Regional: Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Kosovo

Source: UNHCR Geneva.

Kosovo

• According to UNHCR, a total of 71,500 ethnic Serbs have departed Kosovo. Of these, 21,500 ethnic Serbs have departed Kosovo for Montenegro (8,700 eventually moved on to Serbia), and 50,000 departed directly to Serbia.
• KFOR's largest concern now is the continued harassment and departure of ethnic Serbs. According to KFOR, members of the Serbian interim government and the Serbian Center for Peace and Tolerance departed Pristina in a sixty vehicle convoy on July 1, saying living in Kosovo was intolerable. The ethnic Serbs cited not only the security situation but also the dramatic inflation of prices for food supplies and goods charged to ethnic Serbian customers.
• UNHCR/Geneva reports that over the past 24-hour period, a total of 55,000 refugees returned to Kosovo from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, bringing the overall count of returnees to 523,900.
• According to the International Organization for Migration, as of July 1, 1,456 refugees have been transported from Macedonia to Kosovo under the UNHCR/IOM Kosovo return program. Thus far, 968 refugees have been transported to Pristina and 488 to Urosevac. UNHCR announced that the first 300-400 refugees from Albania were transported by the Danish Refugee Council to Pristina and Prizren on July 1 and 2. World Vision International (WVI) and Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) have set up a temporary shelter in Pristina for returnees who can not find accommodations on their own. UNHCR plans to open similar temporary shelters and return centers in all of the regions of Kosovo.
• UNHCR announced that the population of Kosovo is now over one million. This number is based on UNHCR and KFOR estimates of 500,000 people who remained in Kosovo and 500,000 who have returned since June 15.
• According to KFOR, apart from a few isolated house fires in Pristina, Pec, and Vitina, and looting in Lipljan, the security situation in Kosovo was calm on June 30 and July 1.
• At the UN interagency coordination meeting, KFOR asked for food assistance for 1,800 workers at the municipal utilities in Pristina. Currently these workers are not receiving salaries and are unable to visit aid distribution points because of work. KFOR said the continued operation of these facilities is crucial for power and water services in Pristina.
• KFOR asked NGOs for assistance in delivering food and non-food commodities to the village of Oklap, 12 km south of Pristina. According to KFOR, the village, which is 60 percent destroyed, is
• surrounded on four sides by ethnic Serbian enclaves. The residents are afraid to leave their village and cross through these Serb-dominated areas. The food in the village is expected to run out in two to three days. KFOR promised to provide an escort to any organization that wants to distribute aid in the community.
• DART members traveled to several remote villages in the Northern, Western and Southern Multinational Brigades by WFP helicopter to assess the food and nutrition needs of the returning internally displaced persons (IDPs). There was varying degrees of need in the areas visited. Village stocks are limited and farm livestock, tractors and seed are in short supply.
• On July 1 DART field officers attended a meeting with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and ethnic Albanian former faculty members of the University of Pristina to discuss the development of a Ministry of Agriculture for Kosovo. (Note: the ethnic Albanian
• faculty was removed from Pristina University by Serbian authorities. (most of the faculty has taught in a parallel education system to the Serbian state structures.)
• On July 1, a DART field officer accompanied a UNFAO assessment team on a WFP helicopter on an aerial agricultural assessment of the Pristina/Pec/Mitorivca triangle. On the flight from Pristina to Pec, the DART field officer noted some agricultural activity around Pristina but on the rest of the flight to Pec almost no activity was observed. The destruction along the Pristina to Pec route was astronomical with 40-50 percent of the houses without roofs and an additional 20 percent sustaining some damage. In this area 50 percent of land appeared suitable for agriculture but only 5 percent had been cultivated and was bearing crops. On the route between Mitrovica and Pristina the DART
• field officer reported a large percentage of cultivation. Up-wards of 60 percent of the agricultural land in this area appeared to be under cultivation and bearing crops. (Note: the normal amount of land under cultivation in this area is believed to be 80 percent with 20 percent lying fallow for crop rotation).
• According to a UN interagency coordination unit representatives, at least 63 NGOs have established offices in Kosovo since June 15. The UN believes the number of NGOs will reach over 100 within two weeks and maybe as high as 200 by the end of July.

Albania

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that 142,900 Kosovar refugees remain in Albania. They report that approximately 14,700 people left Albania for Kosovo on July 1. According to UNHCR, approximately 301,100 Kosovar refugees have returned to Kosovo from Albania since June 15.
• In a slight discrepancy with the UNHCR/Geneva numbers, the Government of Albania Emergency Management Group (EMG) reports that 14,891 refugees returned to Kosovo on July 1, 14,711 at the Morini border crossing and 180 at the Qafi e Prushit border crossing.
• UNHCR's organized repatriation program began on July 1. On July 2, refugee departures were organized from three locations: 272 refugees left from Durres, 129 from Tirana, and 543 from Kukes.
• The EMG reports that there are a total of 94,950 refugees in camps and collective centers in Albania.

Macedonia

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that about 45,000 Kosovar refugees remain in Macedonia and that approximately 6,600 refugees left Macedonia to return to Kosovo on July 1. According to UNHCR, approximately 183,200 Kosovar refugees have returned to Kosovo from Macedonia since June 15.
• UNHCR reported that on July 1, 6,592 refugees left Macedonia for Kosovo, a drop from the previous day's departure. UNHCR/IOM moved an additional 393 refugees, many of whom are returning to Pristina.
• According to UNHCR, of the remaining refugees (44,977) only 17,000 are residing in camps while 31,539 are with host families.
• DART reported that many of the camps have very few refugees left as the returnees move to consolidations camps awaiting final repatriation to Kosovo.
• DART received reports that security in camps has improved.

Refugee Camp and Collective Center Information: Macedonia
Date: July 1, 1999, 00:00hrs GMT

Source: UNHCR Skopje.

Montenegro

• UNHCR reports that a total of 2,600 Kosovars returned home from Montenegro on July 1, bringing the total number of returnees over the past two weeks to 39,600. 30,3000 refugees remain in Montenegro.

Commodities

• No new information.

** Some refugees were moved to third countries by the GOM w/o UNHCR involvement: 10,000 to Albania, 5,500 to Greece, 1,980 to Turkey, and 88 to Croatia. (Source: UNHCR/Geneva)

• To date, the U.S. Government (USG) has provided over $222 million in response to the Kosovo crisis since March 1998.

USAID/BHR	$107,560,393
State/PRM	$69,779,500
DOD	$45,281,000
TOTAL	$222,620,893

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 1-202-667-8227 x106, 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).