Kosovo Crisis Fact Sheet 40. OFDA, (29 April 1999)

Source: http://www.info.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/kosofs40.html
Accessed 30 April 1999

Kosovo Crisis
Fact Sheet #40
April 29 1999

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID)
BUREAU FOR HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE (BHR)
OFFICE OF U.S. FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE (OFDA)

Regional: Refugees/IDPs from Kosovo

*Country*	*Total Refugees*	*Entries in last 24 hrs*	*Departures in last 24 hrs*
Albania	371,000	(including entries from Montenegro) 3,800	None
Macedonia	154,400	approximately 5,200	1,593
Montenegro	62,800	(entries in last 48 hours) 35	500 to Albania on 4/28

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

Albania

UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 371,000 refugees in Albania. In the past 24 hours, 3,300 refugees entered Albania at the Morini border crossing, arriving from a variety of areas in Kosovo.
The Emergency Management Group (EMG) reports that there are approximately 97,500 refugees remaining in the three northern districts of Kukës, Has and Tropoja.
The EMG reports that there are currently 228,000 refugees accommodated in camps, collective centers and host families.
263,000 refugees have moved from Kukës to southern and central Albania, with 2,000 having moved on April 28.
Resources Management Services (RMS) has begun construction of the U.S. Government-funded refugee camp in Fier. The U.S. contractor and NGOs are working together to design the camp's layout. An Albanian labor source has been identified by RMS to assist with the camp's construction.
Security continues to be a concern in northern Albania. Border police in Kukës are moving media away from the border due to sniper fire. FRY forces have reportedly shelled the districts of Tropoja (Padezh and Llazine) and Has (Vllahine and Celine).
International teams from UNHCR, the UK, and NATO are currently surveying seven new shelter sites.
On April 27, NATO conducted its first truck convoy to support the movement of relief supplies. NATO will continue to assist relief agencies in camp construction, road repair and transport of relief supplies.
According to WFP, new arrivals in Albania indicate that the situation in Prizren is deteriorating sharply, with shortages of food reported. Electricity and water services are said to be sporadic, with residents only leaving their houses to search for food.
FFP is very concerned about the food pipeline into Albania. It is becoming increasingly clear that eventhough buffer stocks of bulk commodities can be positioned in the region (as WFP is currently doing in Ploce, Croatia), if these commodities cannot be moved rapidly through Durrës into Albania, their pre-positioning serves little purpose. FFP is working with WFP and its NGO implementing partners to identify alternative overland routes to Albania.
On April 28, a contingency planner seconded by USAID arrived in Tirana to work alongside Albanian officials at the EMG.

Macedonia

UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are more than 154,400 refugees currently in Macedonia. More than 5,200 refugees entered Macedonia on April 28; 4,900 via Blace, 250 via Jazince, and an undetermined number crossed via Lojane. Those refugees crossing at Lojane were immediately absorbed into host families. The Macedonian Red Cross and the Ministry of Interior estimate that 90,160 refugees are staying with host families and that 64,240 are living in refugee camps.
On April 28, the Government of Macedonia's Ministry of Interior released updated figures of refugees registered as staying in private accommodations or living with host families. There are currently 90,160 refugees living outside of camps in Macedonia, while more than 64,000 refugees are living in camps or transit centers. UNHCR's total number of refugees living in camps does not include the 2,000 refugees who were transferred to the new Cegrane camp during the evening of April 28.
On April 28, the Government of Macedonia's Minister of Urban Planning approved the transfer of 5,000 refugees to the new refugee camp site at Cegrane. After the transfer approval was granted, the GOA transported 2,000 refugees to Cegrane. UNHCR, NGOs, and the German contingent of NATO have been working around-the-clock to ready the site. According to the DART, the Cegrane camp has an adequate water supply and enough tents to accommodate the new refugees. However, the sanitation infrastructure is still not fully developed.
Starting on April 25, the UNHCR/IOM Humanitarian Evacuation Program began transporting people to third countries who were not in the transit camps at Stankovac I and II. Although most of the refugees involved in the humanitarian evacuation continue to come from Stankovac I and II, several hundred refugees have been moved to third countries either from the town of Skopje or the Bojane refugee camp.
On April 24, NATO handed over responsibility for the humanitarian airlift at the Skopje airport to UNHCR. Under the direction of UNHCR, the Department for International Development (DFID) has assumed responsibility from NATO for contracting the off-loading of all humanitarian flights. According to DFID representatives, arriving emergency commodities are being loaded onto Danish Refugee Council- or NGO-contracted trucks, which is replacing all equipment and personnel NATO has withdrawn. UNHCR remains responsible for overall coordination and customs clearance on the arrival of emergency commodities at the airport.
Macedonian authorities have expressed concern about the lack of revenue from the landing and handling fees of the humanitarian airlift. At the present time, there is no charge for humanitarian flights and there is very little commercial air traffic flying into Skopje.
WFP reports that it currently has 2,155 MT of wheat flour in stock (sufficient to provide bread rations for over 160,000 people for one month.

CAMP NAME	NUMBER OF REFUGEES as of April 28
*Stankovac I*	*27,600*
The International Catholic Migration Committee (ICMC), in coordination with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and UNHCR, has established a program addressing community services, public information, and care for vulnerable persons residing in the camp. ICMC manages a care system for 40 elderly, unaccompanied minors, and handicapped camp residents. The program provides direct care on an in-patient basis for 40 vulnerable residents and tracks the outpatient care for the vulnerable in tents throughout the center. ICMC is implementing a flexible community services program in the camp. Space is the primary constraint in creating more permanent structures for the provision of recreation and community services ICMC has set up six public information boards throughout the camp to serve as a daily forum for information exchange. In addition, two tents staffed with ICMC employees are located in the center of the camp. These tents serve as the information center for on-going or new camp services. ICMC provides refugees telephone communication inside the refugee camps, with the ability to make three minute calls to anywhere in the world. More than 20,000 telephone calls have been provided through ICMC.
*Stankovac II*	*17,600*
CARE International is reporting that the camp has nearly doubled in size in two weeks. Refugees have elected representatives at the camp. These leaders are organizing families into sub-communities, are responsible for organizing food and non-food distributions, and are representing the sub-community within the larger camp management structure. The camp has a total of 48 sub-communities, each with its own representative. CARE indicated that dry rations continue to be the foundation of the food basket in the camp but on April 29 four large camp kitchens will be constructed throughout the camp.
*Radusa*	*1,600*
No new information
*Bojane*	*4,000*
No new information
*Neprosteno*	*7,700*
No new information
*Senokos*	*2,400*
No new information
*Radusa Collective Center*	*400*
No new information
*Blace Reception Center*	*2,900*
No new information
*Cegrane*	*2,000 as of 1900 hours on 4/28*
The DART provided 5,000 blankets to the Danish Refugee Council for the new refugee arrivals.

Montenegro

UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 62,800 refugees in Montenegro. In the past 48 hours, 35 refugees entered Montenegro. Some 500 departed for Albania yesterday via the Hani I Hotit border crossing.
IRC has distributed hygiene parcels to all factories in Rozaje that are housing refugees. UNICEF has delivered a large quantity of supplies (including baby blankets, diapers, children's clothing, and footwear) for women and children to the Montenegrin Red Cross.

UNHCR Humanitarian Evacuations (beginning April 6 to date)

Receiving Country	# of Refugees
Austria	811
Belgium	676
Czech Republic	115
Croatia	100
Finland	481
France	1,777
Germany	9,974
Israel	106
Netherlands	1,011
Norway	1,732
Poland	635
Spain	103
Sweden	444
Turkey	3,164
United Kingdom	161
Others (Iceland, Switzerland)	56
TOTAL**	21,346

USG Humanitarian Assistance:

Commodities

No new information.

Financial Support

To date the USG has provided over $183 million in response to the Kosovo crisis, beginning in March 1998.

USAID/BHR	$77,329,623
State/PRM	$58,648,600
DOD	$47,949,000
TOTAL	$183,927,223

** Some refugees were moved to third countries by the GOM w/o UNHCR involvement: 10,000 to Albania, 5,500 to Greece, 2,243 to Turkey, and 88 to Croatia.

The Background and Public Donation Information sections of this Factsheet are provided as a courtesy to the reader and have not changed substantially since the previous Factsheet.

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.

Public Donation Information:

In the interest of effective coordination of such public response, we encourage concerned citizens to provide monetary donations to appropriate organizations. USAID encourages the public to contact directly those private voluntary organizations (PVOs) currently working in the region to provide monetary donations. A list of those PVOs may be obtained from the USAID website at www.info.usaid.gov. The list is composed of PVOs 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 www.interaction.org. 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, which is staffed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Past USAID/OFDA Factsheets can be obtained from the USAID web site at the following URL: http://www.info.usaid.gov/ofda/situation.html.