KOSOVANS: WHO HEALTH WARNINGS 28 Apr. 99 – Kosovo mothers in refugee camps should breastfeed their babies and not use huge amounts of infant formula shipped in by well-meaning donors, WHO said yesterday, reports Reuters. "Infant formula is unsafe and likely to be the main source of infection and cause of diarrhoea," said Aileen Robertson, an official at WHO's office for Europe in Copenhagen. This was mainly due to risks linked to contaminated drinking water in the refugee camps in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. So far, the water available to the refugees had been of fairly good quality, WHO said. It estimated that between one and two babies were born each day, on average, among the refugees. Shipments by various charities of vast amounts of pharmaceuticals to the refugees posed another problem, WHO said. Some of the drugs were of inferior quality and, others outdated, said Jo Asvall, head of the regional office. As the weather turned warmer, health hazards linked to food storage and preparation would increase and require strict monitoring, he said. According to preliminary data, the death rate among the Kosovo refugees at roughly two per day was unchanged from the normal Kosovo average. Jan Theunissen, WHO humanitarian assistance coordinator, said there was major concern about epidemics in the camps. "Cholera is endemic in the area," he said, adding that this risk underlined the urgency of securing clean drinking water. [Kosovo mothers told to breastfeed, not use formula – www.reuters.com ]

KOSOVANS: HOSTS REQUEST MUCH MORE AID 28 Apr. 99 – Albania and Macedonia told the European Union yesterday they would need vast amounts of fresh economic aid and relief to face the Kosovo refugee crisis and head off a humanitarian disaster, reports Reuters in Luxembourg. At meetings with the foreign ministers of Austria, Germany and Finland, the two countries said the US$266m of aid granted by the EU was a drop in the ocean. "This is a big amount, a big support, but it is not enough based on the needs Albania has to face, the humanitarian disaster and economic problems," Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said. Milo said Albania would need US$820m in economic and humanitarian aid to the end of the year. Macedonian Foreign Minister Aleksandar Dimitrov said the Kosovo crisis had already cost his country's economy US$220m. Reuters in Washington adds international financial institutions and 33 countries agreed yesterday to urgently address the devastating economic impact of the Kosovo war on neighbouring countries. A joint statement said they would need "a swift donor response ... to help meet the severe humanitarian and other financial needs" caused by a wave of refugees. A joint report from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund said humanitarian aid alone could exceed US$300m, excluding the cost of resettling refugees or rebuilding Yugoslavia. Reuters reports the French Finance Ministry yesterday said the Paris Club of creditor nations has granted debt relief to Macedonia and Albania as they struggle to deal with the refugees. [Albania, Macedonia urge vast aid for refugee crisis + Donors agree to tackle Balkan fall-out + Albania, Macedonia win Paris Club debt relief – www.reuters.com ]

MACEDONIA: THOUSANDS ARRIVE, FROM SERBIA TOO 28 Apr. 99 – Five thousand more ethnic Albanians arrived at two border posts in Macedonia yesterday, said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, reports Reuters. Due to lack of space they might have to sleep out in the open, he said. Three thousand arrived at Blace border post and 2,000 at the Lojane crossing. The latter group came from Presevo, a town in Serbia. Those at Blace, mainly from the Lipljan area, arrived by train around noon while 1,000 from Urosevac arrived by bus. "People from Lipljan are recounting stories about massacres in the village of Sllavi," Redmond said. The Financial Times in Lojane reports UNHCR said some of the refugees from Presevo said several hundred other women and children had last been seen heading into the mountains. UNHCR workers were trying to reach them in the high mountains on the border, where Macedonian security forces were refusing some entry. Presevo may have been targeted by Serb security forces because it had become home to some Kosovan refugees. "The Serbs clearly reckon that, since they are doing this work, they might as well clear them out of there as well," said Redmond. There are no precise figures of how many ethnic Albanians live in Serbia. A 1991 census recorded some 80,000. [Bursting Macedonia struggles with more refugees – www.afp.com ; Ethnic Albanian exodus widens – www.ft.com ]

MACEDONIA: CAMPS OVERFLOW 28 Apr. 99 – The crisis at crowded refugee camps reached a dangerous level yesterday, as UN officials declared they could no longer provide adequate shelter there, reports the Los Angeles Times. New arrivals yesterday were forced to sleep in the open inside the camps, with only plastic sheets for cover. Relief workers predicted a public health crisis within a day. UN officials, clearly angry and frustrated, accused the Macedonian government of blocking new camp construction and criticised European nations for failing to move quickly to resettle refugees as promised. "We are really in trouble,'' said UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini. "What we don't have is space. ... It's getting completely out of control here." The crowding led to a tense standoff between UN officials and Macedonian police at a gas station near Vaksince in the Kumanovo region as more than 1,000 refugees gathered on one side of the station while relatives and villagers massed on the other side. The standoff ended when the refugees began dashing madly toward their relatives, who hid them in nearby barns or transported them away. Police were helpless in the face of the onslaught. Nearly 1,900 refugees were scheduled to be evacuated from Macedonia today. BBC News reports the UN has warned that refugees arriving from Kosovo will have to sleep on the ground because of overcrowding. The Guardian, the Independent and Le Monde also report on this. [UN: Adequate Shelter in Macedonia Is No Longer Possible – www.latimes.com ; Refugees 'to sleep on the ground' – http://news.bbc.co.uk ; Refugee camps overflow – www.guardian.co.uk ; Refugee camps at breaking point – www.independent.co.uk ; Macedonian camps saturated by new refugees – www.lemonde.fr ]

MACEDONIA: SOCIETY FORMING AT STANKOVIC 28 Apr. 99 – A society is taking shape at Stankovic, the overwhelmed refugee camp, demonstrating both human flaws and fortitude, reports the New York Times. Several refugees who had volunteered to help the aid agencies have undertaken small businesses with donated goods. Other volunteers described with chagrin what goes on. But the most sought-after thing is finding a way out of the camp. The camp is many things. It is also a hothouse of hatred, the seeds of which have been carried in from Kosovo. Refugees tell their stories to each other, trading tragedies, cursing Serbs. Le Monde reports refugees at the hurriedly-built Stankovic camp, which holds 15,000 refugees, are preparing for the longer term: There is a school, a sports field, illicit trading, and the first wedding is expected. Meanwhile the Daily Telegraph reports a mass vaccination of children aged up to four is due to be extended to Stankovic tomorrow or Friday. [In a Sea of Tents, Life Goes On and Hatred Festers – www.nytimes.com ; Refugees in Stankovic until when? – www.lemonde.fr ; Race to prevent cholera sweeping camps – www.telegraph.co.uk ]

MACEDONIA: PRESIDENT EXPECTS NO SPEEDY RETURNS 28 Apr. 99 – Back from the NATO summit in Washington, Macedonia's president warned yesterday that the return of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees sheltered now in his country might be seriously hampered, reports AP. "It would be another act of violence to push for the speedy return of refugees to the embattled Serbian province," President Kiro Gligorov said. "Their homes are destroyed or burned out, their families shattered many have lost immediate family members or relatives." Gligorov, giving two reasons why the majority of the Kosovo Albanians would be reluctant for a speedy return to Kosovo, said: "First, they are seeing that life is better here than in Kosovo or Albania," Gligorov said. "Secondly, ethnic Albanians are an active part of our society and legislature." Referring to the NATO summit, Gligorov said he was generally satisfied with how Macedonia was ranked in terms of future membership. NATO greatly appreciates everything Macedonia has done, the president said. Macedonia has sheltered more than 182,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees. [President warns Kosovo refugees will not hurry home – www.ap.org ]

MACEDONIA: FEW FLOWN OUT 28 Apr. 99 – A group of 172 refugees from Kosovo arrived in Finland yesterday, after a first group of 164 were taken to a centre near the Russian border the day before, reports AP. The refugees were the first of 1,000 expected to arrive in Finland from Macedonia within two weeks. AP adds a plane carrying about 90 refugees from camps in Macedonia, was expected to arrive in Czech Republic today. AFP reports a Canadian immigration official said two ethnic Albanian families from Kosovo arrived in Toronto yesterday from Rome. [First Kosovo refugees arrive in Finland + First Kosovo refugees to arrive in Czech Republic – www.ap.org ; Two Kosovo families arrive in Canada – www.afp.com ]

ALBANIA: MORE ARRIVE, EXPELLED FROM KOSOVO 28 Apr. 99 – More than 2,000 refugees from Kosovo entered Albania at Morina border crossing last night, the largest influx there in more than a week, aid workers said, reports Reuters. UNHCR spokesman Ray Wilkinson said 48 tractors with an estimated 1,700 refugees had arrived from Kosovo during the evening. A further 300 to 500 refugees, mostly women and children, were seen arriving in carts behind them. A number of refugees said men were taken from the tractors near the village of Mej. One refugee told of seeing between 100 and 200 bodies by the road near Mej. Several others also reported seeing the bodies. Wilkinson said "one always has to be cautious when there is talk of killings but there now seems to be some degree of consistency." He said the refugees said they were woken up yesterday morning in villages outside Djakovica and told if they did not leave their villages would be burned. AP reports nearly 2,000 ethnic Albanian refugees fled into Albania early Wednesday, telling of a new Serb campaign to clear villages in southern Kosovo and alluding to a possible new massacre in the region. [Over 2,000 Kosovo refugees cross into Albania – www.reuters.com ; Refugees flood out of Kosovo hinting at new massacre – www.ap.org ]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS TELL OF RAPES 28 Apr. 99 – As the influx of Kosovan refugees continues, more disturbing stories are emerging of wholesale rape of women and physical abuse of children, reports BBC News. Almost 500 refugees crossed into northern Albania on Monday night, and about half of them, mostly women and children, said they had been ill-treated. They told consistent stories of Serbian forces entering their village of Dragacina in south-western Kosovo, rounding them up and placing around 300 in three houses. Human rights monitors speaking to the women say the are hearing the same stories again and again. The Guardian reports credible evidence emerged yesterday of a case of systematic rape committed by Serb troops, after the victims crossed into Albania and began giving their accounts. In a refugee camp in Kukes, young women sat silently at the back of family tents, refusing to speak. [Refugees tell of three-day rape ordeal – http://news.bbc.co.uk ; Women say village became rape camp – www.guardian.co.uk ]

ALBANIA: TROUBLE INLAND 28 Apr. 99 – As more Kosovan refugees in Albania are moved away from the border for fear of Serb shelling, discipline is beginning to break down in some of the overcrowded inland camps, with reports of fights between desperate refugees and local Albanians accused of stealing aid, reports The Times in Tirana. The Albanian government said the aid agencies, especially UNHCR, were "mishandling" the crisis. "If we had relied on UNHCR alone, there would have been famine and chaos in Albania by now," Pandeli Majko, the Prime Minister, said. He said "disaster" had been averted only because Western governments had sent troops to help in protecting relief supplies. But UNHCR's Ariane Quentier said the agency could "not work miracles . . . We are working with the Albanian authorities as best we can. But we only provide tents, food and medicines. We cannot act as a police force." Refugees in Tirana said there was "never much love lost" between Kosovo Albanians and Albanians. Meanwhile the Christian Science Monitor reports more than 100,000 have stayed in Kukes, the northern border town where about 20,000 refugees are housed in tented encampments run by foreign governments and aid agencies. The rest squat in muddy, garbage-strewn fields or the town's dirty squares, living beneath plastic sheets and in the backs of tractor-drawn wagons. AP reports Albania's president went to France yesterday to solicit economic aid to help his poor country cope with its enormous influx of Kosovo Albanian refugees. [Tempers flare in teeming camps – www.the-times.co.uk ; Among Kosovo's 'cleansed' – www.csmonitor.com ; Albanian president seeks aid for refugee influx – www.ap.org ]

ITALY: 1,500 MORE KOSOVANS ARRIVE 28 Apr. 99 – Some 1,500 refugees fleeing Kosovo, mainly women and children, made it across the Adriatic Sea to reach Italy's southern coast yesterday, reports AP. The arrivals, reportedly coming from Montenegro and Vlora, Albania, were put in shelters in the Puglia region. Around 500 were in a camp next to the airport in Bari, the regional capital, news reports said. Police reportedly seized two boats used to ferry refugees across the Adriatic and arrested an Albanian smuggler. Authorities also found marijuana on one of the vessels. In a separate operation, two Albanians and two Italians were arrested for allegedly setting up a ring to smuggle people in from the Balkans. Reuters adds police yesterday said they picked up some 900 illegal immigrants, many of them from Kosovo, along the southern Italian coast overnight. [Some 1,500 Kosovo refugees land on Italian shores – www.ap.org ; Kosovo refugees found on Italian beaches – www.reuters.com ]

KOSOVO NOTES 28 Apr. 99 – Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports a two-day telethon broadcast live on Kuwait Television has raised a total of US$13m for Kosovan refugees, the channel said. Reuters reports the UN human rights envoy investigating 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo said yesterday he would also look into the killing of refugees who had fled into Montenegro. The New York Times reports NATO's military commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, acknowledged yesterday that five weeks of intensive allied bombing had failed to reduce the size of the Yugoslav force in Kosovo or its ethnic cleansing operations against Albanians there.

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