Shelling, hunger threaten refugees

TIRANA, April 16 (AFP) - Shelling and hunger threatened 100,000 refugees huddled on
the border inside Albania Friday, with every tenth inhabitant of Europe's poorest state
now a Kosovo refugee after 24 days of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

"The rope is tightening round Albania's neck and emergency measures must be taken to
prevent the situation deteriorating rapidly," Albanian local authority minister Arben
Demeti told AFP.

Relief agencies expressed alarm after Serb border shelling moved closer toward the
refugees, while aid officials warned that those arriving most recently were very hungry.

Many refugees pouring into Albania have not had a meal in days, the World Food
Programme (WFP) warned Friday.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, about 320,000 ethnic Albanian refugees
from the Yugoslav province of Kosovo are now in Albania. There were 18,500 at the
end of March.

In Europe's poorest country, with 70 percent unemployment, every tenth inhabitant is
now a Kosovo refugee after more than three weeks of NATO air strikes against
neighbouring Yugoslavia.

An official of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said
1,000 refugees had arrived at the Morina frontier post Friday.

They had been joined by 4,000 local Albanian inhabitants from the border area who had
fled Yugoslav army cross-border raids and shelling.

"These people, who have no assistance, risk losing their sole possessions, their harvests
and cattle," said Sabri Isusi, mayor of the Albanian frontier town of Kukes, which has
been crowded with refugees.

A western aid worker voiced concern over a spread of shelling to Kukes itself. "The
fear is that if insecurity increases, how are we going to move out the 100,000 refugees
and the 18,000 residents of Kukes?" he asked.

"Central authority and regional administration have been totally swamped by thousands
of refugees arriving every day," local authority minister Demeti told AFP.

"Shops and storage facilities are empty and there are practically no more
accommodation facilities," he added.

A World Food Programme spokeswoman said: "This is the first time we're seeing
refugees in such a lamentable condition, extremely weakened by lack of food."

The more than 3,000 refugees who arrived in northern Albania Thursday "confirm our
worst fears about the food situation in Kosovo," she said.

Arrivals spoke of three babies dying and being buried during the trip, which for many had
lasted four days.

Some refugees said they had had nothing to eat for the last two to three days.

More than 3,000 Kosovars crossed the border Friday, said UNHCR spokeswoman
Ariane Quentier. "We are starting to have an accommodation problem and have run out
of space inside camps," she warned.

Since the end of last week, shelling has spread from the Tropoja area to the north, where
rebel fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are active, down to near Kukes.

On Friday, Albanian police said border guards were involved in a skirmish with Serb
forces at the Zherka border post, south of Tropoja.

Tirana accuses Belgrade of aiming to widen the Kosovo conflict with the shelling, while
Yugoslavia blames Albania for allowing cross-border KLA raids from its territory.

Albania has vowed to keep out of the Kosovo conflict, although it supports the NATO
air strikes and is allowing the deployment of US Apache helicopters to attack Serb
ground forces in Kosovo.

A 7,300-member NATO force is also being assembled in Albania on a humanitarian
mission for the more than 300,000 Kosovars who have flooded into the country since last
month.

Some 80,000 refugees were still sleeping in the open air, an Albanian official said.

Thirteen reception centres had been set up throughout the country and some 70,000
were being put up with Albanian families.

Finance minister Anastas Anjgeli said a quarter of the state's annual budget had already
been spent on the emergency. The government had had to allocate an extra 140 million
dollars to local authorities.

Everyday life has been seriously disrupted. Children have had to stay at home while
schools are turned into emergency shelters. Hospitals are full and police overwhelmed.

Investors have fled Albania and only the mafia is prospering through illegal emgiration,
largely to Italy across the Adriatic.