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

KOSOVO: MASSES RETURN DESPITE DANGERS 18 Jun. 99 – The flood of ethnic Albanian refugees crossing the border back into Kosovo is escalating, reports BBC News. The refugees are desperate to go home amid reports that property is being looted by Serbs. So many refugees are returning that NATO, Albanian policemen and the Kosovo Liberation Army have been struggling to cope at the border. German NATO forces at the border were letting refugees bring back weapons if they could either show a KLA membership card or if they were recognised. The Washington Post reports thousands more ethnic Albanian refugees, undeterred by the threat of land mines and severe food shortages, poured back into Kosovo yesterday alarming relief officials who had hoped to organise a more orderly return. At least 15,000 refugees crossed from Albania into Kosovo at Morina yesterday and another 5,000 entered from Macedonia. The New York Times reports nothing, it seems, can dam the flow of Kosovo refugees. In just three days, 46,000 refugees have left Albania, a 10th of the 450,000 refugees in Albania. "The speed definitely caught us all by surprise," said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville. But, he said, "By jumping the gun they are making it more difficult for themselves, more difficult for the people inside Kosovo and, worst of all, putting themselves at great risk. "On the other hand, you can understand why they are doing it," he added. [Refugees surge home – http://news.bbc.co.uk; The Pull of Home Outweighs the Dangers for Kosovars – www.nytimes.com; Relief Officials Alarmed as Refugees Return to Kosovo – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVO: UNHCR WON'T ORGANISE RETURNS YET 18 Jun. 99 – Tens of thousands of refugees are flooding back into Kosovo, but the security situation remains too precarious for organised returns by bus, UNHCR said yesterday, reports AP. Around 13,000 people had crossed into Kosovo from Morini, Albania, by early evening yesterday, said UNHCR spokesman Paul Stromberg. They followed an estimated 15,000 people who crossed there the previous day. Some 2,100 people returned yesterday by mid-afternoon through the Blace border crossing from Macedonia. The population of refugee camps in the Albanian border town of Kukes is "visibly falling," Kumin said. The number of incidents involving land mines is rising; the ICRC has reported around 20 so far and the dangers will grow as increasing numbers of refugees head for homes in rural areas, Kumin said. "We are not going to organise returns at least until the Yugoslav withdrawal is complete and the deployment of KFOR is complete" and until KFOR says it has made progress on removing mines from main roads and marking them elsewhere, Kumin said. [UN: Refugees flood back but too early for organised return – www.ap.org]

KOSOVO: KLA HELPS RETURNEES 18 Jun. 99 – Unarmed guerrillas from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) helped NATO soldiers yesterday to register thousands of refugees returning to Kosovo from Albania, reports Reuters. As a line of refugees stretching for 10 kms headed for the province, KLA members in civilian clothes helped German NATO troops at Morina on the Albanian side of the border with administrative work and to spot troublemakers. "We are here and we made it clear (to the KLA) that NATO runs the border post. They only carry on with administrative work," said Lt. Patrick Weigang of the German NATO troops. The Guardian reports that under a NATO plan, the KLA will also escort displaced Kosovan Albanians from the hills on the border with Albania as well as in the centre of the country. Its men will escort them back to their homes and farms, particularly in the Pristina area. The KLA will be given 30 days to hand over their automatic and heavy weapons. [KLA helps NATO cope with Kosovo refugee flow – www.reuters.com; KLA begins handing in its guns – www.guardian.co.uk]

KOSOVO: RETURN TO ATROCITY SCENES 18 Jun. 99 – Convoys of refugees rolling into Kosovo on the heels of NATO peacekeepers uncovered more grisly evidence of atrocities yesterday, rapidly lengthening a list of horrors blamed on retreating Yugoslav forces, reports CNN. The growing number of reports of mass graves and burned houses in Kosovo put increased pressure on the NATO-led Kosovo implementation force, known as KFOR, to defend Serbs from angry Kosovars seeking retribution. The Washington Post reports relatives returned for the first time yesterday to the burned house at Poklek where 50 men, women and children were apparently killed on April 17, their bodies later incinerated by Serbian police. Weeping and wailing in outrage, they guarded the spot and waited the arrival of war crimes investigators. [Returning refugees find gruesome remains in wrecked Kosovo – http://cnn.com; Returned Refugees Mourn for Relatives, Guard Evidence of Atrocities – www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVO: AID WORK AMID TENSIONS 18 Jun. 99 – Humanitarian workers started bringing in aid to the western Kosovo town of Pec yesterday, braving killing squads of Serb paramilitaries whom they said were still roaming near the devastated town, reports AFP. "Tensions are high, very, very high," said Scott Heidler, a worker with Mercy Corps International, one of a number of NGOs bringing in aid under UNHCR coordination. Heidler's organisation had brought in 11 trucks carrying flour, oil, sardines and sugar for an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 ethnic Albanians who are expected to return to Pec from their refuge in neighbouring Albania. The town, which lies in the extreme west of Kosovo, was nearly deserted. Aid workers, knowing that thousands of impatient ethnic Albanian refugees have already crossed the Albanian and Macedonian borders, they are pushing forward with their operations as fast as they can. [Humanitarian aid arrives in western Kosovo despite danger – www.afp.com]

ALBANIA: DISORDERLY FLOW 18 Jun. 99 – Kosovan refugees were pouring back into Kosovo from Albania yesterday at an estimated rate of 1,000 an hour, forcing the authorities to introduce a one-way traffic system on the narrow mountain road to the border crossing at Morina, reports the Financial Times. For 12 hours from 5:00am yesterday morning, traffic could pass only towards Kosovo on the Kukes-Morina road, with the flow being reversed yesterday evening. The Albanian authorities and UNHCR will present today their latest plan for an orderly return of the majority of the 450,000 refugees remaining in Albania. Kastriot Islami, co-ordinator of the government-led Emergency Management Group, said it was hoped to begin the organised repatriation effort in about two weeks from the beginning of July at a rate of about 3,000 a day. Le Monde reports UNHCR is worried that whole families are now returning with their tractors. Tractors mean fields, which mean landmine risks. [Refugees pour in from Albania – www.ft.com; Kosovans flood through Morina in increasing numbers – www.lemonde.fr]

MACEDONIA: EVACUATIONS RECONSIDERED 18 Jun. 99 – UNHCR is to hold a meeting today to discuss the future of the Kosovan refugee air evacuation programme as thousands of ethnic Albanians trek back home, spokeswoman Judith Kumin said, reports AFP. Some 15 host countries will attend the gathering in Geneva, which will examine ways to modify the programme in light of the retreat of Serb forces and deployment of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, she said. The programme is continuing. Some 633 refugees were flown out of Skopje on Wednesday and 716 people were due to leave yesterday. These numbers though are much less than the 2,000 people who were evacuated one week ago. UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration will suggest that flights be extended only to vulnerable people, Some 87,156 people have been evacuated from Macedonia since April 5. [UNHCR to convene meeting on future of Kosovo air evacuation programme – www.afp.com]

AUSTRALIA: SAFE HAVEN REVOLT 18 Jun. 99 – A small Australian town was up in arms yesterday over what they claimed was the ungrateful way a group of Kosovan refugees had behaved, reports AFP. The issue came to a head when 80 refugees refused to get off a bus to move into the local army barracks they claimed were too spartan. Families have to share rooms and toilets are in a separate building. A three-day sit-in ended when a 74-year-old woman had to be taken to hospital with suspected pneumonia. The woman, her son, who had been one of the ringleaders in the three-day stand-off, and his wife later fled the hospital, Singleton safe haven spokeswoman Kate Lyons said. [Australian welcome for Kosovar refugees wearing thin – www.afp.com]

Serbs

SERBIA: EXODUS WORRIES BELGRADE 18 Jun. 99 – A jumbled line of tractors, horse carts and broken-down tanks stretched from Kosovo into Serbia yesterday, bringing thousands more displaced Serbs and a potentially troublesome burden for Belgrade, reports the New York Times. All along the roads of southern Serbia, Kosovo Serbs have arrived with possessions piled on the roofs of their cars, trundling slowly towards Belgrade. Many have pulled over to the shoulder to camp among the trees. The Belgrade government has played down the exodus and has not offered any estimate of the numbers of people fleeing. The Yugoslav Red Cross has counted some 40,000. NATO puts the number at 80,000 over the last week. About 70,000 other Serbs fled Kosovo during the NATO bombing. Where these people will live and work, whether they will return to Kosovo, and how they will be fed and cared for are the latest Kosovo problem to confront President Slobodan Milosevic's government. The Guardian reports Milosevic is hiding Serbian refugees in secret holding centres in the countryside to stop them spreading unrest to Belgrade. Convoys are melting into camps and gymnasiums which aid agencies have trouble locating. The cloak of media silence over the exodus has infuriated many of the refugees. The Times reports the Serb refugees are being prevented from entering Belgrade for fear they could cause trouble, possibly an uprising. [New Refugees Join Those From Past Serb Wars – www.nytimes.com; Serb refugees become forgotten people – www.guardian.co.uk; Threat of uprising by Serb refugees – www.the-times.co.uk]

SERBIA: INFLUX FILLS TOWNS 18 Jun. 99 – Serb refugees from Kosovo have inundated the central Serbian towns of Kragujevac and Kraljevo, with many spending the night out of doors, press reports quoted local authorities as saying, reports AFP. "If the influx continues over the next few days Kraljevo will no longer be able to accept them," Radoslac Jovic, mayor of the town of 35,000 inhabitants 150 km south of Belgrade said. Jovic said some 10,000 refugees from Kosovo were currently in his town. Meanwhile another 400 arrived in Kragujevac, 120 km south of Belgrade, joining 3,000 already there, the municipal commission for refugees told the Beta news agency. A town hall official, Vesna Pajevic, said Kragujevac had only two days' supplies of food left, and a humanitarian disaster threatened. [Serbian towns inundated by refugees: authorities – www.afp.com]

KOSOVO: CLERICS, NATO URGE SERBS TO STAY 18 Jun. 99 – At the Gracanica monastery, the holiest site in eastern Kosovo, leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church and a NATO general last night implored about 2,000 anxious Serbs to remain in Kosovo, reports the New York Times. Archbishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren called on them to trust the peacekeeping forces, known as KFOR, to be patient and to remain at home for a few days. Archbishop Artemije himself fled Prizren for safety on Wednesday, despite the presence of German troops and United Nations officials. Lt.Gen. Sir Michael Jackson, commander of KFOR, and Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN representative, apparently failed to persuade Archbishop Artemije to return immediately. AFP reports NATO moved yesterday to stem an exodus of ethnic Serbs from Kosovo and rein in the rebel KLA as the United States rebuffed Russia's demand for its own peacekeeping sector. The Serb exodus is "not a positive development ... but we hope it is reversible," said a US State Department spokesman. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook warned: "We will not now tolerate ethnic cleansing of the Serb population in Kosovo." [NATO seeks to reassure Kosovo Serbs as US-Russia talks drag on – www.afp.com; Orthodox Leaders and NATO Urge Serbs to Stay in Kosovo – www.nytimes.com]

KOSOVO: GOV'T URGES SERBS TO STAY 18 Jun. 99 – The Yugoslav government yesterday urged Serbs and Montenegrins to stay in Kosovo, the latest attempt to stem a panicky exodus from the province, reports Reuters. "Convinced that KFOR will honour its commitments, the government urges all inhabitants of Kosovo-Metohija, especially Serbs and Montenegrins, not to abandon their ancestral homes in the province," the Ministry of Information said in a statement published by the state news agency Tanjug. The statement was the first from the federal government on the refugee crisis. [Yugoslav govt urges Kosovo Serbs to stay – www.reuters.com]

MONTENEGRO: SERBS SEEK TO RETURN 18 Jun. 99 – About 200 to 300 Serbs, who left Kosovo in fear during the past week as the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces gathered pace, assembled yesterday outside an hotel in the eastern Montenegrin town of Berane to discuss when and how – not if – they would go home, reports Reuters. Most agreed to leave as soon as their safety could be guaranteed by Italian peacekeeping troops on the Kosovo side of the border, while others argued to go immediately. Those interviewed said they had left their homes because they feared attacks by the Kosovo Liberation Army. They said the withdrawal of Yugoslav and Serbian forces had created a security vacuum which had not yet been filled by the NATO-led peacekeepers. The Daily Telegraph reports many wanted more assurances they would not be victims of KLA reprisals. They urged UNHCR officials to ring the NATO commander in Pec to send troops to escort them from the border. The message came back: they had no troops to spare. [Kosovo Serbs, Albanians share dream to go home – www.reuters.com; Kosovan Serbs risk the journey home – www.telegraph.co.uk]

KOSOVO NOTES 18 Jun. 99 – Reuters reports Norway's Foreign Minister yesterday said Norway had allocated an extra US$44m in humanitarian aid to Kosovo, adding that about US$12m would go to UNHCR. Reuters reports French President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that a NATO-led victory in Kosovo will not be complete until all refugees return home.

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