Kosova Crisis Center
link to alb-net
After air strikes of Nato
the shellings have stopped (KP)
Rahovec, May 12th (Kosovapress) Yesterday from Hoēa e madhe, serbian terrorist forces
have shelled with projectile-launcher towards positions of the 124 Brigade of the OZ of
Pashtriku. After the NATO air strikes started over Hoēė tė Madhe in the serb positions.
as result, serbian shellings have been stopped. NATO air strikes took place also in Hoēė
tė Vogėl and in Rogovė of Hasi. A serbian paramilitary group has been hit by NATO
aviation while looting with a tractor in the albanian houses. Even the serbian military
base in Pnish of Hasi has been hit by NATO aviation.
Two actions have been undertaken by units of the
124 Brigade (KP)
Rahovec, May 12th (Kosovapress) During one action of one unit of the IV Company of the 124
Brigade of the OZ of Pashtriku, two serbian para militaries have been killed yesterday in
Krushė tė Vogėl. Meanwhile, today at the 8.00 o`clock in the morning, one unit of the
124 Brigade of the OZ of Pashtriku, has executed a successful action against serbian
forces in the village Opterushe by destroying an armored vehicle whereas for eventual
consequences in people, we have no confirmations.
New victims caused as result of hunger in Drenica
(KP)
Drenicė, May 12 (Kosovapress) In the mountains of Gospojė in the called place Lugu i
Madh,(Great Trough), over than 3.000 displaced people from the villages of Drenica and
Kosova plains are being placed. Their conditions are catastrophic. Except the everyday
danger caused by serbian shellings, now and for many days, they are facing with the lack
of food, hunger. There no food reserves any more and there no possibilities to furnish
with new one because of serbian iron siege. Hunger, diseases and other epidemic diseases
are causing the death of people, mostly children and old age people.This situation is
becoming worse because of the lack of water, the place where the displaced people are
placed is very dry. Unit of KLA of the 114 Brigade "Fehmi Lladrofci" acting in
this zone, are doing their best in order to help civil population and to furnish them with
supplies with food. If NATO forces and international organizations will not act very
quickly in this region in order to rescue the displaced civil population placed in these
mountains, a catastrophic human crime will happen and the Lugu i Madh (Great Trough)of
Gospojė will became the biggest massive grave. Serbian reinforcements military troops are
preventing civil population to move and to furnish with food and serbian forces are mainly
concentrated in Gllanasellė, Dobroshec, Vasilevė and Graboc. There different kinds of
military serbian units placed there including tanks, anti-air crafts units, artillery etc.
Six civilians killed by Serb forces
(KP)
Vushtrri, may 11th (Kosovapress) In Kuēicė,the dead bodies of these albanians who have
been killed during the last offensive of the serbian police,have been found : Bajram
Xhemė Bajraktari (1927), Klinė e Epėrme, Shaqir Feriz Selimi (1918), Kuēicė, Mustafė
Regjep Selimi (1924), Kuēicė, Riza Regjep Selimi (1938), Kuēicė, Bajram Immer Bega
(1933), Kuēicė, Hazir Istref Miftari (1937), Runikė, These have been reburied.
Meanwhile,there are no informations about the fate of three arrested persons.They are:
Sadri Bega (1925), Elez Bega (1938), and Bajram Selimi (1929). On saturday,about 13
o`clock, two trucks of the type "Skania", have been filled with albanian men of
the age 18 and more,which have been sent to the prison of Smrekovnicės. That day, in the
same prison have been sent also about 700 arrested persons from Skenderaj. There are
doubts that in the prison of Smrekovnicės 5 thousand arrested albanians of the environ of
Mitrovicė and Vushtrisė are being maltreated.
Place positions of serb forces in some villages of
Gllogocit (KP)
Gllogocit, may 11th (Kosovapress) Serb terrorist forces have hidden their military technic
in these places: From Gurit te Plakes,in Grabovc,along the river Drenica and railway Bardh
i Madh- Gllogochave been concentrated many military-police serb forces, mainly infantry.In
Shiptule there are about 150 soldiers , as well as tanks and other armoured vehicles. In
Zhilivodė, at bakery of Lutė, three tanks, one armored vehicle and one prage have been
stationed. In Strofc, above the primary school, in the quarter Duraku, at the cemeteries,
7 tanks and 100 serbian soldiers have been positioned. In Hamidi, at the mosque, near
pines many tanks have been positioned. In Beēuk, at the quarter Ahmetaj, near a grove, 5
tanks have been positioned. In Shalc, near the primary school, in the quarter Hysenaj and
of Malokėve. 5 tanks have been hidden and there are many infantry forces. In Druar, at
Dheu i Kuq, in the place called Kodra e Maēkavėve, there are hidden tanks and
transporters of the serbian forces.
Some villages of Vushtri have been shelled
Vushtri, May 11th (Kosovapress) Today, about 8.00 o'clock, the serbian forces have
attacked with projectile-lounchers of the caliber of 120 mm from the village of Godanc and
Dobroshec in the directiton of Sibofc, Zhilivodė and Strofc. The shelling have lasted
about half an hour. Actually, there are no informations about the consequences of these
shelling, in people and military technics.
Yugoslav Troops Cross Into Albania,
Serbian MIG Downed in Albania (AP)
By GREG MYRE Associated Press Writer
BAJRAM CURRI, Albania (AP) -- Yugoslav troops fighting ethnic Albanian rebels swept over
the border into Albania in one of their deepest incursions yet from Kosova, international
observers reported today.
Witnesses also say a crashed Yugoslav MiG fighter, which was reportedly downed Tuesday at
the height of the fighting, is on the Albanian side of the border near the village of
Padesh, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.
The area is too dangerous to approach the plane, and there was no word on the fate of its
crew.
Fighting between Yugoslav forces and the rebel Kosova Liberation Army raged all Tuesday
well into nightfall. The sound of shells exploding on both sides of the border were heard
in the northern town of Bajram Curri, and heavy plumes of smoke billowed into the air.
Twenty Serb troops occupied the border village of Perroi I Thanes, about a half mile
inside Albania, OSCE spokesman Pier Gonggrijp said, quoting witnesses.
Later Tuesday, 50 Yugoslav army troops clashed with KLA forces in another border village,
Kasaj, said Gonggrijp.
The volatile area is near a cross-border corridor through which the KLA has been sending
troops and ammunition to reinforce their fighters in Kosova, part of Yugoslavia's Serbia
province.
Some 40,000 Serb troops and special police are deployed in Kosova, from where more than
750,000 ethnic Albanians have fled.
Thirty wounded KLA fighters were hospitalized in Bajram Curri on Tuesday, and KLA sources
said three others were killed in the fighting,
``This is the deepest penetration (by Serb forces) and the longest we have seen,'' said
Gonggrijp, who has been in Bajram Curri since December.
Shelling and cross-border incursions are routine in the area, but the fighting on Tuesday
was exceptional.
There was no word on Serb casualties or whether all the troops have withdrawn.
According to local KLA commanders and police, the Serb MiG fighter bombed Padesh on
Tuesday morning. As the plane approached, KLA fighters initially thought it was a NATO
plane, didn't take cover and were bombed.
The KLA and local police told Gonggrijp the Serb MiG was shot down by a NATO plane.
Baby born to Kosova refugee parents
leaves hospital (AP)
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) -- Amerikan looked every bit the part.
Wearing a knit cap, a Ralph Lauren sweater depicting the Stars and Stripes and clutching
the United States flag in his tiny hand, the baby born the day after his parents were
airlifted to sanctuary from Kosova left the hospital Tuesday.
"I want to thank America for great sympathy and support and a warm welcome to
expelled Albanian mothers and children," Amerikan's mother, Lebibe Karaliju, 21, said
through an interpreter.
"My heart goes out for thousands of mothers and babies being killed by Serbian forces
who didn't have the same opportunities that I was blessed with."
Her husband, Naim Karaliju, 28, said they named their son after his birthplace "as a
sign of my people's profound gratitude for this country."
"We are so happy that Americans welcomed us," he said through the interpreter.
The family returned to the Fort Dix military post, where they will stay until they are
settled in a home somewhere in the United States. They would like to return to their
homeland when they can, they said.
Donations of blankets, baby clothing and other items have poured in from across the
country, and letters addressed "Amerikan, Mount Holly," have flooded the local
post office.
Among the well-wishers was President Clinton.
"I wish for you a long and happy life with days filled with lessons to learn, people
to love, dreams to fulfill and an abiding hope that will see you from success to
success," he wrote.
Hillary Clinton Will Visit Refugees
in Albania and Macedonia
President Clinton said his wife Hillary would extend her trip to Ireland and Britain this
week to visit refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia. Mrs. Clinton left Tuesday for
Ireland.
The Dragodan neighborhood in Pristina was once wealthy but is now a ruin of
burned and looted homes and shops. Few people live there anymore. Credit: Steven
Erlanger/The New York Times
In One Kosova Woman, an Emblem of
Suffering (NY Times)
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PRISHTINA -- She's seen too much, Meli said. She wants a rest. She wants it to be over.
She wants to leave, like her friends, and go to Macedonia. But she wants to stay, because
her mother wants to stay, and it's her home and why should she leave it? And it seems to
be getting better, she says, in Pristina, anyway.
Meli is an ethnic Albanian, 21 years old, and she has remained here in Pristina, Kosova's
capital, throughout the nearly seven weeks of warfare between NATO and the Serbs, and
between the Serbs and the Albanians.
She is funny and brave, and she is frightened all the time.
She has seen an Albanian shot down by the police in front of her eyes. She has seen
Serbian paramilitary fighters, with uniforms and guns and masks over their heads, ordering
Albanians to leave their homes and threatening to shoot them if they did not go.
She has had a NATO missile land near her apartment downtown, while she was sleeping,
breaking all the windows and scaring her half-mad. She has watched her shop looted and
nearly all of her friends depart, pushed by the Serbs and pulled by panic, to become
refugees in another country.
She spoke two times with a reporter, in English, with no Serb present, and in the end,
still unsure about her future, asked that only her nickname be used, and the names of her
family and friends not be used at all.
Despite everything, she says, she feels sorry for the Serbs. "They don't know what's
happening to them," she said. "They don't know what's really happening here, and
they don't know why they're getting bombed."
It's perfectly understandable that the Serbs will defend their country and their hold over
Kosova. "Of course they will defend the country," she said. "That's normal
for every nation. But they also have to know why they're being bombed."
And why does she think the Serbs are being bombed?
She stopped, smiled once, and said very slowly, "Because people are being killed
here." How many? "I don't know," she said. "I don't think we'll ever
know."
But she also feels sorry as well for the insurgent fighters of the Kosova Liberation Army.
"They're too weak to fight the Serbs or to protect us," she said. "They
overestimated their strength and got a lot of people into trouble."
There is tragedy enough for everyone, she says. "I feel sorry for the Serbs who've
been bombed and died and I feel sorry for my own people. But maybe now there will be a
conclusion, a settlement for good. That would be great."
Meli always feared what would happen if the West intervened with force, saying it gave a
license to the Serbs to take revenge on the majority Albanians here.
"I didn't expect this to happen; I didn't want NATO to bomb, but it happened,"
she said. "I knew if they started to bomb it would be very bad for the people here,
and I was really afraid of the paramilitaries and the crazy Serbs, because they knew just
what they wanted to do and they did it. I think it was all written down."
For the first month, she stayed in her downtown apartment, rarely going out, listening for
a knock on the door that didn't come.
Meli's mother, brother and grandmother live in the Suncani Breg (Sunny Hill) area of
Pristina, a development of Soviet-style apartment houses, where she was first met waiting
in a long line for bread. Meli lives with them now, too, having abandoned her apartment.
In part, it was because of the missile attack, she said, and in part because she heard
from a neighbor that soldiers were clearing the building to live there themselves, part of
their tactics of dispersal.
Unlike Dragodan, a much wealthier Albanian area of Pristina on an opposite hill, Suncani
Breg has been largely untouched by arsonists and looters. The Serbs rampaged through
Dragodan, where Washington put an American cultural center, now completely trashed, with
plastic American flags littering the ground. The bigger and gaudier the house, it seemed,
the bigger the fire. The streets there are blocked with broken masonry and burned cars,
and no one seems to live in Dragodan anymore, except for a few very elderly Albanian men.
While many Albanians were pushed or fled from Suncani Breg, it was largely spared the rage
of the Serbs, and many Albanians still live here who have not gone or been ordered to go.
Of those who fled, "maybe half left from fear, and half got knocks on the door,"
Meli said. "It's hard to know. People panic, and they panic everybody else."
Meli is a small entrepreneur, with two shops, a coffee shop and a pharmacy. One day, she
said, the police came and confiscated the entire contents of the pharmacy. Asked if they
had issued her a receipt, as they are supposed to do, for post-war payment, she laughed.
"No, there was no receipt. Are you kidding? They just said thank you and left."
With most of her friends gone, Meli spends a lot of her time with three girlfriends. They
play a card game called Remi and drink a lot of tea and smoke cigarettes when they can
find some. They talk incessantly about what's happening and what may happen.
"We talk about it every day, all the time, and yet we're sick of it," she said.
"We're most afraid that we'll go crazy. We ask each other, 'Are we the same as
before?' And of course we tell each other, 'Yes, exactly the same."'
Meli and her friends have decided that despite all the death, of Serbs as well as
Albanians, Western intervention will be good if it ends well, with a lasting settlement
that provides security and dignity for ordinary Albanians.
"I can't say America loves the Albanians; it has its interests," she said.
"But having 19 countries on your side makes me feel better. You feel that you're not
alone, that almost all the world supports you. That's very important."
Does she favor an independent Kosova? "You know, I don't care if it's this or
that," Meli said. "I just want all this to end, and to feel good again, to feel
good in my place and my house with my friends and family."
She stopped, imagining that odd prospect. "You know," she said, "I don't
have a house in Mexico or America somewhere -- only here."
She wants a settlement that brings foreigners here "with some force behind
them." She is indifferent about who the foreigners are. "But I'll feel much
better if a guy with a gun is in front of my house protecting me," she said.
"I'll feel safe and won't feel I have to see another Albanian guy shot dead in front
of my house."
Meli talks a lot about getting out -- just for a week or two, to rest and relax. She
dreams of that, she said. "I'd like to leave, to go to Macedonia. I wouldn't go far,
just stay by the border, and come back as soon as it's over. I need a rest," she
said, laughing.
But her mother still won't leave, and her grandmother, and Meli and her friends fear it's
too late to go now, with the Macedonians closing down the border.
And then she says, "But it's good here, it's OK now. I feel good. If it continues
like this I'll be happy," she said. "Maybe because it's the capital, but it's
better here."
Will it continue like this? "I don't know, I don't know," she said rapidly,
darting her eyes about. "I'm afraid if the Serbs are going to lose, they'll go crazy
again. I'm really afraid, afraid all the time. Everybody's afraid. Nobody knows. But I
really think it's going to be OK now."
Does she dream? She laughs uproariously. "Of course, and in color, too!" About
what? "I dream and I think a lot, about what I'd most like to happen here. It has to
be settled. We can't go on like this for 30 years, like the Israelis, to have 30 years of
war -- that's a really long time. To sit and talk after 30 years of war -- I mean, come
on, that's ridiculous! If they want to fight this war until the end, it will be horrible.
I want to get out."
She's tired all the time, she says. She's sleeping less. "I'm more nervous. I can't
stay in one place. I like to be together with my friends -- I don't want to be waiting
alone in one place." For the knock on the door? "Yes, yes, for the knock. I'm
sick of waiting, sick of the news, but that's all we talk about."
"When all this is over," she says, like a threnody, and later again, "When
this is all finished."
"When this is all over I'm going to school to study politics," she says once,
and laughs. "Maybe I'll be famous one day."
"When this is all finished," she says later, "I'm going to take a camera
and go all over Kosova and document what has happened. I'll be a journalist for myself,
and make an album."
"When it's all over," she said again, still later, "I just want to go off
for a few weeks to a beach. Somewhere there is no bombing and no Serbs. Just go out and
have some fun."
"When it's over," she said later, laughing again, "I'm really worried that
my friends will come back and the guys will look at us, playing cards and drinking tea,
and think, 'What's wrong with them? They're crazy!"'
"When it's all over," she said, finally, looking down into her coffee, drawing
circles with her finger on the table, "I just want to stop feeling afraid."
Meeting with the Devil?
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. high commissioner for human rights is to meet President
Slobodan Milosevic this week to protest Yugoslavia's human rights abuses, a meeting that
caused some surprise and consternation here Tuesday.
The planned meeting of the commissioner, Mary Robinson, received a strong endorsement from
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, however. Fred Eckard, the secretary-general's spokesman,
said Annan "expects Mrs. Robinson to deliver a firm message in Belgrade concerning
abuses of human rights in the region."
But the trip has made several diplomatic missions uneasy. One Western diplomat said,
"Asking President Milosevic to help correct the human rights abuses taking place in
his country is like asking Dr. Kevorkian to supervise a geriatric clinic."
In a joint letter, Human Rights Watch and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the
Advancement of Human Rights, which is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, asked
Mrs. Robinson to cancel the meeting, calling it a "grave mistake."
"Meeting with Milosevic at this stage -- as his campaign of slaughter and forced
displacement is raging in Kosova -- risks legitimizing a man who stand for the antithesis
of the values you have pledged to uphold," the letter said.
Boston relief agencies prepare to
settle 200 Kosova refugees (Boston Herald)
By Ed Hayward
Wednesday, May 12, 1999
Relief agencies in Boston estimate the first of approximately 200 Kosovar refugees will
arrive in 10 days to two weeks following a preliminary stop at a New Jersey military base,
officials said yesterday.
``How many we ultimately receive will depend on what we as resettlement agencies can
handle in terms of case work,'' said Westy Egmont, executive director of the International
Institute of Boston.
Egmont traveled to Fort Dix yesterday to begin preparations for his agency, one of four in
the Boston area being paid by the federal government to work with refugees forced out of
Albania by NATO bombings and atrocities by Serbian military forces.
He also serves as chairman of Immigration and Refugee Services of America, an umbrella
group of 36 agencies that make up the largest non-sectarian refugee resettlement network
in the country.
Already the International Institute of Boston has 20 members of its staff at the base
working with the first planeloads of Kosovars, Egmont said.
Egmont said the single biggest challenge ahead is providing housing for the Kosovars, whom
they expect to arrive in large extended families, who will require their own apartments.
``People have been great, offering guest rooms and family rooms for people to stay in, but
the size of the families makes that difficult,'' said Egmont.
First jobs are likely to come from the service sector, such as the hotel, restaurant, food
preparation and health care industries, Egmont said.
Refugees receive immediate permission to work.
``On average, an arriving refugee goes from Logan to self-sufficiency in six months,''
Egmont said.
From the institute, the refugees will receive a case worker, job-hunting help, English
lessons and other assistance.
Lutheran Social Services of New England, one of the four state resettlement agencies, said
yesterday their Natick offices have received an overwhelming response to a call for
sponsors for Kosovars.
``We have had 40 churches or families step forward, which I think is a really terrific
response. That means we could respond to 144 people,'' said spokeswoman Martha Mann. ``And
that doesn't include the calls from people who want to give gifts or clothing.''
For those in central Massachusetts or New Hampshire interested in assisting the agency,
their hotline number is 1-888-272-5557.
Catholic Charities, another refugee contractor, received word yesterday that refugees
would likely arrive during the last week of May, said Elaine Tracey, an agency
spokeswoman.
``This is really business as usual for us,'' said Tracey. ``We're receiving tremendous
support from individuals and businesses, taking an inventory of housing sites and matching
those with some of the families who will come to the area.''
Other groups working in Boston on the refugee crisis include the Boston International
Rescue Committee and the Red Cross.
NATO chief Javier Solana gets
hero's welcome at refugee camp in Albania (AFP)
ELBASAN, Albania, May 12 (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana on Wednesday
received an enthusiastic reception, mingled with curiosity, when he paid a lightning visit
to a Kosovar refugee camp in central Albania. Solana arrived at Elbasan camp by US
helicopter following a series of talks with top officials in Tirana. The camp is home to
some 4,000 people, mainly from southern Kosova.
Dressed in shirtsleeves and looking relaxed and smiling, Solana was met by a loud burst of
applause from the refugees, who chanted "NATO, NATO!", "KLA, KLA!" and
"USA, USA!"
Solana told the refugees around him that NATO was working "24 hours a day" so
that they could go home and pledged their return would be "soon."
Two small refugee girls, dressed in blue and white, had been chosen to greet the secretary
general as he arrived. But bewildered by the crowd and the noise, one girl burst into
tears.
Closely flanked by soldiers, Solana began a tour of the camp, walking down the narrow
alleyways between the white tents emblazoned with the Turkish Red Crescent society, which
runs the facility.
He shook hands, warmly embraced refugees and attempted to engage some in conversation as
he moved quickly through the masses, with his military escorts trying to keep him out of
the muddy patches.
Medhi, a young Kosovar English-language student, was trying hard to keep up with the tour
party and listen in on what Solana had to say.
"We all like Solana and NATO here," he said. "I think NATO will go into
Kosova, will win and will bring us back home. I am confident of that."
He turned to a small girl of perhaps six or seven. "Do you know who that is?" he
asked her.
"It's the big boss of NATO," the girl said giggling.
"Life is difficult here," Medhi said. "It's very hot underneath the tents,
we don't have mattresses and there is water only twice a day."
After half an hour, Solana left the camp and headed back to Tirana.
Before he left, he said: "It's very difficult to express my sentiments after visiting
this camp and seeing so many people suffering. I'm very moved. They will return home as
soon as possible, they have my personal commitment."
At the edge of the camp, an old man said, without taking his eyes off the helicopter
flying away: "We want to believe him. We have to believe him."
Drawings by Kosova children at
Fort Dix tell story of war-ravaged homeland (AP)
By MELANIE BURNEY
FORT DIX, N.J. (AP) -- Faruk Masanraka did not have to say a word.
The red, green and black flower he drew as a reminder of the war-torn homeland he was
forced to flee along with thousands of fellow Kosova refugees said it all.
Masanraka, an ethnic Albanian, was not able to see the Jonza bloom in his hometown of
Gilan this year. Serb soldiers drove his family out before the flower bloomed in early
March.
He is one of nearly 1,800 refugees from Kosova airlifted to sanctuary here from the
Balkans since last week. A fourth planeload of 482 refugees -- 369 adults, 103 children
and 10 infants -- arrived at 7:30 this morning.
Masanraka meticulously outlined the flower on cream-colored construction paper Tuesday,
then added gold glitter to make the drawing sparkle.
"He might not ever see the flower again -- that's why he's drawing it," said
Burhan Skenderi, an Albanian interpreter, who choked back tears as he translated for the
teen-ager.
"Clearly, children have different ways of coping with these kinds of
experiences," said Dr. Esther Deblinger, clinical director of the Center for Children
Support at the UMDNJ School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. "A lot of children
find it easier to express their worries and concerns through nonverbal mechanisms such as
through artwork or play."
About 200 refugee youngsters of all ages packed into a gym Tuesday at this military
installation for arts and crafts activities. Some strung together multicolored beads or
drew in coloring books.
Gov. Christie Whitman stopped in the gym briefly to help distribute 1,000 plush stuffed
animals donated by a New Jersey toy company. She also circled the room, pausing to peer at
the children's drawings.
"You realize how much they left behind," Whitman told reporters later. She said
the smiles on the youngsters' faces reflected "the brightness of spirit, common to
children around the world."
Their drawings told the story of war through the eyes of children.
Sinan Zogaj, 11, depicted the killing of a cousin by Serb soldiers. A drawing showed his
cousin standing outside as tanks fired on her house, while another depicted NATO forces
coming to liberate his village and bombing the Serbs.
A young girl drew a picture of her home before the Serbian attacks: a quaint house with a
wooden fence and a tranquil river nearby. "That's a beautiful picture," the
interpreter told her.
There also were sentimental pictures: a sketch of 16th-century Albanian war hero and a
doubled-headed black Eagle -- a symbol from the Albanian flag.
Some youngsters like Shpetim Zymberi drew pictures reflecting their dreams: that Kosova
will one day be free and that the refugees will be able to return home. Above one drawing
he wrote, "KLA" -- which stands for the Kosova Liberation Army.
"That's the only hope for Albanian people for freedom," Zymberi, 15, said
through an interpreter. The teen-ager was separated from his family when they were forced
to flee Ferizaj and he came to the United States alone from a camp in Macedonia.
Zymberi, the son of an artist, also made a sketch of Skenderbeu, an Albanian hero who was
taken from his home by Turkish soldiers and trained to fight. Skenderbeu later returned to
liberate Kosova.
"He always remembered his homeland," said Skenderi, referring to the hero
Albanians say is the equivalent of George Washington to Americans. "He's very famous
among Albanians."
There were also drawings of life in the United States, like the picture by Florim Korqa,
10, showing U.S. Army soldiers playing soccer with refugee children in the Village area at
Fort Dix where the refugees are housed.
"They're very thankful to the American people," Skenderi said.
By the end of the week, officials say more than 2,500 Albanian refugees will be at Fort
Dix awaiting processing and placement. Additional flights are scheduled to arrive Friday
and Saturday. No flights have yet been scheduled beyond Saturday.
The United States has agreed to accept 20,000 of the ethnic Albanians who have fled Kosova
to neighboring countries. They will be housed temporarily at Fort Dix or placed directly
with sponsors or relatives.
The first family to be resettled from Fort Dix -- a couple with one child -- is expected
to leave the base Thursday, said Lisa Swenarski, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. She said no further information about the family or its
destination would be released before Thursday. An additional one to four families could
leave the base by the end of the week, she said.
"We're trying to get people resettled as quickly as possible to open up more
room," Swenarski said.
Swenarski also said that facilities at Fort Dix were being expanded to handle up to 4,200
refugees at one time -- 1,200 more than originally planned. A second housing area, to be
called "The Hamlet," was being prepared to receive them, Swenarski said.