A digest of the latest refugee news,
as reported by the world's media.  

KOSOVANS: EXODUS AT WEEKEND 19 Apr. 99 – Kosovo Albanians reportedly poured out of Kosovo at the rate of 1,000 an hour over the weekend, reports BBC News. Albanian sources in Tirana said 23,000 Kosovans passed the border crossing of Morina in 24 hours. Relief officials in northern Albania said the latest arrivals were in the worst condition they had seen. The Washington Post reported the pace of refugees quickened Saturday as tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians fled to Macedonia and Albania, with reports that up to 50,000 more hiding in homes and forests are poised to leave. The Los Angeles Times reported Serbian border guards apparently began a new policy Saturday of stopping refugees without passports from crossing into Macedonia, which reportedly had the effect of randomly splitting scores of families and stranding an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 people on the Serbian side. Meanwhile AFP reports UNHCR said roughly 24,000 Kosovan refugees entered Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro on Saturday. AFP reports British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is trying to empty Kosovo of its entire ethnic Albanian population, forcing 1.4m to flee their homes already. [Refugee exodus continues – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Outflow of Refugees Quickens – www.washingtonpost.com; Refugees Caught in Random Serbian Behavior – www.latimes.com; Update on Kosovo refugee movements + Milosevic trying to "empty Kosovo" of ethnic Albanians – Blair – www.afp.com]

KOSOVO: CIVILIANS SHELLED 19 Apr. 99 – The Yugoslav army shelled ethnic Albanian refugees in central Kosovo yesterday, killing scores, Western diplomats said citing telephoned reports from rebels in Kosovo, reports Reuters. "We have been speaking to a zone commander in the Lapusnik area and he has told us that two VJ (Yugoslav army) units began shelling concentrations of DP's (displaced persons) in that area in the late afternoon . . . As we understand it there are tens of thousands of civilians on the high ground stretching east from Lapusnik and Orlate. The commander said as many as 100 people, including some children have been killed. They're sitting ducks up there," said a Western diplomat. Meanwhile the Christian Science Monitor reports tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians are telling tales of atrocities and abuses so similar and numerous that it is apparent NATO is failing to avert a humanitarian crisis. [Yugoslav army shells Kosovo refugees-KLA – www.reuters.com; Tales of atrocities mounting – www.csmonitor.com]

KOSOVO: NATO BOMBING CONFUSION 19 Apr. 99 – NATO's confused account of its air attack on a convoy of refugees in Kosovo last Wednesday became even further muddled after US officials said the pilot they had believed was responsible did not actually carry out the bombing, reports BBC News. Pentagon officials are now certain the pilot attacked a purely military convoy. AFP reports NATO yesterday suffered further embarrassment over its handling of the accidental bombing as its officials admitted the pilot's statement did not correspond to the incident for which NATO has accepted responsibility. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reported those in the targeted convoy who were interviewed Friday in refugee camps and hospital rooms in Albania, including some who watched family members die, said Serbia is responsible for their misery, even if it was one of NATO's bombs that actually dropped on them. The Guardian also reports. [New Nato muddle over refugee attack – http://news.bbc.co.uk; NATO pilot was not responsible for bombing of refugee convoy – www.afp.com; Refugee Bombing Survivors Absolve NATO – www.latimes.com; Nato adds to the confusion over what happened to the convoy attacked near Djakovica – www.guardian.co.uk]

KOSOVO: AID EFFORTS FOR DISPLACED 19 Apr. 99 – Austria is helping with efforts to take supplies to displaced ethnic Albanians stranded in Kosovo, Chancellor Viktor Klima said yesterday, reports Reuters. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana have both said their organisations were urgently seeking ways to help up to uprooted 260,000 Kosovo Albanians within Kosovo. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports a Swiss foreign aid spokesman yesterday confirmed Swiss officials are negotiating with Yugoslavia on sending relief workers to work inside Kosovo. AFP reports NATO spokesman Jamie Shea yesterday said NATO has ruled out an attempt to open a corridor into Kosovo to get aid to ethnic Albanian refugees stranded in the woods and mountains. But a first convoy of three trucks organised by Greek NGOs reached Pristina on Saturday. [Austria seeks to help refugees stranded in Kosovo – www.reuters.com; Switzerland in talks with Belgrade on relief work inside Kosovo – www.dpa.com; NATO rules out humanitarian corridor into Kosovo – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: MORE FUNDS WANTED 19 Apr. 99 – President Bill Clinton plans to ask the US Congress this week for emergency spending of US$5.9bn. to fund costs of the Yugoslavia conflict, including up to US$700m in humanitarian aid, officials said Saturday, reports Reuters. One said this amount would provide enough funds to help the estimated 700,000 refugees inside Kosovo. AFP adds that Clinton and his wife Hillary appealed to Americans Friday to send aid to Kosovo refugees. Clinton, in Michigan, noted the flood of private donations and US government efforts on behalf of the refugees. Meanwhile AFP reports the Saudi news agency SPA said the International Islamic Relief Agency on Saturday sent some US$12m worth of aid to the Kosovo refugees. The Daily Telegraph reports financial institutions discussed aid to Balkan nations hit by the Kosovo crisis at the eighth annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development yesterday. Officials said no funds would be offered until there was peace, as Agim Fagu, ambassador to Albania, said that the country needs more than $800m ( £500m) to cope with refugees. [Clinton to ask $5.9 billion to fund war – www.reuters.com; Clintons campaign for refugee relief + Saudi-based relief agency sends 12 million dollars to Kosovo – www.afp.com; Balkans talk dominates EBRD – www.telegraph.co.uk]

ALBANIA: NEW INFLUX, MINE DEATHS 19 Apr. 99 – The fresh influx of Kosovo refugees into Albania is again reaching crisis proportions, reports the Financial Times. International monitors said about 28,000 ethnic Albanian refugees flooded over the border at the weekend. At least 23,000 crossed into northeast Albania in one 24-hour period at the Morina border point near Kukes. Jacques Mouchet, UNHCR's envoy in Albania, said there were now more than 320,000 refugees in Europe's poorest country. AFP reports refugee officials said some 34,000 Kosovo refugees yesterday wended their way toward the Albanian border, braving cold, driving rains and deadly landmines that killed five members of one family Sunday. A UNHCR spokesman said cars, tractors, carts and people on foot formed a column of misery extending 17 km. The Los Angeles Times reports terror caught up with the Berisha family yesterday when their car drove over a Serb-laid land mine just outside the Albanian border, killing five, injuring numerous other refugees and highlighting the extreme danger facing refugees fleeing Kosovo. The New York Times reports the border was closed temporarily. [Refugee wave adds to Albania crisis – www.ft.com; Column of misery heading for Albania – www.afp.com; Serbian Land Mine Kills 5 In Family Escaping Kosovo – www.latimes.com; Border Crossings Delayed as Blast Kills 5 Refugees – www.nytimes.com]

ALBANIA: AID OVERWHELMED 19 Apr. 99 – As NATO launched Operation Allied Harbour, its humanitarian mission in Albania, aid workers warned Saturday they were being overwhelmed by a new exodus of Kosovo refugees, reports AFP. Albanian Foreign Minister Pascal Milo accused Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of unleashing a new wave of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, driving 100,000 more terrified ethnic Albanians towards his country. Aid workers at Morina border post said Saturday they were overwhelmed by the flow of refugees crossing at a rate of 1,000 an hour. Camps in the border town of Kukes are full. Reuters reports UNHCR yesterday said it had no plans to start airlifting refugees from Albania. "The Albanian government has not asked for any evacuation of people from Albania. On the contrary, they have repeatedly said they are prepared to admit and shelter all those who come," said spokeswoman Judith Kumin. Liberation reports aid is trickling into Kukes, where there are officially only four camps. Refugees are everywhere in the town, which has reached breaking point with no end in sight to the emergency. [Aid workers overwhelmed as refugees stream out of Kosovo – www.afp.com; No plans now to airlift refugees from Albania-UNHCR – www.reuters.com; Mafia takes over foreign aid – www.liberation.fr]

ALBANIA: AID, BENEFITS WANTED 19 Apr. 99 – Albania needs more than US$800m to cope with refugees from fighting in neighbouring Kosovo, but so far Europe and the world have lent a deaf ear, senior government officials said on Saturday, reports Reuters. "For only 300,000 Kosovans we need a budget assistance of US$220m and in kind of US$600m,'' the minister for economic cooperation and trade, Ermelinda Meksi, told an international conference in London. The Financial Times reports Albania yesterday sought to gain diplomatic advantage from its acceptance of more than 320,000 Kosovan refugees. Paskal Milo, Albania's foreign minister, warned the influx could destabilise Albania. He hoped for a deeper relationship with – and membership of – the European Union. He said the EU should overlook normal membership criteria. [Albania needs $800 mln for refugees – www.reuters.com; Albania seeks quick entry to EU – www.ft.com]

MACEDONIA: INFLUX SEEN TO SLOW 19 Apr. 99 – The huge influx of Kosovo refugees into Macedonia appeared to subside yesterday after almost a week of arrivals averaging several thousand a day, witnesses said, reports Reuters. Macedonia has taken in about 150,000 refugees from Kosovo and more than 10,000 arrived on Friday, but only a few families had walked through the Blace border crossing yesterday by early afternoon. Around 500 held up in no man's land overnight at Jazince 40 km to the west were slowly bussed out to reception centres. An international monitor at Blace said refugees who had been deported by train from Urosevac to the frontier were inexplicably put back on the train and sent back. Around 4,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees reached Macedonia early on Saturday having trekked for more than 20 hours through high mountains, UN officials said. International food aid was rushed to a remote village that provided them temporary shelter. The Washington Post reports until Saturday the village of Malina Maala had a population of 600 ethnic Albanians. Now there are 3,600. They came from Kosovo, all 3,000 newcomers, in a long miserable march, pushed along by fear of roving paramilitary gangs and rumours of men being led to a village square, beaten in the face and then shot. [Kosovo refugee exodus into Macedonia slackens – www.reuters.com; Poor Village Takes in Sudden Influx of Refugees – www.washingtonpost.com]

MACEDONIA: NEW CAMPS REJECTED 19 Apr. 99 – The Macedonian government has put a moratorium on new camps for Kosovan refugees, reports Reuters. "The government yesterday rejected a request from NATO and UNHCR for new camps for refugees from Kosovo. The international community has not respected previous agreements under which 92,620 refugees should have been in third countries . . . It is possible to expand existing camps, but new refugees definitely must go to third countries," said Macedonian Defence Minister Nikola Kljusev in Macedonian newspapers on Saturday. But the New York Times reports aid workers yesterday said most refugee camps in Macedonia are filled to capacity, and delays in getting approval for camp expansions are resulting in severe overcrowding. The problem lies in getting approval from the Macedonian government to expand the camps, the aid workers and Western diplomats said. They said they saw the delays as a means of using refugees as political tool. The Guardian reports UNHCR revealed it had been unable to expand Brazda, the biggest camp, to accommodate an extra 11,000 people because local farmers have refused use of the land despite an offer of compensation. AP adds farmers tromped across the muddy fields around Brazda Saturday to protest its expansion. Meanwhile Le Monde reports the departure of NATO troops from camps has proceeded despite refugees' misgivings about the Macedonian guards. [Macedonia signals moratorium on new refugee camps + Rain turns Macedonia refugee camps into mud fields – www.reuters.com; Red Tape Delays Expansion of Overfilled Refugee Camps – www.nytimes.com; Ethnic Albanians trapped as Macedonian authorities moved to stem the flow of refugees – www.guardian.co.uk; Farmers protest expansion of refugee camp in Macedonia – www.ap.org; Camp administration in Macedonia – www.lemonde.fr]

MONTENEGRO: KOSOVANS AT 'STRESS LEVEL' 19 Apr. 99 – Montenegro has reached saturation point in the influx of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, UNHCR said Friday, reports Reuters. The government said that by 2.00 pm, the number of refugees who had crossed into the tiny republic since NATO started its bombardment on March 24 totalled some 63,200. "Montenegro has touched a stress level. We have surpassed capacity," said Rob Breen, head of the UNHCR sub-office in the area. Montenegro President Milo Djukanovic told a news conference Friday: "The total figure (of refugees) accounts for over one-fifth of our population . . . The influx of displaced persons from Kosovo...would represent a problem even for much bigger and more developed countries.'' AFP reports officials on Saturday said some 1,500 refugees are arriving in Montenegro from Kosovo daily in the area around the eastern town border town of Rozaje although the key bridge on the nearest border road had been blown up by NATO bombs. Reuters adds that French President Jacques Chirac promised on Saturday to lobby the international community to send more aid to refugee-swamped Montenegro. The Economist also reports. [Montenegro reaches refugee ``stress level'' – UNHCR + France seeks more refugee aid for Montenegro – www.reuters.com; 1,500 Kosovo refugees arrive in Montenegro daily – www.afp.com; A beleaguered Balkan outpost of sanity – www.economist.com]

KOSOVANS: AIRLIFT MAYBE 19 Apr. 99 – UNHCR said yesterday the UN may have to call for a mass airlift out of the region, reports Reuters. UNHCR spokesman Paul Stromberg said on Saturday if the flow continues, UNHCR may have to alert countries outside the Balkans to be ready to receive refugees. Some 16,000 refugees have already been evacuated from Macedonia to Europe and Turkey. Germany has taken in the most, some 10,000. Reuters adds that France welcomed its first refugees from the conflict yesterday as the first of three military aircraft ferrying 317 people from a camp in Macedonia landed in Lyon. Reuters also reports Belgium yesterday received its first planeload of refugees when about 170 ethnic Albanians, including 60 children, arrived from Skopje, said a spokesman. AP reports German officials yesterday said the last of nearly 10,000 Kosovan refugees that Germany has agreed to shelter have arrived, but they added more evacuations may become necessary. The Sunday Telegraph reports Britain is coming under pressure from UNHCR to accept 5,000 Kosovan refugees by the end of the week. [UNHCR says may revive mass airlift plans + France welcomes first Kosovo refugees + Evacuated Kosovo refugees arrive in Belgium – www.reuters.com; Germany takes in last Kosovar refugees for now – www.ap.org; Britain `must take in 5,000' – www.telegraph.com]

KOSOVANS: HOW TO HELP? 19 Apr. 99 – To help refugees fleeing Kosovo, the West must learn from other cases of mass flight, says The Economist in a special report. Slobodan Milosevic's ultimate aim in provoking such a sudden refugee crisis is still unclear. The flows of people have brought a confused and belated response from the West. There are, broadly, four possible ways to assist them: create a safe haven within Kosovo; give them shelter in camps outside Kosovo but in the region; resettle them somewhere farther afield; or return them to their homes. NATO's official goal of repatriation is the best long-term option both for refugees and for other countries, but it is also the most costly and difficult choice for western governments. The threat to regional security could be reduced by keeping civilian refugees strictly separated from combatants, and preventing the use of humanitarian aid to feed soldiers. If refugees must be resettled elsewhere, they will find this easier to accept if they are told what is happening and given some choice of where they go. And if it becomes possible to send them home, they should be allowed to judge, with visits, whether it is safe to return, as has been attempted in Bosnia. In the Washington Post, Richard Haass of the Brookings Institution says the NATO-Clinton administration policy toward Kosovo can be captured in just four words: "ambitious objectives, modest means." An alternative is a military policy of "modest objectives, ambitious means." The goal of this alternative would be to create a large enclave or safe haven in most but not all of Kosovo. Such an approach would allow an international force to come in to protect the Kosovans, most of whom could and would return to their province. In the New York Times, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Van Evera of the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say NATO should pursue a settlement that partitions Kosovo and possibly Macedonia. [Exporting misery – www.economist.com; Redraw the Map, Stop the Killing – www.nytimes.com; 'Modest Objectives, Ambitious Means' – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVO NOTES 19 Apr. 99 – Reuters reports Swedish officials said on Saturday they found 14 stowaways from Serbia hidden in a trailer carrying cat food which arrived by ship at Gothenburg. Le Monde reports Switzerland is giving shelter to a tenth of Kosovo's population.

This document is intended for public information purposes only. It is not an official UN document.