Kosovo Crisis
Fact Sheet #33
April 22, 1999

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

Note: Information reported in the previous Fact Sheet appears in Italics.

Regional

• The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) currently has 1,552 personnel deployed within the region to support Operation Sustain Hope.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 200 Kosovars from near Pec entered Montenegro on April 21. 

Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Kosovo
 

*All numbers are estimates from UNHCR Headquarters. These numbers are constantly changing and being verified. UNHCR revised the number of arrivals to Macedonia on 4/20 from 3,000 to 4,700.

UNHCR Humanitarian Evacuations (beginning April 6 to date)
 

** Some refugees were moved to third countries prior to April 6 by the Government of Macedonia: 10,000 were moved to Albania, 5,500 to Greece, and 1,980 to Turkey. Another 88 were sent to Croatia under a bilateral agreement between the Government of Macedonia and the Government of Croatia.

Albania

• As of April 21, UNHCR headquarters estimated a total of 359,000 refugees in Albania. Some 2,000 refugees entered Albania from Montenegro on April 21 at the Hani I Hotit border crossing. One hundred thirty refugees entered Albania from Kosovo at the Morini border crossing on April 21, and an additional 650 people crossed in the early hours of April 22.
• According to the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), the Albanian border crossings at Morini and Hani I Hotit are open.
• As of April 20, approximately 126,600 refugees remain in Albania's three northern districts -- Kukes, Has and Tropoje. UNHCR reported that 8,000 refugees were transferred from Kukes to points south on April 21. Local authorities reported that the total number of refugees transferred from northern Albania to date is 212,200, but UNHCR believes that more have traveled in private vehicles and taxis.
• Continued inclement weather has hampered the transport of refugees inside Albania, resulting in a renewed focus on increasing the total shelter capacity in the northern districts. However, UNHCR is reportedly intensifying efforts to transfer refugees due to both the precarious security situation in the north, and to free up shelter in anticipation of a potential large influx of refugees to the region.
• The World Food Program (WFP) shipped 3,500 MTs of flour from stock in Malaga to Ploce. WFP intends to maintain a stock of 5,000 of commodities in Ploce, 5,000 in Durres, and 2,500 up-country.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that with the influx of refugees in Tirana, hospitals are nearly filled to capacity. At the University Hospital Center in Tirana, refugees occupy 30 percent of the available beds.
• UNHCR and WHO will create a Water/Sanitation Coordination Cell in Tirana. Issues of particular concern are waste disposal and latrine construction, and the supply of potable water.
• On April 21, the Joint Chiefs of Staff provided the U.S. Commander-in-Chief Europe (USCINCEUR) with the order to establish a 20,000-person refugee camp in Albania. The Joint Task Force - Shining Hope (JTF-SH) Deputy Commander is currently in Albania to assist in the identification of a camp location. In preparation for this effort, 1,036 of a required 2,000 tents have been pre-positioned at Ancona, Italy. The remaining 964 tents will be transported from Travis Air Force Base to Ancona over the next several days.

Macedonia

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 132,100 refugees currently in Macedonia. Approximately 51,000 of these refugees are in camps.
• On April 20, the Government of Macedonia (GOM) opened a reception center at the border crossing in Blace. There are currently 1,350 at that site.
• As of April 20, the Macedonian Red Cross had registered 64,500 of the estimated 80,000 refugees living with host families. The number of host families is estimated at 16,000. Additionally, the European Commission Host Organization (ECHO) reports that there are 63,978 families registered as social cases with the Ministry of Labor. The DART reports agreement within the relief community that emergency food assistance for host families and social cases is required to reduce their economic burden and promote social stability and ethnic harmony in Macedonia.
• According to the DART Food Officer, a total of 10,704 MT of staple foods will arrive in Macedonia by the end of April (sufficient to feed 300,000 people for 2.5 months).
• Significant progress has been made in better defining the roles and responsibilities of the agencies involved in emergency food distributions. WFP now chairs a weekly food coordination meeting. 
• The following relief organizations are now assigned responsibilities for providing food to refugees in camps: WFP (Stankovac II, the Neprosteno, and the Senokos); CRS (Bojane); Turkish Red Crescent (Stankovac I); and Government of Bulgaria (Radusa).
• WFP reports that cooking facilities will be ready by the end of the week in Sonokos and Neprosteno. Facilities in Stankovac I and II will be ready within 2-3 weeks. In Bojane, 3 mobile kitchens currently supply the camp and there is no information available for Radusa.
• WFP field monitors are in place and have begun monitoring the distribution of food to refugees living with host families.
• Tents are currently being set up at the planned site for the Cegrane camp. By April 24, there will be sufficient shelter for 5,000 refugees. However, water and sanitation facilities will not be established until early next week.
• Camp details: According to NATO all camps are filled to capacity. The following numbers are reported by UNHCR and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as of April 22.
• Stankovac I (Brazda): an estimated 29,000 refugees
• Stankovac II: 14,000 refugees
• Radusa: an estimated 1,500 refugees
• Bojane: an estimated 3,250 refugees
• Neprosteno: and estimated 4,500 refugees. Lack of sanitation facilities is a serious problem
• Senokos: (15 km east of Tetovo): estimated 825 refugees
• On April 21, NATO announced that it had formally completed the hand-over of all refugee camps to UNHCR and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NATO will maintain liaison contingents in the four camps that it originally established (Stankovac I and II, Bojane and Neprosteno)

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.

USG Humanitarian Assistance:

Commodities

USAID/OFDA has provided over $3.5 million in commodities in response to humanitarian needs in Macedonia and Albania since March 24.

Financial Support

• To date the USG has provided over $178 million in response to the Kosovo crisis, beginning in March 1998.

USAID/BHR	$75,146,551
Department of State/Population Refugees and Migration (PRM)	$55,348,671
DOD	$47,949,000
TOTAL	$178,444,222

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 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 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. This hotline, which is staffed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 618 calls were received by the public donation hotline on April 21, through 12:00 a.m. EDT. A total of 39,544 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.