AT A GLANCE
- Around 400 refugees enter Albania at the Morini crossing on
Thursday amid sniper fire and artillery blasts on the Kosovo side of the border.
- More than 1,000 people arrive in the FYR of Macedonia on
Thursday, but only 26 enter at the main immigration control point at Blace; UNHCR steps up
drive to find volunteers to leave the crowded camps and relocate to Albania.
- Yugoslav troops arrest three people on arrival in
Montenegro on a regular bus line Wednesday, but a convoy of buses transports 200 without
problems to Ulcinj.
- A total of 2,234 refugees leave the FYR of Macedonia on
Thursday, bringing to around 68,000 the overall departures under the humanitarian
evacuation program.
- The estimated number of refugees and displaced people in
the region is 778,700, including 65,000 in Montenegro, 251,000 in the FYR of
Macedonia,441,000 in Albania and 21,500 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Major Developments
ALBANIA
Around 400 Kosovars entered the Morini crossing on
Thursday, amid sniper fire and artillery blasts on the Kosovo side.
Among Thursday’s arrivals were 165 prisoners from
Smerkovnica, where hundreds had been freed over the past week ostensibly to make room for
new detainees.
Security concerns heightened on Friday as the Albanian
military scheduled a training exercise along the border. There were fears that the
exercise could provoke Serbians on the other side. On Wednesday, several villagers were
killed and others wounded by artillery rounds that fell in Krume from the Kosovo frontier.
A journalist was also hit by sniper fire at Morini.
The relocation for security reasons of refugees from the
Kukes region continued on Thursday. A total of 2,017 refugees left for the interior,
including 400 on NATO trucks and 130 in a caravan of tractor-wagons and vehicles escorted
by NATO troops.
The NATO trucks went to Hammalaj 3 camp in Durres, while
the civilian convoy proceeded to a tractor camp at Lezhe, where the refugees could stay
alongside their tractors and vehicles.
Meanwhile, in Tirana, UNICEF says it has identified 7,000
Kosovar teachers who could conduct summer courses for children. The Ministry of Education
estimates children 18 years and below comprise 60 percent of the refugee population in
Albania.
UNHCR, along with UNICEF, is coordinating an education
program for refugees in Albania involving the government and NGOs. This includes the
printing of textbooks and identifying sites.
FYR OF MACEDONIA
More than 1,000 refugees crossed into the FYR of Macedonia
on Thursday, but only 26 entered through the main immigration control point at Blace,
where trains and buses had been transporting thousands over the past week.
Most of the arrivals came through Tabanovce and Jazince.
The newly arrived refugees report horrific stories about recent events in two villages in
Kacanik along the Macedonian frontier.
One refugee — an elderly religious leader — says
he had buried three young men killed on 26 May by Serbian paramilitary troops at Nika, a
village of about 800 which is now empty. He said that the young men had their eyes pulled
out and their ears cut off. He says he also had to bury a father and son at nearby
Dubrava.
A refugee woman with six young daughters and a 6-day-old
son born while she was in hiding says her husband was taken by Serbian soldiers, together
with her two brothers and three men from neighboring Bicevac. She still does not know what
happened to them.
In another development, UNHCR stepped up a campaign in the
camps to look for volunteers to relocate to camps in Albania in order to ease congestion.
To date around 500 refugees have opted for transfer to Albania.
Preparations are also continuing for a possible resumption
of the refugee influx from Kosovo. Immediate steps to develop a new camp site at Vrapciste
near Gostivar, not far from the existing Cegrane camp, are underway, with Oxfam preparing
the water and sanitation systems. Only minor infrastructure work is needed in the
17-hectare site — one of two identified by the government. A second site, Neraste,
near Tetovo, has been found to be unsuitable.
Tents are also being erected at the Blace border point to
accommodate an additional 2,000 refugees. There are close to 7,000 refugees now sheltered
at the Blace transit center.
MONTENEGRO
Six buses carrying 200 people from Kosovska Mitrovica in
northern Kosovo arrived on Thursday in Montenegro’s border town of Rozaje and
proceeded to Ulcinj. However, a family of 11 came on a regular bus line from Kosovo’s
western town of Pec and stayed at the Kristal factory in Rozaje. Three other passengers
were arrested by the military for allegedly not having proper documents.
Tension has continued along the border areas since the
Yugoslav army took control of the frontier. Gunfire was heard early Thursday in the
mountains near Rozaje. At the border checkpoint of Kambor, 14 of 28 trucks, which had been
waiting to enter, were allowed to move. They included trucks carrying raw materials for
aluminum and steel factories and humanitarian aid from Italy. Arriving journalists said
they had no problems entering, but immigration procedures remain unpredictable.
A team from World Vision distributed family food parcels
in Rozaje. Sewage trucks cleaned out latrines in factories hosting displaced there.
Elsewhere, two trucks distributed Italian aid packages consisting of pasta, biscuits and
diapers to displaced people in four municipalities.
UNHCR-IOM HUMANITARIAN EVACUATION PROGRAM
A total of 2,234 refugees left the FYR of Macedonia on
Thursday under the humanitarian evacuation program jointly administered by UNHCR and the
International Organization for Migration. They went to Australia, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States.
So far, 67,983 refugees have departed under the program in
which UNHCR has been offered 137,000 places in 40 countries.
Germany is the biggest recipient of evacuees with nearly
13,000.
Turkey is second with around 7,500 evacuees. (In all,
Turkey hosts 16,000 Kosovars, including those who came on evacuation flights as well as
spontaneously, via overland routes.)
Kosovars are now being evacuated from Cegrane camp,
following the completion of registration of refugees there. The program now covers all
camps in the FYR of Macedonia and this should lead to increased departures.
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Document compiled by Dr S D Stein