Kosovo Crisis
Fact Sheet #34
April 23, 1999

Regional

• Yesterday, the U.N. issued a second addendum to its Kosovo emergency appeal, increasing the number of beneficiaries to 950,000 and raising the total funding requirement through the end of June to $265.4 million.

Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Kosovo

*All numbers are estimates from UNHCR Headquarters. These numbers are constantly changing and being verified.

UNHCR Humanitarian Evacuations (beginning April 6 to date)

Albania

• As of April 23, UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 362,000 refugees currently in Albania. UNHCR reports that 3,000 Kosovar refugees entered Albania on April 22. Of these, 2,000 entered from Montenegro and 1,000 entered directly from Kosovo.
• UNHCR reports that 5,400 refugees were transferred from the north on April 23, despite continuing adverse weather conditions. Many refugees are reluctant to move south, not wanting to leave their tractors behind and wanting to wait in the area for lost family members.
• Refugees continue to arrive in Albania via Montenegro. The border town of Shkodra in the northwest of the country near the Montenegran border now hosts more than 20,000 refugees.
• The Prime Minister announced on national television that all refugees will be moved from Kukes to points further south to protect them from continued fighting.
• Countrywide registration of refugees is planned by UNHCR and Albania's Office for Refugees (OFR). Registration will be assisted by a special OSCE team, and will take place between May 10-15.
• The DART and DOD conducted a preliminary assessment of two potential sites for a USG built camp in Fier. The DART reports that one of the sites could hold as many as 13,000 refugees. The DART and DOD, together with the GOA and UNHCR, are further assessing this site today. The second site in Fier could hold 7,000 refugees. The assessment team has been unable to locate a plot of land that could house all 20,000 refugees in one location.
• Seven NGOs have been identified to be WFP's main implementing partners: CRS, ADRA, CARE, Concern, InterSoS, ACTED, and MCI.
• Because bakeries in Tirana and Elbassan are producing enough bread to meet the needs in the central and southern portions of the country, the bakery project in Durres has been cancelled. Once the bakeries in Shkoder and Kukes are established, they will cover bread needs in the north.

Macedonia

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 132,100 refugees currently in Macedonia. Approximately 52,000 of these refugees are in camps and 80,700 are with host families.
• DART reports that between April 20-21, between 10,000-13,000 refugees entered Macedonia at two unofficial border points between Kumanovo and Blace. According to UNHCR, 4,000-5,000 refugees crossed at the town of Lojane (12 km northwest of Kumanovo), and 6,000-8,000 crossed at the town of Male Malina (20 km northeast of Skopje). Some of the refugees were sent to the new refugee reception center at the Blace, but most went to the Stankovac I and II.
• DART reports that refugees continue to cross the border at Male Malina. UNHCR is distributing food and blankets to refugees as they cross the border, and an NGO is establishing a mobile medical unit. UNHCR reports that 200 refugees entered today.
• On April 21, UNHCR released a report detailing current needs and shortfalls in relief commodities based on a refugee population of 130,000. The report notes a shortfall of 3,045 tents, 35,587 blankets and 134,408 hygiene kits. UNHCR has developed a commodity requisition and inventory system to better coordinate and track the distribution of non-food commodities through the NGOs.
• By April 24, the German government plans to have erected tents for 10,000 refugees at Cegrane camp. However, water and sanitation facilities will not be ready until early next week, delaying the camp's opening. Meanwhile, UNHCR and CARE report that Stankovac II will be expanded to hold an additional 4,000 refugees.
• UNICEF reports that its refugee child immunization program is due to start on April 26. The campaign will target 9,000 refugee children under the age of five.
• DART reports that conditions at Radusa camp have improved, particularly in the area of water and sanitation. Shower and latrines continue to be installed, and a contingent of Bulgarian troops is providing three hot meals a day to the refugees. The Bulgarians and MSF are both operating health clinics.
• Camp details: According to NATO all camps are filled to capacity. The following numbers are reported by UNHCR, as of April 23.
  • Stankovac I (Brazda): 26,200 refugees
  • Stankovac II: 14,200 refugees
  • Radusa: 1,500 refugees
  • Bojane: 3,200 refugees
  • Neprosteno: 6,000 refugees
  • Senokos: 9;850 refugees
  • Radusa Collective Center: 400 refugees
• On April 21, NATO announced that it had formally completed the hand-over of all refugee camps to UNHCR and the NGOs. NATO will maintain liaison contingents in the four camps that it originally established (Stankovac I and II, Bojane and Neprosteno).

Montenegro

• UNHCR reports that the Government of Montenegro has confirmed that about 22,000 IDPs have crossed into Albania between March 24 and April 20.
• WFP is the main food coordinating body for Montenegro. As of April 22nd, WFP has delivered 250 MT of wheat flour, 35 MT of pulses, and 28 MT of oil against the April distribution plan for IDPs. The balance of the April allocations will be completed by the end of this week.

Commodities

• No new information to report.

Financial Support

• To date the USG has provided over $182 million in response to the Kosovo crisis, beginning in March 1998.

  USAID/BHR	$75,655,282
  Department of State/Population Refugees and Migration (PRM)	$58,648,600
  DOD	$47,949,000
  TOTAL	$182,252,882

Background:

• In late February 1998, following an unprecedented series of clashes in Kosovo between Serbian police forces and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Serbian police raided villages in Kosovo's Drenica region, a KLA stronghold. The police reportedly burned homes and killed dozens of ethnic Albanians in these raids. Thousands of ethnic Albanians in Pristina protested Serb police actions, and were subsequently attacked by the police with tear gas, water cannons, and clubs.
• As a result of the fighting, thousands of Kosovar Albanians were displaced from their homes, many taking refuge with host families, while a smaller proportion (several thousand) took to the hills and forests.

• In the interest of effective coordination of such public response, we encourage concerned citizens to provide monetary donations to appropriate organizations. USAID does not recommend in-kind donations of clothing, food, medicines, or other goods as the handling, storage, and transport of these materials from the U.S. to the Balkans would be extremely complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.
• USAID encourages the public to contact directly those private voluntary organizations (PVOs) which are currently working in Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina to provide monetary donations. Financial contributions to PVOs will allow these professional aid organizations to purchase exactly what is most needed by the victims of the conflict in Kosovo and to pay for transport and other costs associated with the distribution of relief supplies. Cash contributions allow humanitarian agencies based in the Balkans to procure food, medicine, clothing, shelter materials, and other relief goods locally and regionally, thereby greatly speeding the delivery of this assistance to those most in need.
• A list of PVOs that are currently working in, or have affiliates in, the Balkan countries may be obtained from the USAID website at www.info.usaid.gov. The list is composed of non-profit organizations that are registered with USAID and/or listed by InterAction, a coalition of voluntary humanitarian and development organizations that work overseas; InterAction can be contacted at 1-818-502-4288, or via the Internet at http://www.info.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/http. Those interested in providing specific technical relief services or commodities should contact Volunteers in Technical Assistance's (VITA) Disaster Information Center for information and guidelines (703) 276-1914.
• For more information, please contact the public donations hotline at 1-800-USAID-RELIEF. This hotline, which is staffed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 832 calls were received by the public donation hotline on April 22, through 12:00 a.m. EDT. A total of 40,476 calls have been received since April 6.
• Past USAID/OFDA Factsheets can be obtained from the USAID web site at the following URL: http://www.info.usaid.gov/ofda/situation.html.