AT A GLANCE
- Four refugees were killed and more than 20 wounded early
Sunday morning when a mine exploded while they were waiting to enter Albania at Morini.
- The influx continued with around 24,000 refugees arriving
on Saturday in Albania (20,000) and Macedonia (FYROM) (4,000).
- The estimated total numbers of refugees are 359,000 in
Albania and 132,700 in Macedonia (FYROM). An additional 73,000 Kosovars have been
displaced to Montenegro.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
ALBANIA
A mine explosion among Kosovar refugees waiting in no
man’s land at the Morini border point at 2:40 Sunday morning killed one elderly woman
and three children, and injured over 20 other refugees, according to UNHCR and NGO staff
present at the time.
The explosion hit a tractor which was stopped between
concrete blocks which mark the actual border between the two countries and the Albanian
frontier post.
There were an estimated 50-100 refugees in no man’s
land at the time. There was initial confusion about the nature of the explosion, and UNHCR
and NGO staff who were at Morini withdrew to about 1 km from the border, fearing a mortar
attack. They reported that automatic weapons fire could be heard as far as a kilometer
away from the border.
The most seriously wounded were evacuated by ambulance to
the hospital in Kukes.
During the two previous days, a growing number of refugees
fleeing Kosovo bore war wounds. On Friday, 16 April, 23 people crossing at Morini had
bullet or shrapnel wounds, with four of the victims under five years of age. On that day
another 25 refugees showed signs of severe beatings by Serbian troops.
Many of the newly arriving refugees are generally
extremely weak, UNHCR staff report, with many walking for three or four days to the
border. All those arriving on foot are transported, around the clock, to Kukes, in 20
trucks operated by UNHCR and other agencies.
Additional buses are being sent from Tirana to help
decongest Kukes. More than 100,000 refugees are now in the northern town, and aid workers
worked all night pitching 70 large tents. UNHCR and NGOs are working urgently to expand
four transit camps to accommodate an additional 38,000 refugees.
MACEDONIA (FYROM)
At least 4,000 refugees entered Macedonia on Saturday
after arriving by train, bus and on foot. The new arrivals crossed at the Blace and
Jazince border posts and through the mountains, where they entered at a Macedonian
border village called Male Malina.
There were no additional arrivals during the night between
Saturday and Sunday in Macedonia. However, over the past several days groups of refugees
have appeared regularly by train and bus in the late morning.
At Blace, passengers on a train sent by Serbian
authorities from Urosevac were reportedly then prevented by the Yugoslav border officials
from leaving Kosovo if they could not produce valid identity documents. Refugees who were
able to leave told UNHCR that the people turned back were not just men, but included whole
families. Many people elected to stay in Kosovo with family members when one of the group
was not allowed to cross to Macedonia owing to lack of documents.
Refugees who arrived at the village of Male Malina on foot
said they came from the area of Gnjilane, and had been walking for 21 hours straight. They
said they had left their houses in villages around Gnjilane on Friday morning when
villages were set on fire.
Male Malina is located 60 km north of Skopje, in a
mountainous area to the east of the General Jankovic road.The population is mainly of
Albanian origin, and the 600 inhabitants have taken more than three times that number into
their homes, with dozens of refugees crowding into many residences. On Sunday UNHCR
immediately sent a convoy of food aid to the village.
350 tents which were set up to expand capacity at
Stankovec 1 are to be dismantled today after disagreements with local farmers over the
expansion of the camp. 150 of the tents are already occupied by families. Macedonian
authorities had agreed in principle to the expansion of the camp. UNHCR continues to work
on practical arrangements for enlarging this and other sites.
MONTENEGRO
After large numbers of displaced Kosovars crossed the
border during the week, arrivals on Saturday seem to have dropped off sharply, with only
around 140 persons registered at the Rozaje checkpoint during the day on 17 April. The new
arrivals in the night of 16-17 April and during the day of 17 April came in tractors and
private vehicles and reportedly orginated from Mitrovica. They said they were part of a
long column of vehicles being pushed toward Pec. In Pec, security forces redirected the
great majority toward Albania, and only some were sent toward Montenegro. One family
reported having been separated in this manner, with some family members on one tractor
obliged to head for Albania, and others sent to Montenegro.
The road to Montenegro is not favored by displaced people
due to Serbian police checkpoints along the way. Around 25 of the new arrivals had been
badly beaten and needed medical treatment by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff on
arrival in Rozaje. The security situation for the Kosovars in Rozaje remains worrisome, in
view of the presence of Yugoslav army forces nearby.
Rozaje, which houses over 20,000 displaced people, is
under enormous strain from the continuing arrival of Kosovars. The mayor met on Saturday
with directors of factories and requested their permission to continue to use their
buildings to house displaced people. Meanwhile, UNHCR continues to try to mobilize NGOs to
work in Montenegro, and in Rozaje specifically. International Rescue Committee (IRC) and
Action Contre la Faim (ACF) have made assessment visits, as has the German NGO called
Help.
On Saturday, UNHCR reunited a 15-year-old Kosovar girl
with her mother. The child had fled to Montenegro where she was living in Ulcinj with
friends from her home town of Pec, while her mother had fled to Albania. UNHCR arranged
for the two to be reunited at the Bozaj border crossing between Montenegro and Albania.
The situation in the coastal municipality of Ulcinj, where
around 25,000 displaced Kosovars are living, is stable. In Ulcinj town, no incidents of
harassment of displaced people and no presence of Yugoslav military has been reported.
However, there is a much stronger Yugoslav military presence in the border area, which is
not considered secure for displaced people.
HUMANITARIAN EVACUATION PROGRAM
On Saturday, 17 April, 314 refugees were flown out of
Skopje to Germany on two flights.
UNHCR is beginning evacuations to a number of new
countries, upon completion of the movement to Germany of the first 10,000 refugees whom
that country agreed to take in. France and Belgium will start receiving refugees today, 18
April, while movements to Poland are due to begin on Monday 19 April. Departures to Turkey
will resume on Tuesday 20 April.
A number of countries outside of Europe, including
Australia, Canada and the United States, have generously offered to take in Kosovo
refugees under the humanitarian evacuation program. UNHCR has not yet asked countries
outside of Europe to activate their offers, although this may become necessary on very
short notice, depending on the evolution of the situation.
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Document compiled by Dr S D Stein