[kcc-news] May 08, 1999New wave of Kosovo refugees crosses into Albania (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

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New wave of Kosovo refugees crosses into Albania

MORINA, Albania, May 8 (AFP) - More than 5,300 refugees crossed into Albania
here Saturday, a majority of them coming from western Kosovo where they
reported new shelling and rampages by Serb forces.
Representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the
influx had slowed somewhat since the morning, when refugees had arrived at
the border in large numbers by tractor from the Pec region in western
Kosovo.

The latest groups were arriving mainly on foot from Zur, some six kilometers
(four miles) from the border where they had been dropped off by buses, the
officials said.

Residents of Djakovica, in southwest Kosovo, also reported fighting over
night.

Trailing the tractors during the morning were dozen of passenger cars,
followed by people on foot who came mainly from the Pristina region,
officials said.

Some of the latest arrivals said they had tried to cross the border into
Macedonia by train but had been turned back two days ago and had returned to
their villages, leaving again Saturday morning.

Earlier, UNHCR spokesman Ray Wilkinson said that 4,042 people passed through
this border post in northern Albania by midday and more were on the way.

The influx was in sharp contrast to the previous two days, when the border
was calm. Wilkinson said that only 569 refugees came through Morina on
Friday, most of them fleeing from the southern Kosovo city of Prizren.

Most of the refugees arriving early Saturday rolled through on tractors,
their families huddled in trailers covered with plastic sheeting. A
procession of cars started to arrive in the afternoon.

They told AFP they had come mainly from the region around the town of Pec in
western Kosovo, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the Albanian border.

"We hid in the hills for a week because the Serbs were burning down our
villages," one mother said. She said her husband was beaten and two of her
neighbors hauled off by masked men in military garb who surrounded their
group.

"They said they were going to kill them, and they ordered us to leave,
pointing their rifles at us," she said. "We don't know what happened to the
two men."

Wilkinson said that the villages and hills around Pec had apparently become
a target in the Serbs' campaign to rid the province of Albanian Kosovars.

An elderly man listed two dozen people from his village who he said were
killed by the Serbs after one of their men was slain by soldiers of the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Some of the women refugees passing through here said they saw tanks hidden
in the trees. They said they crossed a bridge near the town of Djakovica
which the Serbs had camouflaged to protect it against NATO air strikes.

"They stole our jewels," one of them said. "They threatened us and demanded
our money."

Entire families burst into tears on arriving at the border checkpoint,
having left behind a brother, cousin or friend in Kosovo where they were
taken away by Serb police or para-military troops.



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