AT A GLANCE
- The U.N. Secretary-General’s Deputy Representative for
Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo calls on returning Kosovar refugees to prevent retaliatory
attacks against the Serb and Roma populations.
- Houses burn in parts of Pristina as Serbs and other
minority groups continue to flee their homes; UNHCR helps 3,500 displaced minorities
located in a school at nearby Kosovo Polje.
- UNHCR continues to organize refugee return convoys from the
FYR of Macedonia. In Albania, some 800 refugees join UNHCR convoys for the two-day trip to
their homes in Prizren and Pristina;
- Around 24,700 Kosovars return spontaneously from the FYR of
Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, bringing overall count to 477,00.
- The number of Kosovo Albanian refugees and displaced people
in the region is 280,300, including 36,100 in Montenegro, 51,500 in Macedonia, 171,700 in
Albania and 21,000 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Deputy Representative
for Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo, Dennis McNamara, on Wednesday called on returning
Kosovar refugees to prevent retaliatory attacks against the Serb and Roma populations in
the region.
Following a wave of reprisals against the remaining Serb
and Roma minorities throughout Kosovo, McNamara also called on KFOR to continue its
efforts to step up security measures to protect these people under Security Council
Resolution 1244, which established the international presence in Kosovo.
"Over the past two weeks, there have been increasing
reports of intimidation and violent attacks directed against the Serb and Roma minorities
in Kosovo," said McNamara, whose functions include the issue of minorities.
McNamara is also UNHCR Special Envoy for the Former
Yugoslavia and Albania.
"Many of those targeted are elderly people who do not
present a threat to anyone," he said. "Serbs are now leaving Kosovo because they
feel insecure. It is imperative that we do not solve one refugee problem and create
another one. The refugee cycle in the Balkans has to be ended."
Among those targeted are some 5,000 Serb refugees from the
conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Their situation is particularly
disturbing, as this is the second time they face being violently uprooted.
"While we are doing everything we can to help these
people on the ground as well as to encourage minorities to remain, what they first require
is physical security," said McNamara. "This is beyond the capacity of
international humanitarian organizations, so we need a continued robust response from
KFOR, as well as the re-establishment of the key institutions for law and order in
Kosovo."
McNamara is holding meetings with various Albanian
community leaders in an effort to get their cooperation in halting attacks and harassment
of minorities. He will also discuss the issue of minorities with UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who is visiting Kosovo today.
MEETING OF FRIENDS
Assistant High Commissioner Soren Jessen-Petersen is
attending a meeting in New York today of the "Friends of Kosovo" called by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The group was formed during the initial phase of
implementation of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In his report to the Security Council 12 June, Annan said
he would consult regularly with governments and organizations who are in a position to
assist him in his implementation of Resolution 1244 on Kosovo.
Participants include Canada, China, Finland, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, the United States of America, the European Union, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
REPATRIATION
Hundreds of refugees in camps in Durres and Elbasen
boarded buses and trains on Wednesday at the start of UNHCR’s organized repatriation
from Albania to Kosovo. The trip north is expected to take as long as 10 hours from the
camps in central Albania. The refugees will travel back into Kosovo on Thursday.
UNHCR expects around 800 refugees to join the first
organized repatriation from Albania. At 10 a.m. around 300 refugees boarded a train in
Durres bound for Mejda, where they will overnight before crossing the border into Kosovo
on Thursday. About 500 others will travel to Kukes by bus from Elbasen Wednesday morning.
They will spend the night in Kukes before proceeding on to Kosovo.
Organized repatriation went into its third straight day
from the FYR of Macedonia. Around 400 refugees left for Kosovo on Wednesday, bound for
Pristina and Urosevac. On Monday, 332 refugees went back home with UNHCR and on Tuesday
322.
KOSOVO
UNHCR and its NGO partners are steadily building up
distribution networks in many areas of Kosovo, two weeks after the resumption of relief
operations in the Serbian province.
Catholic Relief Services, UNHCR’s main partner in the
Prizren region, reports that since 23 June it has distributed 234 metric tons of food in
38 villages and towns with around 85,000 people. Three-day ration packages were handed
out. CRS also distributed UNHCR items —11,804 hygienic packs, 5,500 blankets, 690
mattresses and 140 tents.
UNHCR mobile teams have now completed assessments in 45
villages in the Prizren region.
In the western town of Pec, UNHCR has so far distributed
1,000 tents for homeless Kosovars.
UNHCR continues to receive reports of Serbs and other
minority groups forced to leave their homes. In one neighborhood of Pristina alone, UNHCR
staff reported seeing seven houses burning Tuesday night.
Pursuing a policy of helping and protecting minority
groups, a UNHCR team visited a school at Kosovo Polje on the outskirts of Pristina on
Tuesday, where some 3,500 displaced minorities, Roma and the people known in Kosovo as
"Egyptians," are currently housed. They were in 20 classrooms, a small cellar
and 10 tents. There was very little food and the living conditions were dire, with over 40
people per classroom and at least 20 per tent.
An average of 50 to 100 persons arrive every day at the
school from various areas. While the team was at Kosovo Polje, it saw several wagonloads
of persons arriving. UNHCR was told that up to 50 per day are also leaving on trains to
Serbia and Bosnia.
The school is located in an area between a previously
Serb-inhabited neighborhood and an Albanian sector. Most of the Serbs have left. In
several areas, returning Kosovar refugees are reported to be occupying and evicting
tenants from Serb and Roma houses. Several of the displaced minority men bore signs of
serious injuries, from reported attacks by ethnic Albanians.
ICRC has been regularly visiting this group since they
began arriving there ten days ago. The Yugoslav Red Cross has given them a small quantity
of flour, tents, sleeping bags and mattresses. UNHCR and other health workers plan to
visit the area regularly.
ALBANIA
Even as UNHCR prepared for its first organized
repatriation from Albania, refugees continued to go back on their own to Kosovo, hiring
buses and minivans.
On Tuesday, 14,300 refugees went back through the Morini
crossing, bringing the total count of spontaneous returnees to 272,900 since 15 June.
Around 172,000 refugees remain in Albania.
Among the returnees were 125 refugees from Camp Hope in
Fier, who arrived at the Kukes II camp. Most of them went onward to Kosovska Mitrovica by
bus.
Even though very few refugees remain in Kukes, the UAE
camp site will remain open for refugees who wish to stay for a longer period in Kukes.
Kukes II will serve as a transit centre and as the main logistics base for transport
assets of AFOR and the Danish Refugee Council, engaged in the organized repatriation
movements.
A mine awareness presentation was conducted on Tuesday by
Belgian A-FOR troops in the Kukes II camp for the transitees and the resident population,
and further sessions are scheduled.
FYR of MACEDONIA
A total of 409 refugees joined UNHCR’s repatriation
convoy on Wednesday from the FYR of Macedonia — 196 heading for Urosevac and 213 for
Pristina.
On Tuesday, five buses carried 177 refugees to Pristina
from Stenkovec 1 and 2 and Cegrane, another five buses transferred 145 refugees to
Urosevac from Stenkovec 1 and 2, Bojane and Radusa camps. They all reached to their
destinations safely, with Mother Teresa providing them with food, water and basic aid
items.
So far, 1,063 refugees have gone home with UNHCR since
organized returns began on Monday.
Spontaneous departures for Kosovo also continued. On
Tuesday, around 7,000 refugees went back through the border crossings at Blace, Jazince
and Tabanovce.
Continuing a supply pipeline from Skopje to Kosovo, 23
trucks reached Urosevac, Prizren, Pec and Pristina on Tuesday, carrying tents, blankets,
hygienic parcels, blankets and mattresses. Skopje received on Tuesday shipments of plastic
sheeting (320), blankets (11,490) and mattresses (6,840).
MONTENEGRO
A total of 3,400 Kosovars returned home from Montenegro on
Tuesday, bringing the overall returns over the past two weeks to 33,600.
In the meantime, Serbs and other non-Albanians from Kosovo
continued to arrive in Montenegro, with 70 entering on Tuesday.
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Document compiled
by Dr S D Stein