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

ALBANIA: BOMBS, SHELLS RAISE BORDER RISKS 2 Jun. 99 – NATO bombs strayed across the Kosovo border yesterday and hit Morina, the town that is the main crossing point for refugees fleeing Kosovo, reports the New York Times. One refugee was injured, though not seriously, in the attack just after he had crossed the border, said border officials. NATO spokesmen said the bombing was a mistake. Yesterday, despite the nearness of the explosions, 50 ethnic Albanian refugees crossed the border at Morina. The Times reports the local population fled Morina, as the Albanian Army fired at the sky in a gesture of hopeless anger against NATO. The Independent reports hundreds of villagers and shepherds packed on to tractor-trailers or ran towards Kukes. Border police and customs officers headed for the hills, yelling at reporters to do the same. The attack could hardly have been a mistake, it says. The Guardian adds fighting between Serbs and Kosovo Liberation Army rebels continued to worsen yesterday, putting the lives of tens of thousands of refugees at risk. Just northwest of Morina, the Albanian village of Kruma came under rocket fire. Two of the rockets exploded near a refugee centre, wounding a child. UNHCR was yesterday striving to evacuate as many as possible of the 1,600 Kosovans in Kruma. [Refugee Injured In Nato Bombing – www.nytimes.com; Albanians condemn Nato's bombing blunders – www.newsunlimited.com; Madness of war drops in for day on the border – www.the-times.co.uk; Villagers on border flee friendly fire – www.independent.co.uk]

ALBANIA: WINTER SHELTER PLANNING 2 Jun. 99 – UNHCR said yesterday it was working with the Albanian government on a plan to provide winter shelter for around half a million Kosovo Albanians which could cost as much as US$300m, reports Reuters. The UN would make a fresh appeal for funds for both Albania and Macedonia in the next few days, UNHCR team leader David Shearer said. Shearer said the plan, drawn up by Albania's emergency management group, which also includes NATO and OSCE, was being presented to international donors in Geneva. "It will be part of a bigger package of what's needed between now and winter. The UN will appeal for part of that and others will pick up the balance." Shearer said the contingency plan assumed 550,000 refugees would spend the winter period between November and March in Albania, and the priority was to ensure none remained in camps in the mountainous east of the country. "It's going to be very cold there...That's what will kill refugees if they're not in shelter," he said. The Financial Times adds the Albanian government yesterday told a meeting in Geneva of UN relief agencies and other bodies, including the European Union and the World Bank, that the cost of providing adequate shelter to cope with sub-zero temperatures could rise to as much as US$328m to accommodate 550,000 refugees. [UN seeks funds for Kosovo refugees' winter shelter – www.reuters.com; Albania in winter warning – www.ft.com]

MACEDONIA: FLOW SLOWS, DOCUMENTS DEMANDED 2 Jun. 99 – Serbian authorities have begun demanding full documentation from people fleeing Kosovo despite having seized and destroyed thousands of passports and ID cards, UNHCR said yesterday, reports Reuters. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the flow of refugees into Macedonia had fallen to a trickle with fewer than 3,500 arriving in the past six days. "We have countless reports of Serb forces confiscating and destroying identity documents . . . Now suddenly they have decided...to go strictly by the book and are demanding such documentation from people who are desperate to leave. Why they have suddenly become sticklers for paperwork, we don't know," he told a news conference. Redmond said only 16 people had passed through the main border crossing at Blace on Monday. A few hundred had arrived elsewhere, some illegally across mountain passes near minefields. AP adds UNHCR in Geneva yesterday said Serb authorities are allowing only ethnic Albanians with valid passports to cross the border into Macedonia. The Daily Telegraph also reports. [Serbs become sticklers for passports; UNHCR - www.reuters.com; Refugee costs may run into hundreds of millions – www.ap.org; Border guards play by new rules on passports – www.telegraph.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE GROWS IN CAMPS 2 Jun. 99 – Domestic violence is becoming increasingly widespread in the refugee camps of Macedonia, aid agencies said Monday, as ethnic Albanian men direct their mounting despair on to their wives and families, reported the Daily Telegraph yesterday. The first cases of attempted suicide among refugees have also been reported in the camps, prompting fears that more help may be needed to deal with the most severely traumatised Kosovars. Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the only organisations offering psychological help to refugees in Macedonia, said many were unable to cope with the atrocities they had witnessed. Their problems are exacerbated by the misery of the refugee camps, where they have little, if any, control over their lives – prompting depression and even violence, particularly among the men. ['Powerless' Kosovars resort to wife beating; Refugees – www.telegraph.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: MORAL PHILOSOPHER SENT TO CAMPS 2 Jun. 99 – Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel winner, began a three-day tour of refugee camps yesterday at the request of President Clinton, reports the New York Times in Cegrane. Administration officials said the visit was designed to focus attention on the moral argument that they say underpins NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Wiesel's visit to Macedonia, and later to Albania, stood in contrast to the routine of US congressmen, European diplomats and celebrities briefly touring refugee camps for a momentary taste of suffering. Spending three hours in the blistering sun engaging refugees in simple but telling conversations, Wiesel, a professor and moral philosopher, made an impassioned call for action. "We must not allow winter to set in here," he said as he surveyed the sprawling camp that holds 40,000 refugees. "We must end this." But Wiesel found himself, like the US administration, citing a moral imperative to resist President Slobodan Milosevic, while shying away from asking to intensify the war with a ground invasion. "I am not a military expert," he said. "I can't make statements about air power versus ground troops." The visit received only patchy coverage from the US news organisations. [Wiesel Tours Refugee Camps – www.nytimes.com]

MACEDONIA: FEW OPT FOR CAMPS IN ALBANIA 2 Jun. 99 – Albanian refugees at Korca are the best seen so far. Four thousand Kosovans were expected to arrive within 10 days of opening. But fewer than 500 have taken up the offer, reports the Independent. Nearly all the refugees prefer to stay in squalid and unsanitary tents, bursting at the seams and with outbreaks of diseases – because the new camps are in Albania and the Kosovans do not want to leave Macedonia. This has become one of the most pressing problems of the Kosovo crisis for the UN, Nato and international agencies. Macedonia has repeatedly protested that it cannot keep on taking in more Albanians. One reason the refugees prefer Macedonia is because the Albanian government has refused to allow them to go on to the West. This policy is about to change. Those who can prove members of their families have been sent abroad in the diaspora will have the opportunity to be reunited. Whether this limited offer will have any significant effect on the logjam remains to be seen. Gerard Fayoux, head of UNHCR in the area, said: "We have to accept the reluctance of the refugees to leave Macedonia to come to Albania. But we cannot force them to come here. We had to build these camps to offer an alternative because the camps in Macedonia are now full and the situation is very serious." [Refugees shun Nato's new camps – www.independent.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: EVACUATIONS CONTINUE 2 Jun. 99 – Fort Dix, New Jersey, may not be everyone's idea of the American dream, but for Kosovo refugees being evacuated to the United States it is a long, safe way from the horrors of home, reports Reuters. Washington has agreed to take in 20,000 refugees from Macedonia, to help relieve some of the country's burden after a flood of over 300,000 Kosovans. While it takes the neediest cases listed by UNHCR, the US has also launched a family reunification programme – those with relatives in America get processed more quickly, said an INS official. More than 3,500 refugees have been processed at Fort Dix. Immigration officials said the Kosovo refugees have been one of the most reluctant groups seeking entry into the United States. Reuters also reports Norway said a last plane carrying Kosovo Albanian refugees arrived yesterday, meeting Oslo's pledge to take 6,000 people fleeing Kosovo. Xinhua reports some 432 Kosovo refugees, the third group of an estimated 20,000 refugees, left Greece yesterday for temporary shelter in Australia. Hina news agency reports about 100 Kosovo refugees arrived in Croatia from Macedonia yesterday. [Fort Dix, NJ – the American dream for Kosovo refugees + Norway takes in last of 6,000 Albanian refugees – www.reuters.com; Kosovo Refugees Leave Thessaloniki for Australia – www.xinhua.org; Plane Carrying 96 Kosovo Refugees Land in Zagreb – www.hina.hr

KOSOVANS: UNHCR NEEDS FUNDS AGAIN 2 Jun. 99 – UNHCR will need hundreds of millions of dollars in the next six months to aid Kosovan refugees facing a blistering hot summer and the prospect of a camp-bound winter, a top UNHCR official said yesterday, reports AFP. UNHCR has just three weeks cash in hand to aid almost 800,000 refugees mostly in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, Dennis McNamara, UNHCR special envoy for the Balkans told journalists. UNHCR, which is spending US$10m each day during the Kosovo conflict, lacks the funds to tide it over the last week of June, he said. UNHCR is to launch a new appeal for funds from donor countries in July to cover the rest of the year. "We're talking of hundreds of millions of dollars, I don't know how many hundreds," McNamara said about the appeal, noting that gearing up for the winter would be especially expensive. For budgetary purposes, the agency is using the figure of 1.25 million refugees. McNamara said the refugee exodus from Kosovo was likely to continue. "It's systematic, its not accidental, it's very organised and it doesn't seem to me there is any reason why it would not continue if it is the cleaning up operation that we believe it is at the moment," the special envoy said. [UNHCR needs hundreds of millions of dollars for Kosovo refugees – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: CHARITY GIVES $500,000 2 Jun. 99 – The Paul G. Allen Charitable Foundation has pledged US$500,000 for aid to refugees from Kosovo, the American Red Cross has announced, reports AP. The pledge announced yesterday will help pay for food, shelter, transportation, medicine and other services to the more than 850,000 people who have fled from Kosovo since NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia began March 24. The foundation is administered through Vulcan Northwest Inc., a holding company established by Allen, cofounder of Microsoft Corp. and the company's second-largest shareholder after chairman Bill Gates. Meanwhile The Times reports Boyzone, Mariah Carey and Lionel Ritchie joined Luciano Pavarotti on stage in the Italian city of Modena last night to raise money for refugees in Kosovo and Guatemala. The concert was expected to raise US$1.6m for the British charity Warchild. [Paul Allen foundation pledges dlrs 500,000 for Kosovo refugee work – www.ap.org; Stars join forces for Kosovo aid fund – www.the-times.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: TALKS, SETTLEMENT? 2 Jun. 99 – A joint Russian-EU peace mission is heading to Belgrade for talks to try to find a political solution to the Kosovo conflict in what represents the most realistic chance yet of reaching a settlement, reports BBC News. It is the first time in the crisis that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will face a joint team from Russia and the EU. German diplomats close to the negotiations said Moscow's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, was beginning to accept NATO forces would have to be involved in the return of the refugees. The meeting was announced after successful negotiations in Germany between the representatives of US, Russian and the EU.[Pace quickens for Kosovo diplomacy – http://news.bbc.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: OSCE RECRUITS FUTURE OFFICIALS 2 Jun. 99 – Though a political settlement of the Kosovo conflict seems as far away as ever, the international body that intends to get the province back on its feet after the conflict, is already recruiting future officials from among refugees, reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is the leading candidate to oversee Kosovo's reconstruction, especially the delicate task of establishing a new police force, a justice system and democratic media. Somebody also has to organise polls so that Kosovo obtains democratically elected leaders to speak on behalf of its people. OSCE has revealed it will begin next week with a recruitment drive among Kosovo refugees to find figures suitable for a new administration. [OSCE observers recruit refugees to govern Kosovo – www.dpa.com]

KOSOVANS: RETURNEES, NATO TO FACE LANDMINES 2 Jun. 99 – Whether Serb forces eventually agree to withdraw from Kosovo or not, NATO troops and returning refugees will face a serious threat from landmines, reports the Guardian. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of the devices NATO cannot say how many have been placed along Kosovo's borders with Albania and Macedonia. They have been laid where KLA units are infiltrating Kosovo, and on the main route into Kosovo from Macedonia, which will have to be used by heavy armour in NATO's peace implementation force. That road is described by Nigel Vinson, of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, as 'the most mined in history.' Refugees say mines and booby-traps have also been placed in fields, schools and houses.Yugoslavia is one of the biggest manufacturers of anti-personnel mines, now banned under the Ottawa agreement which Belgrade has signed but not ratified. The Guardian also reports senior NATO officials yesterday gathered to assess which countries would contribute what troops to the beefed-up peacekeeping force of 48,000 soldiers. The military expertise to cope with dense minefields and expected booby-traps and half-starved and exhausted refugees inside Kosovo is in short supply. [Lethal ring faces troops + Allies meet to build bigger ground force – www.newsunlimited.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: CAMPS TO BE 'WINTERISED,' -US ARMY 2 Jun. 99 – Refugee camps for ethnic Kosovo Albanians have to be prepared for winter, even if a peace agreement with Belgrade comes "tomorrow or next week," the Pentagon said yesterday, reports AFP. "We will winterise the camps as appropriate and I think that even if there were a peace agreement tomorrow or next week, it's not reasonable to assume that every refugee would return home instantly," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. "Some (refugees) may end up in Macedonia or Albania through the winter, so winterisation is something that has to be done," he added. He said it may take "some time" before the nearly one million refugees in camps "find the environment in Kosovo safe and secure" to return and have places to live there. [Refugee camps for Kosovars have to be readied for winter; Pentagon – www.afp.com]

KOSOVANS: RECORDING STORIES, CRIMES 2 Jun. 99 – Firsthand refugee accounts of atrocities are crucial to the War Crimes Tribunal's case against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted six days ago with four top aides for crimes against humanity, reports AP in Cegrane, Macedonia. The investigators' task is to mesh thousands of accounts from stricken refugees, to match precise dates, names, places and descriptions that will prove the horrific stories being told in the Macedonian and Albanian camps. Every refugee has a story to tell, and determining credibility is gruelling. Traumatised by war, refugees rooted in the oral traditions of ethnic Albanians often merge their own experiences with stories they've heard from others. Human rights workers use calendars and maps and ask refugees to draw their own maps, floor plans and village layouts anything to keep them focused on what they actually saw. Interviews can take hours. Workers often talk to only two or three refugees a day in sessions that seem like therapy, says Claudia Moser of OSCE. When refugees consent, the organisation's workers pass along their information to investigators for the war crimes tribunal. [Painful details of atrocities recorded to build case in the Hague – www.ap.org]

KOSOVO NOTES 2 Jun. 99 Reuters the Vatican yesterday said Pope John Paul is to send three envoys to the Yugoslav capital, Macedonia and Albania to meet church officials and help ease the plight of refugees.

BOSNIA: OGATA TO VISIT TODAY 2 Jun. 99 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata is to arrive in Bosnia today to discuss the situation of Bosnian and Yugoslav refugees, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Sarajevo said yesterday, reports AFP. During her four-day visit Ogata is to have talks with the country's state and local officials in Sarajevo, Tuzla, northern Bosnia, in the Muslim-Croat federation, and Banja Luka, administrative centre of the Republika Srpska, Wendy Rappeport told a press briefing. Three and a half years after the Dayton peace agreement ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war, some 1.2 million Bosnians have still not returned to their homes. Two thirds of them are displaced within the country. Ogata and Bosnian officials will discuss the situation of refugees from neighbouring Yugoslavia who have been accommodated in Bosnia, the UNHCR spokeswoman said. According to UNHCR figures some 74,600 Yugoslav citizens, including 21,700 Kosovo Albanians, have taken refuge in Bosnia. [UN High Commissioner for Refugees to visit Bosnia – www.afp.com]

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