MACEDONIA: THOUSANDS ARRIVE IN 'FINAL PUSH' 25 May 1999 – Refugees from Kosovo are continuing to stream across the border in their thousands, in column after silent column, reports BBC News. Scores of men had terrible bruising, which they said had been inflicted on them by Serbian paramilitaries. UN officials estimate about 20,000 have crossed into Macedonia at Blace since Saturday. Aid workers say Serbs may have begun a final push to empty parts of Kosovo. CNN quotes UNHCR's Astrid Van Genderen Stort as saying: "We've seen over the past days that cities like Pristina and Urosevac are completely being emptied." The Washington Post reports the refugees tell variations of the same story: that they were robbed by Yugoslav army and Serbian police of cash and jewellery, that their homes were stripped, that their houses were burned, that their cars and tractors were stolen, that they lived for weeks in the mountains, that they slept on plastic sheeting, that food was scarce, that they were fortunate to make it to train stations in Pristina or Urosevac, that the train they rode to the Macedonian border was packed, and that they left behind thousands more waiting for whatever train might be next. The Times and the Los Angeles Times also report. [Refugees surge across border – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Aid workers see possible 'final push' to move out ethnic Albanians – http://cnn.com; Thousands More Kosovo Refugees Enter Macedonia – www.latimes.com; Exodus – www.washingtonpost.com; UN attacks Serb expulsion – www.the-times.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: TENSIONS RISE WITH INFLUX 25 May 1999 – The new influx is likely to raise tensions in Macedonia, which struggles with its own ethnic splits and where the government insists more refugees must be evacuated to third countries, reports the New York Times. UNHCR officials blocked an attempt Sunday night by the Macedonian government to bus 500 refugees directly from the border to Albania. Officials said the refugees had volunteered to go. But some of the refugees and UNHCR officials said the refugees had been pressured or were unaware of their destination. Bitter recriminations followed, symbolising rising tensions. The Guardian reports the latest tidal wave of ethnic Albanian refugees raised tension in Macedonia as police attempted to bus new arrivals onto Albania. The Daily Telegraph also reports. Meanwhile the Financial Times quotes Boris Stojmenov, minister of finance, as saying: "There are two bombs ticking away: the refugees bomb and the social bomb." The Independent reports tension is mounting dangerously under the refugee influx and the prospect of Nato troops arriving. [Macedonia, Feeling Besieged, Tries to Move Kosovars Out – www.nytimes.com; UN halts Macedonian bid to force out refugees – www.guardian.co.uk; Macedonia tries to divert tide at border – www.telegraph.co.uk; Timebombs tick away to unsettle peace in Macedonia – www.ft.com; Influx brings Macedonia to the brink – www.independent.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: LOANS ANNOUNCED 25 May 1999 – The World Bank yesterday announced two loans totalling US$82m for Macedonia, whose economy is struggling because of the conflict in Kosovo, reports AFP. Payment will be made in two instalments: an initial loan of US$50m as an emergency credit will help the country cope with the influx of some 200,000 Kosovan refugees. A second payment of nearly US$32m will be used to help rehabilitate the country's railway and road network. [World Bank extends 82 million dollar loan to Macedonia – www.afp.com]

ALBANIA: MORE ARRIVE AMID SHELLING 25 May 1999 – Shells rained down yesterday around an Albanian border village on a route used by the Kosovo Liberation Army to supply a key base mistakenly bombed by NATO last week, international monitors said, reports Reuters. Further south along the border, more than 1,200 ethnic Albanian refugees crossed into Albania, many of them in very poor condition after trekking for several days, UNHCR said. UNHCR said 1,239 refugees crossed into Albania at the Morina border point north of Kukes yesterday. Most were women and children who had been walking for days, but the arrivals also included 164 men released from a Serb-controlled prison in Smrekonica, UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville said in Kukes. AFP reports more than 1,000 Kosovo refugees crossed into Albania yesterday. The women described how they had undertaken a two-week march and had had no food for the last two days. Sixty men released Monday morning from a jail at Mitrovica looked in a desperate state of health when they arrived. [Shelling on Albanian border, refugees arrive – www.reuters.com; Exhausted women refugees arrive telling of beatings – www.afp.com]

ALBANIA: KLA 'ACTIVITIES' WORRY UNHCR 25 May 99 – UNHCR yesterday said it was concerned by Kosovo separatist military activities in Albanian refugee camps and vowed not to tolerate such actions, reports AFP in Tirana. "We have seen Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) activities in some refugee camps, but we will not tolerate military activities in refugee areas. Combatants by definition are not refugees," said UNHCR's Tirana spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic. She would not comment on what type of KLA "activities" UNHCR was most concerned about, but camp workers and NGOs said KLA recruitment in the camps was widespread. Meanwhile Reuters reports KLA leader Hashim Thaqi was mobbed and cheered by hundreds of refugees shouting "KLA" and "Thaqi" as he visited refugee camps in Albania yesterday. The Financial Times also reports. Elsewhere, in an op-ed for the New York Times, Michael Doyle and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University professors, say the KLA should receive arms and assistance. Once across the border, the rebels could secure a staging area into which we could airlift food and medicine for the internally displaced Kosovars. This would allow NATO to put pressure on Serb forces in Kosovo while avoiding the costs of hacking its way through recently reinforced Serb border emplacements. [UNHCR concerned by KLA activities in refugee camps – www.afp.com; KLA head Thaqi cheered, mobbed by Kosovo refugees – www.reuters.com; KLA leader visits camps – www.ft.com; Arm the KLA – www.nytimes.com]

ALBANIA: SMUGGLERS' BOOM 25 May 1999 – More than 10,000 Kosovar refugees are being smuggled onto Italy's shores every month by networks of ruthless gangsters operating from Albania, reports AFP in Vlore. Every night up to 20 boats head out from Vlore bound for the Italian coast. They can carry between 25 and 45 passengers each. Some prove fatal for the passengers. The Los Angeles Times reports the notorious "scafisti" have found lucrative new prey in the miserable camps for Kosovo refugees. At least six pretty young women have disappeared from squalid camps in Vlore in the past month, and hundreds of other displaced Kosovans have paid small fortunes to the traffickers to smuggle them into Italy in dangerously overcrowded speedboats under darkness. Unlike Albanian prostitutes and job seekers who have been the chief customers of the scafisti, refugees from Kosovo have the right to claim political asylum in Italy if they manage to get there. Many refugees also have relatives in Germany and Switzerland who will give them shelter if they can circumvent visa routines. UNHCR plans to assume responsibility for the dozens of camps in Albania now being run by NATO troops, but some fear that the absence of foreign military security will allow easier access for the unscrupulous traffickers. Conditions at some Albanian-run refugee camps are so appalling that despondent young inhabitants may have their guard down in desperate pursuit of escape, says Lajla Pernaska, head of the Albanian Women's Federation. [Business booms for the traffickers in refugee misery – www.afp.com; Smugglers Lure Kosovars Into Dangerous Waters – www.latimes.com]

ALBANIA: NEW $45m LOAN? 25 May 99 – The World Bank said yesterday it was close to approving a new US$45m loan for Albania to help the impoverished state cope with the costs of the Kosovo crisis which has driven some 450,000 refugees into the country, reports Reuters. "This loan will be approved in the next couple of days by the board of the World Bank," said the head of its Tirana mission, Carlos Elbirt. The credit is on top of US$30m already disbursed for budget and balance of payments support. The Albanian finance ministry estimates that the crisis will cost some US$150m this year in lost revenue, additional spending and the need to finance a widening balance of payments gap as exports decline and humanitarian aid pours in. [World Bank to approve new loan for Albania – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: NEW TRACING SYSTEM LAUNCHED 25 May 1999 – The International Red Cross has launched what is thought to be the world's first refugee tracing system for Albania and Macedonia using the internet and mobile telephone networks, reports the Financial Times. The agency has joined forces with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications group, and Compaq, the US computer company, to develop the system in the two countries, where most of the estimated 700,000 refugees from the Kosovo conflict have fled. Red Cross officials said the tracing project, which has already been used by 10,000 families displaced by ethnic cleansing and fighting inside Kosovo, could become a model for other conflict zones and relief projects. Under the scheme, Compaq has provided computer hardware while Sysdor, the Swiss information technology company, has developed a website launched this week for refugees. Ericsson is building a mobile telephone base station in Kukes. Up to now, many refugees have relied on radio station broadcasts and the few fixed-line telephones in the area to locate relatives or appeal for aid. [Red Cross launches refugee tracing system – www.ft.com]

KOSOVANS: MANY TO SPEND WINTER IN TENTS 25 May 1999 – Many of the 680,000 ethnic Albanian refugees in tented camps in Albania and Macedonia will have to remain under canvas during the winter, military sources said yesterday, reports The Times. Preparations are under way to ensure that the refugees will be "warm and safe" throughout the four months of freezing conditions which begin when the first snow falls in October. The sources said that even if President Milosevic were to agree tomorrow to Nato's five demands, it was unlikely that all the refugees could be returned safely to their homes in Kosovo because of the dangers posed by Serb minefields and the destruction of so many of the houses and of the province's basic infrastructure. George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, also hinted that Nato might not be able to meet its priority objective of escorting all the refugees back into Kosovo before the winter. "The winter is clearly a driver to what we are doing and saying. We want to get as many people back into Kosovo as possible," he said, adding: "Whether that will be logistically possible or feasible in that time constraint is clearly a matter of interpretation." He said that with more refugees now being forced out of Kosovo, Nato had to be realistic. It would be a "big job" to get all the refugees back into their homes and he did not think anyone would expect Nato to be able to give a precise timetable for their safe return. [Refugees to face winter in tent cities – www.the-times.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: RUSSIAN AID MOVE 25 May 1999 – Russia has decided to take part in the UN humanitarian operation on the Balkans, the government's information department said yesterday, reports Itar-Tass. Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin signed the resolution, ordering the Finance Ministry to allocate up to US$1m from government reserve fund to the Ministry for Emergencies, and up to US$794,500 from the federal budget item covering international activity in economic and humanitarian aid for other states. The money is intended for purchasing humanitarian cargo, including a mobile hospital, and paying for the shipments of goods to Yugoslavia, and two truck convoys numbering up to 100 vehicles. It will also cover the expenses for the flying to the republic of Macedonia of up to 10 Emergency Ministry's planes with humanitarian goods intended for refugees, as well as for two months' operation of the mobile hospital. [Russia to join UN humanitarian operation on Balkans – www.itar-tass.com]

PORTUGAL: KOSOVANS LOCATED 25 May 99 – Portuguese authorities located 15 Kosovo Albanian refugees, aged between 2 and 49, missing from the welfare centre near Lisbon where they were being housed, officials said yesterday, reports AP. The group was now making its way to Switzerland to join up with relatives, Social Welfare Director Maria Joaquina Madeira said. She did not reveal how they were travelling. Five ethnic Albanian refugees had failed to return Saturday to the welfare centre at Salvaterra de Magos, north of Lisbon, a civil protection spokesman said. Another 10, including a set of two-year-old triplets, had disappeared early yesterday from the same centre. Portugal has taken in 808 refugees from Kosovo over the past two-and-a-half weeks. The International Herald Tribune also reports. [Missing 15 Kosovo refugees in Portugal located en route to – www.ap.org; 15 Kosovo Refugees Missing in Portugal – www.iht.com]

KOSOVO NOTES 25 May 99 Reuters reports Britain's Defence yesterday said Britain was sending a war crimes investigator to Albania to interview refugees in a "strong signal of support to these refugees and a strong signal to Milosevic's murderous thugs, that they will see the day when they are forced to confront, admit and face justice for their cruelty." Xinhua reports the Yugoslav envoy to the UN yesterday said NATO has attacked 80 refugee camps housing refugees from Bosnia and Croatia, killing more than 100 and causing many injuries. AP reports more than 2,400 Serbs and ethnic Albanians have come to Romania since NATO started its airstrikes but only 400 have requested refugee status; UNHCR says most are in mountain resorts and hotels in western Romania. AFP reports the evacuation of Kosovo refugees from Kukes to safer camps in central and southern Albania will begin today, a UNHCR spokesman said yesterday. AFP reports an Israeli plane is to fly to Macedonia tomorrow to fetch a second batch of 100 Kosovo refugees, which at US urging, the government agreed to take in for six months.

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