey.
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Document compiled by Dr S D Stein