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

KOSOVO: 20,000 'RETURN TO VILLAGES' 20 Apr. 99 – More then 20,000 Kosovan Albanian refugees returned yesterday to their homes in villages around the town of Podujevo, the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported, citing provincial authorities in Pristina, reports Deutsche-Presse Agentur. It said the refugees had responded to a call from the Serb authorities who guaranteed them full security. Podujevo is situated about 30 km north of Pristina. Tanjug said government representatives extended humanitarian aid to those who were in need. It said the ethnic Albanians had left their villages because of NATO air attacks and "manipulations by terrorists." [Yugoslavia says 20,000 refugees return to villages in Kosovo – www.dpa.com]

KOSOVO: WORSENING SITUATION 20 Apr. 99 – Refugees arriving in Macedonia from Kosovo are increasingly reporting rapes and killings by Yugoslav forces, international observers said yesterday, reports the New York Times. Refugees from the area around Gnijlane in southeastern Kosovo have related stories of summary executions and of a mass grave in the area they passed through, said an official of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Representatives have been interviewing refugees to try to document reports of atrocities. The reports, if true, represent a worsening of the situation for civilians fleeing to Macedonia, the official said. Meanwhile AFP reports the United States yesterday said it had evidence as many as 500,000 ethnic Albanian Kosovan men and fighting-age boys are missing. The State Department said the number of missing men and boys ranged from 100,000 – a figure obtained from refugees who had made it out of Kosovo – to 500,000, a figure that takes into account reports from inside Kosovo. The Washington Post reports refugees say Yugoslav troops are deliberately targeting ethnic Albanian doctors and their facilities, leaving virtually the entire remaining population without access to medical treatment. [Refugees Crossing Kosovo Border Tell of Rapes and Killings – www.nytimes.com; US concerned up to 500,000 missing Kosovar Albanian men may be dead – www.afp.com; Refugees Say Doctors Targeted in Kosovo – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVO: NATO ADMITS ATTACKS 20 Apr. 99 – NATO has admitted its warplanes may have caused civilian casualties in attacks on two convoys in Kosovo last week, reports BBC News. Following days of speculation, US Brigadier-General Daniel Leaf said NATO aircraft had attacked two targets – one large and one small – last Wednesday. He said it was possible that civilians had been injured in both incidents. The Washington Post reports NATO acknowledged its precision-guided bombs probably killed a number of ethnic Albanian refugees during attacks on two separate columns of vehicles. Yugoslav officials have said more than 64 Kosovo Albanian refugees died in the attacks. The New York Times reports the Yugoslav version of events says American officials deliberately sought out a convoy of refugees to kill and to blame their deaths on Yugoslavs. The Daily Telegraph also reports. Meanwhile the Guardian reports NATO's 'mistaken' bombing of a refugee convoy last Wednesday has led a surge in scepticism with a significant minority of voters 'thinking again' about their support for the air raids on Serbia, according to the Guardian/ICM opinion poll published today. [Nato 'may have killed refugees' – http://news.bbc.co.uk; NATO Concedes Its Bombs Likely Killed Refugees – www.washingtonpost.com; NATO Admits It Hit 2d Convoy on Road That Refugees Used + Yugoslav Press Says U.S. Intended To Kill Refugees – www.nytimes.com; Attack shifts public opinion – www.guardian.co.uk; We hit both convoys, Nato says at last – www.telegraph.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: EXODUS STOPS, MYSTERIOUSLY 20 Apr. 99 – Only a few hundred refugees made the crossing yesterday into Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro, reports the Washington Post. The Belgrade government's decision effectively to close the border added to fears among NATO governments and aid organisations about the fate of 500,000 to 850,000 displaced ethnic Albanians still inside Kosovo, where many of them are believed to be without shelter and running low on food as Serb-led Yugoslav forces continue to expel whole communities. The International Herald Tribune reports the exodus of refugees from Kosovo mysteriously dried up yesterday as the Serbian authorities reportedly started turning back columns of ethnic Albanians before they could reach the borders. NATO officials said Serbian forces planned to collect as many ethnic Albanians as possible and force them across Kosovo's borders in a massive expulsion aimed at causing chaos in nearby countries. CNN reports the flow of refugees into Albania trickled to a halt yesterday, leading UN officials to believe Serbs had closed the border. AP adds that aid officials puzzled today over a sudden halt in the exodus of refugees out of Kosovo, uncertain whether fighting had stopped the flow, or Serbs had blocked it. [Kosovo Escape Routes Closed Off Again – www.washingtonpost.com; A Mysterious Halt in Exodus Of Kosovars Causes Concern – www.iht.com; UN: Serbs appear to be halting flow of refugees – http://cnn.com; Ebb of flow of Kosovo's refugees mystifies international agencies – www.ap.org]

MACEDONIA: ANOTHER CAMP AGREED 20 Apr. 99 – The Macedonian government yesterday agreed to allow another refugee camp to be set up to cope with the pressure of new arrivals from Kosovo, German aid officials said in Skopje, reports Deutsche-Presse Agentur. The camp is to be set up "as soon as possible" near Cegrane for around 10,000 refugees. The Financial Times reports humanitarian agencies yesterday urged the Macedonian government to allow the expansion of existing refugee camps and the construction of new camps for expected arrivals. Existing refugee camps are full with about 45,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, according to aid workers. Meanwhile Liberation reports Kosovan refugees have taken charge of security inside Brazde camp following NATO's withdrawal and an agreement between Macedonian police and NATO, said a UNHCR official. Reuters reports a black market is thriving at Macedonia's refugee camps. Demand for some commodities has pushed prices tenfold. Topping the refugees' wish list are coffee, tea, shaving razors and gas canisters to heat water and food. The Washington Post reports children at Bradze have been producing disturbing drawings and paintings. [Macedonia agrees to further refugee camp, says aid office – www.dpa.com; Plea to expand camps – www.ft.com; Refugees police Brazda – www.liberation.fr; Black market thrives in Macedonian refugee camp – www.reuters.com; Drawings by Young Refugees Offer Telling Glimpses Into the War's True Costs – www.washingtonpost.com]

MACEDONIA: 'ECONOMIC DISASTER' LOOMS 20 Apr. 99 – Macedonian Foreign Minister Aleksander Dimitrov said yesterday his country was on the brink of economic disaster because of an influx of around 140,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, reports Reuters. But he rejected suggestions that Macedonia could face its own civil war if its fragile ethnic balance was upset by the influx. Dimitrov said the Kosovo conflict had already cost Macedonia around US$220m in lost trade and it was likely to add around 40,000 people to its already high unemployment numbers. He renewed his call for other countries to take in many more of the Kosovo refugees, saying: "We cannot cope with this problem alone." AP reports the majority of the 130,000 who have fled into Macedonia have been taken in by Macedonian Albanians, working quietly, efficiently and wholeheartedly to save strangers. Without their help, the cold alone is enough to claim lives. Some have saved lost Kosovans in the mountains. [Macedonia on brink of economic disaster-minister – www.reuters.com; For Kosovo Albanians, shelter on other side of Macedonia's – www.ap.org]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS MOVE ON AMID CONCERNS 20 Apr. 99 – Kosovo refugees streamed out of overcrowded makeshift camps to other parts of Albania yesterday as the flow of ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo slowed to a trickle, reports Reuters. Relief workers in the border town of Kukes – where more than 130,000 Kosovo Albanians remained in generally squalid conditions – accelerated the transfer of refugees in convoys made up of dozens of army trucks and other vehicles. Authorities have also begun drawing up plans for a possible military airlift of people from the camps and tent cities that have sprung up in and around Kukes, senior aid officials said. The stepped-up effort got under way as a renewed influx of refugees to northern Albania – which brought nearly 40,000 people pouring across the border between Friday night and Sunday morning – tapered off dramatically. Le Monde reports NATO is failing to react to the demands of the emergency situation caused by the mass influx. In the northern area, new overcrowded and insalubrious camps are constantly being set up. Aid workers admit they are overwhelmed. NATO and UNHCR have set three priorities: building 100,000 extra places in camps; supplying transport to move refugees, and logistical support. BBC News reports British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, on a visit to Albania, has warned refugees could start dying in NATO's hands if more effort is not put into the aid effort. AFP adds the International Migration Organisation is planning to register all 340,000 refugees from Kosovo currently in Albania and supply them with identity cards, its spokesman said yesterday. [Refugees head south, flow to Albania wanes – www.reuters.com; NATO late to respond to refugee emergency in Albania – www.lemonde.fr; New identity cards or refugees in Albania – www.afp.com; 'Dying in Nato's hands' – http://news.bbc.co.uk]

MONTENEGRO: MUSLIMS EXPELLED 20 Apr. 99 – The Yugoslav army is expelling residents of three predominantly Muslim villages near the Montenegrin border with Kosovo and turning the villages into a second front line, residents who had been ousted said yesterday, reports AP. More than 400 people from the villages of Bukelj, Dacici and Kalundjerski Laz arrived in the town of Rozaje, relating tales of expulsion similar to those told by Kosovo Albanians. The villages that were emptied along the Kosovo frontier already were serving as host to scores of refugees from Kosovo. [Yugoslav army starts expelling Muslims in Montenegro – www.ap.org]

MONTENEGRO: AID URGENTLY NEEDED 20 Apr. 99 – Montenegro faces disaster unless it gets urgent international aid to help it cope with an influx of refugees from Kosovo, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic said yesterday, reports Reuters. Around 65,000 ethnic Albanians and Muslims have poured into the tiny republic from Kosovo province since NATO launched its air campaign against Yugoslavia last month. "Montenegro is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe," the prime minister said in an interview. "I am worried we will be exposed to the risk of very serious epidemics which will be extremely hard to halt." Columns of refugees have streamed into Montenegro over snow-covered mountains to escape Serb forces, and many of them are being housed in mosques and factories around the northeastern logging town of Rozaje. Recent arrivals have often spent days hiding in freezing woods before making the dash across the border. "The health condition of the refugees is alarming. Their condition is so bad that we urgently need medical provisions," Vujanovic said. Because Montenegro forms part of Yugoslavia, only a small amount of Western aid has been sent in. [Montenegro faces refugee disaster -PM – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: SOLUTIONS? 20 Apr. 99 – British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday vowed to force Belgrade's troops out of Kosovo and return the Serbian-ruled province to "the people to whom it belongs," reports Reuters. After four weeks of NATO air strikes that have pounded Yugoslavia's military infrastructure, Blair said: "When the war is finally over, when the refugees are able to return, there will be a massive task of reconstruction in the Balkans.'' "The dispossessed refugees of Kosovo will be brought back into possession of that which is rightfully theirs. Our determination on these points – the minimum demands civilisation makes – is absolute," said Blair. But AFP reports Russian President Boris Yeltsin yesterday reportedly told US President Bill Clinton the return of refugees to Kosovo and the deployment of an international force in Kosovo must be done with Yugoslavia's cooperation. The Financial Times reports Italy's foreign minister Lamberto Dini yesterday said he expected Russia to launch an initiative this week to persuade the Yugoslav leadership to consider a negotiated settlement, including an international force to protect refugees returning to Kosovo and aid their safe settlement. [Blair vows to drive Milosevic from Kosovo – www.reuters.com; Belgrade must agree Kosovo refugee return and international force: Yeltsin – www.afp.com; Milosevic 'faces internal pressure for settlement' – www.ft.com]

KOSOVANS: OGATA'S PRACTICAL STEPS 20 Apr. 99 – The refugee exodus from Kosovo constitutes one of the most deplorable episodes in modern European history, says UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata in a Financial Times op-ed. Using the most brutal methods imaginable to erase a population, Yugoslav authorities have acted in a way that is morally repugnant and in direct violation of international law. The international response to this refugee crisis has suffered from some evident shortcomings. But a number of practical steps can and must be taken to limit the suffering of the Kosovar people and to bring a degree of stability to the region: First, the refugees must be provided with effective protection in the countries to which they have fled. No refugee should be forced back to Kosovo, or moved without being properly consulted. Also, the refugee camps should be established at a suitable distance from the border with Kosovo and must retain a strictly humanitarian character. There should be no armed presence in or near the camps. A third objective must be to reunite family members who have lost contact. The fourth challenge is within Kosovo, where thousands of people are said to be hiding in the hills and forests in constant fear of the Yugoslav military. UNHCR stands ready to move back into Kosovo but only under specific conditions. Fifth, planning must be accelerated for a long-term solution to the Kosovo crisis. It is clear that the only solution for the vast majority of refugees will be voluntary repatriation. Thought must also be given to reconstruction and reconciliation. Finally, Albania and Macedonia require economic assistance and help build national institutions and civil society, says the article. [Returning the refugees – www.ft.com]

KOSOVO NOTES 20 Apr. 99 – The Daily Telegraph reports refugee officials and villagers yesterday said thousands of elderly and disabled ethnic Albanians are trapped in remote villages across Kosovo with little hope of survival, as villagers along Kosovo's borders said they illegally crossed the frontier at night to feed ageing relatives. Reuters reports Die Presse newspaper in Austria says a proposal by Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel that neutral Austria, Switzerland and the Red Cross organise humanitarian aid for refugees inside Kosovo has met with UNHCR criticism. The New York Times reports Yvette Pierpaoli, 60, dynamic French woman and representative of Refugees International, was one of three aid workers killed on Sunday in an automobile accident near Kukes, Albania.
 
This document is intended for public information purposes only. It is not an official UN document.