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

KOSOVO: ONLY 200,000 ALBANIANS REMAIN 28 May 99 – There are now as few as 200,000 ethnic Albanians living in their homes in Kosovo – the same number as Serbs – according to figures released by the British government yesterday, reports the Guardian. The huge scale of ethnic cleansing, reducing what was a 90% Albanian majority in the province to parity with the Serbs, was revealed by Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, who also said a US aid agency is about to start dropping supplies over Kosovo from the air. Of the original 1.8 million population of Kosovo 200,000 of whom were Serbs 900,000 had been driven from the province, all but 100,000 since the NATO bombing campaign began two months ago. A further 500,000 had been driven from their homes but remained inside Kosovo. The Red Cross has been bringing in aid by trucks, some of which have been stopped by Serbs who have stolen their supplies despite Belgrade's assurances of free passage. [Nearly 1m have fled Kosovo – www.guardian.co.uk]

KOSOVO: MILOSEVIC CHARGED, FOR DEPORTATIONS 28 May 99 – The International Criminal Tribunal issued an arrest warrant yesterday for Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, charging him and four other senior officials with crimes against humanity in Kosovo, including the murder, forced deportation and persecution of ethnic Albanians, reports the New York Times. Louise Arbour, the chief prosecutor, said arrest warrants for the five had been served on all member states of the United Nations and Switzerland. "We require these states, including Yugoslavia, to arrest the accused if they are within their jurisdiction and deliver them to The Hague for trial," said Arbour. Arbour said that the role of Milosevic in Bosnia, where more than 750,000 Muslims were driven from their homes in 1992, was still under investigation. Many other newspapers carry related articles. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reports refugees at Stankovac camp in Macedonia looked satisfied as they heard the news. Conversations with refugees who heard the news, especially younger ones, gave little doubt that the desire for revenge washed away any practical considerations, such as whether Milosevic would ever be arrested and what the move might mean for the prospects of a speedy peace deal. Many are fearful that the West would cave in to Milosevic, leaving the refugees returning to Kosovo vulnerable to renewed attacks by Serbs. [Warrants Served for Serb Leader and Four Aides – www.nytimes.com; Refugees Find Some Hope in Milosevic Charges – www.latimes.com]

MACEDONIA: FREED MEN ARRIVE 28 May 99 – A group of more than 60 ethnic Albanian men, separated from their families and imprisoned in Kosovo for about a month, arrived in Macedonia yesterday telling tales of beatings and starvation diets, reports the Guardian. One man said Serbian police had regularly beaten his private parts with wooden sticks, belt buckles and fists. The group, ranging in age from 15 to 60, walked across the border into Macedonia just after midnight after waiting six and a half hours on the Serbian side. They said they had been released from a prison in Lipljan, just south of Pristina, the Kosovo provincial capital, on Wednesday. [Refugees say they were beaten in Serbian prison – www.reuters.com]

MACEDONIA: CAMPS OVERCROWDED AGAIN 28 May 1999 – Macedonia's nine refugee camps are overcrowded after 30,000 new arrivals in four days early this week, UNHCR said yesterday, reports AFP. UNHCR's spokesman in Macedonia, Ron Redmond, said "the arrival of 30,000 refugees has once again led to over-crowding in the refugee camps." In two camps near Skopje, Brazda and Stenkovic, which respectively house 15,700 and 22,500 Kosovar refugees, "we had to remove all the furniture from the schools and move refugees into the schools," he said at a press conference. Altogether, 252,000 Kosovar refugees are in Macedonia, 106,000 in the republic's nine camps and the rest housed in private homes. Meanwhile The Times reports Britain is building another emergency refugee camp in Macedonia to cope with the renewed flood of families across the border. After days of secret negotiations, British officials persuaded the Macedonian government to reverse its decision not to allow any more camps. British troops serving with the NATO force will be asked to help to construct the tent city near Gostivar. [Macedonian camps again over-crowded – www.afp.com; Britain plans tent city for 20,000 – www.the-times.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL 28 May 99 – Refugee children at Macedonia's vast Cegrane camp welcomed a new school with songs and cheers yesterday, their first day in class in months, reports Reuters. "Every child...should be in school. So it gives me great pleasure to declare this school open and ask you to proceed to your classrooms," said UNICEF's Edmond McLoughney, inaugurating the school. Wearing caps with the UNICEF logo and waving their arms in the air, about 4,600 elementary school students bounced into 30 brown tents turned into classrooms. UNICEF which funded the school estimates more than 40% of the 250,000 ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo to Macedonia are under 15 years of age. UNICEF officials said the school's value was not only educational but also gave the children a feeling of normality within the chaos of their lives as refugees. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is coordinating the programme. The Washington Post adds the war in Kosovo is breaking children's bodies and wounding their hearts and minds. Humanitarian agencies are just beginning to help children deal with their emotional pain. US First Lady Hillary Clinton, in Macedonia recently, said USAID would contribute US$1m for community-based counselling and training for teachers and parents of war-affected children. [Children cheer Macedonian refugee school opening – www.reuters.com; For Refugee Children, Conflict Still Takes Toll on Hearts and Minds – www.washingtonpost.com]

ALBANIA: FIGHTING THREATENS CROSSING 28 May 99 – Serb shells hit villages near the main exit point from Kosovo to Albania yesterday, increasing pressure on UNHCR to evacuate camps in the region holding 33,000 refugees, reports Reuters at Morina. The sound of heavy fighting was heard in the hills above the checkpoint at Morina, apparently between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Yugoslav forces, observers said. Sniper fire also hit Morina. The flow of refugees out of Kosovo continued despite the fighting, with 606 people crossing at Morina by 2pm, including 258 from Smrekonica prison. The New York Times reports Yugoslav forces shelled villages in northeast Albania yesterday, for the second day, heightening tensions along the main crossing point for refugees. The Independent adds KLA fighters were said to be trying to capture the Serb-held side of the border crossing. But the combat threatened to close the frontier to the thousands of Kosovans still trying to cross to refugee camps at Kukes. [Heavy fighting near Kosovo-Albania crossing – www.reuters.com; Yugoslav Army Again Shells Villages In Northeast Albania – www.nytimes.com; KLA tries to seize border crossing – www.independent.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: UNHCR LACKS CASH AGAIN 28 May 99 – Beleaguered United Nations officials have declared they are running out of money to deal with the sudden eruption of refugees, as thousands continue to spill over Kosovo's borders, reports The Times. A senior figure this week said UNHCR has only two weeks' cash left to pay for the relief operation in Macedonia. The UN blames governments for not giving the cash promised to underwrite its mission in Macedonia, which costs US$10m. "Countries such as Britain are opting to go it alone and give money to all sorts of charities and make their own bilateral deals," the UN source said. "They are building their own refugee camps and doing their own thing too much. This war is costing US$100m a day and yet we can't find the US$10m a week we need for the humanitarian fallout." A delegation will visit Downing Street soon to plead for more money. British officials argue the country has given UNHCR nearly US$5.6m "in kind" in the shape of aid flights, relief convoys, tents and blankets. They deny suggestions from UN officials that antipathy from Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, towards UNHCR is the reason for the lack of cash support. Criticisms are still mounting that UNHCR was too slow to respond to this humanitarian catastrophe and that it is wasteful and profligate. [UN aid agency 'running out of money' – www.the-times.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: 'FLEXIBLE' WINTER RETURN PLAN 28 May 99 – An international military force will have to be in place in Kosovo by September to start returning refugees to their homes before the winter, Clare Short, Britain's International Development Secretary, said yesterday, reports The Times. A "refugee-return operation" was being worked out, she said, but it depended on having a military force inside Kosovo within four months. Short said once the international force was deployed it had to focus on helping the half million internally displaced Albanians in Kosovo. "The only real way to bring humanitarian relief to those inside is to succeed militarily, reverse the aggression and get the refugees home," she said. Short admitted it would take some time for all the refugees, inside and outside Kosovo, to return home. "So we are now looking at flexible planning for the winter." This would include providing assistance to the thousands of Albanian families in Albania and Macedonia who had taken refugees into their homes. Of the 400,000 refugees in Albania, more than 250,000 were with families. Short added: "It is poor families in a very poor country that are hosting most of the refugees. We, and all the international agencies, are now putting more focus on supporting local families and communities so that they are able to maintain their generosity for as long as is necessary." [Clare Short calls for ground force by September – www.the-times.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: CRISIS TO WORSEN IN SUMMER? 28 May 99 – As NATO's air war against Yugoslavia drags on, international relief agencies see the Kosovo refugee crisis deepening, with the onset of summer threatening the most vulnerable with disease and death, reports Reuters. "The situation is pretty bad, veering to grim. The first crisis over the mass exodus of deportees is under control but the summer is going to cause severe problems even before the harsh Balkan winter sets in," said Michael Williams, a Balkan analyst close to international humanitarian agencies. Williams said the hot Balkan summer could cause severe problems of dehydration and disease among weakened refugees, particularly the old, infirm and infants. "Everyone's focused on winter, which will pose acute problems from mid-October, but it could get much worse in the summer months when temperatures reach the mid-40s Celsius,'' he said. The longer the war lasts, the less chance there is of many of the refugees who have left Kosovo ever returning, Williams said. There was only one precedent since World War Two of a mass exodus of refugees being reversed, when up to 10 million people fled East Pakistan in 1971 but returned after the Indian army defeated the Pakistani army and the area became Bangladesh. [Kosovo refugee crisis seen deepening – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVANS: ACUTE TRAUMA FOR ELDERLY 28 May 99 – Being violently torn from one's homeland is traumatic for almost anyone, but aid workers say it's particularly intense for Kosovo's thousands of aged refugees, reports AP in Kukes. "This is the most vulnerable part of the population because outside the community there's no system of care for the elders," says US nurse Philip Amstislavski. "In Kosovo they are taken care of by their families. This is great. I wish we had that in the West. But when the chains are broken, sorrow results." To help fill this void, particularly among those ill and without family, the United Arab Emirates and the US-based International Medical Corps have set up what Amstislavski calls "the only nursing home in Albania," where, like Kosovo, institutional care for the elderly is unknown. Four tents house 39 refugees and there are plans to care for 100. [Plumbing the depths of loneliness: old refugees – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: NEIGHBOURS STILL NEED AID -FAO 28 May 99 – The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said yesterday Macedonia and Albania still need millions of dollars in aid to cope with the refugee exodus from Kosovo, reports AP. "The countries in the region need food and financial assistance amounting to some US$6m," said Jacques Diouf, FAO's director-general. Macedonia alone needs US$3.5m in agricultural aid and food deliveries, he said. "The two neighbouring countries hit the hardest, Macedonia and Albania, will receive another US$1m in additional aid in the form of seed and fertilizers," Diouf said after talks with Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova. [UN food chief says Macedonia, Albania still need millions of dollars in aid – www.ap.org]

KOSOVANS: EU REJECTS QUOTA PLAN 28 May 99 – European Union interior ministers yesterday rejected a Dutch demand that each member country put a figure on the number of Kosovo Albanian refugees it is prepared to accept, reports Reuters. The Netherlands had suggested at a regular meeting of EU interior ministers that the 15 EU countries should be obliged to say how many refugees they are ready to receive, when UNHCR makes specific requests for assistance. The ministers stuck by the position they struck in April, that refugees fleeing Kosovo should be accommodated as close to home as possible, but promised in a statement to consider demands for assistance "positively and promptly." [EU backs away from Kosovo refugee quota plan – www.reuters.com]

CZECH REP: WESTBOUND KOSOVANS HELD 28 May 99 – Police detained 26 illegal immigrants, all of them Kosovo Albanians, near the border with Slovakia, the news agency CTK said yesterday, reports AP in Prague. The agency quoted police officer Lubomir Sebela as saying that the immigrants, who had already received refugee status in Slovakia, were apparently trying to reach Western Europe. Sebela said that some 50 Kosovo Albanians have been detained at the Czech-Slovak border since the airstrikes against Yugoslavia began on March 24, but only a few of them asked for asylum here. The refugees will be returned to Slovakia. [Twenty-six illegal immigrants detained near Czech-Slovak border – www.ap.org]

YUGOSLAVIA: CROATIANS INJURED BY MISSILES 28 May 1999 – Two people were killed and two injured in southern Serbia yesterday, while four people were injured in the north as NATO launched a new series of daytime raids in Serbia and Kosovo, Serbian media said, reports AFP. Four people were injured, one seriously, as a missile hit a refugee camp on Palic lake, near Subotica, 200km north of Belgrade, the state news agency Tanjug reported. Reuters reports Tanjug said one missile hit a camp housing refugees from Croatia, injuring three of them as well as a local woman. One of the refugees, a 70-year-old woman, was seriously hurt, Tanjug said. [Two people killed, six injured in daytime NATO raids: report – www.afp.com; NATO planes launch daylight raid on Novi Sad – www.reuters.com]

KOSOVO NOTES 28 May 99 – BBC News reports two ethnic Albanian sisters forced out of Kosovo at gunpoint have provided the first video evidence of how the Serbs are ethnically cleansing the province. AFP reports Russians favour granting political asylum to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, according to a survey yesterday. AP reports a second group of 420 ethnic Albanian refugees left for Australia yesterday after passing through Salonika in Greece. Reuters reports the Irish government said Ireland was due to welcome more refugees from camps in Macedonia yesterday, bringing its total to around 600. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports the Palestinian Authority is being swamped with phone calls inquiring about prospects for marrying Kosovar girls following rumours that female Muslim refugees from Kosovo are being brought into Ramallah. Kyodo reports Japan's foreign minister yesterday said Japan may accept refugees from Kosovo, if UNHCR requested it.

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