[kcc-news] UNHCR - Kosova Refugees Daily 17 May, 1999 (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

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http://www.unhcr.ch/news/media/daily.htm

UNHCR - Refugees Daily
A digest of the latest refugee news, as reported by the world's media.
...
Monday 17 May, 1999

Kosovo

KOSOVO: NATO BOMBS KILL 87 DISPLACED?

17 May 99 - NATO acknowledged that two bombs fired from US fighters on
Friday may have accidentally killed ethnic Albanian refugees camped out
next to a Yugoslav special police command post in Kosovo, reports the
Washington Post. While expressing regret, NATO spokesmen blamed the
deaths in Korisa on Yugoslav authorities, who they said had originally
driven the ethnic Albanians from their homes and knew of the risk of a
NATO air attack. Yugoslavia said Saturday that 87 people died in the
attack. "If there were civilians at a target that was a military
location, it wasn't NATO that brought them there," said NATO spokesman
Peter Daniel. The Los Angeles Times reports Pentagon officials sought to
deflect blame by strongly suggesting Serbian troops had used the
refugees as "human shields" against a NATO assault. The Daily Telegraph
reports the German defence ministry said more than 600 Kosovan Albanians
were held against their will in Korisa. An Albanian said he was among a
group of refugees held prisoner there. BBC News reports Serbian media
continued to focus on the "deliberate massacre" of refugees at Korisa,
with Tanjug saying it was an attempt to prevent the return of refugees.
Many other newspapers reported on this.
[NATO Says Its Bombs Hit Kosovo Refugee Campsite -
www.washingtonpost.com; Pentagon Admits Refugee Casualties, Decries
`Human Shields' - www.latimes.com; Survivor says 600 were used as human
shields - www.telegraph.co.uk; Korisa 'massacre' dominates Serb news -
http://news.bbc.co.uk]

KOSOVO: SOME RETURN, NOT HARRASSED

17 May 99 - Something strange is going on in the ethnic Albanian village
of Svetlje in northern Kosovo, once a hard-line guerrilla stronghold,
where NATO accuses Serbs of committing genocide, reports the Los Angeles
Times. An estimated 15,000 displaced ethnic Albanians live in and around
Svetlje and hundreds of young men are everywhere. By their own accounts,
the men are waiting with their families for permission to follow
thousands who have risked going back home to nearby villages because
they do not want to give up and leave Kosovo. "We wanted to stay here
where we were born," said one man through a translator. "Those who
wanted to go through Macedonia and on to Europe have already left. We
did not want to follow." Ethnic Albanians interviewed in Svetlje said
they haven't had any problems with Serbian police since the police
allowed them to come back.
[Refugees Return Home, Say They're Not Being Harassed - www.latimes.com]

KOSOVO: UN MISSION

17 May 99 - A UN exploratory mission, the first of its kind since the
start of NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, arrived in Belgrade
yesterday, to evaluate humanitarian needs in the country, especially in
Kosovo, reports AFP in Belgrade. "This is a combined humanitarian team
that will be looking obviously at emergency, humanitarian needs, at the
problem of the displaced, particularly in Kosovo," said Sergio Vieira de
Mello, the head of the team. During its 10-day visit to Yugoslavia, the
team would also be evaluating "needs of rehabilitation and
reconstruction, especially for those who would be able to return to
their homes in Kosovo," De Mello said. The UN team is composed of
representatives of a number of UN agencies, including those from the
UNHCR. The Guardian reports UNHCR has warned it will not go back until
ethnic cleansing stops and it can provide protection for more than
500,000 displaced Albanians.
[UN exploratory mission arrives in Belgrade - www.afp.com; UN risks
return to Kosovo - www.guardian.co.uk]

MACEDONIA: NEW INFLUX?

17 May 1999 - Macedonia is bracing itself for a new influx of thousands
of refugees after at least 1,200 refugees crossed the border at Blace
this weekend, reports the Financial Times. The latest flow will put
renewed pressure on Macedonia's already stretched resources. More than
45,000 refugees have been airlifted to countries outside the region, but
more than 230,000 remain there. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said: "There
are probably tens of thousands more waiting to come to Macedonia,"
adding that the latest arrivals came as word spread inside Kosovo that
it was possible again to cross the border. UNHCR had hoped to transfer
several thousand refugees from Macedonia to Albania where sites have
been identified for up to 60,000 refugees. However, only 200 people have
agreed to be moved. Many have been deterred without guaranteeing they
will still be eligible for humanitarian evacuation to countries such as
Germany, Canada and the US. The BBC News reports UNHCR officials say
some of the new refugees were driven from their homes by Serbian police
while others, mainly from Urosevac, were prevented from buying food by
Serbian authorities and so had no choice but to leave. New York Times
adds refugees arriving in Macedonia said Yugoslav forces have killed
more than 100 civilians in villages in the Drenica region.
[Macedonia braced for big new Kosovar influx - www.ft.com; Refugees say
Serbs withhold food - http://news.bbc.co.uk; Refugees Report Slaughter
Of Civilians In Kla Region - www.nytimes.com]

MACEDONIA: PRESIDENT URGES FASTER EVACUATIONS

17 May 99 - President Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia yesterday urged the
west to speed up the evacuation of Kosovo refugees from his country, as
Hillary Clinton, the US first lady, toured the country's crowded refugee
camps, reported the Financial Times this weekend. Gligorov, in an
interview, singled out Britain, France and Italy as "lagging behind"
other states in accepting refugees. He promised Macedonia would keep
open its borders to new arrivals thought to be on their way from Kosovo.
But he said the pledge was "linked" to European Union countries
fulfilling their promises to take 100,000 refugees. "This should move at
a much faster pace in order to create room for more refugees here and
enable us to keep to international conventions [on refugees] of which we
are signatories." President Gligorov also urged the west to provide more
money for refugee aid and to buy more supplies locally to help support
the Macedonian economy.
[Macedonia calls on west to speed up the evacuation of refugees -
www.ft.com]

MACEDONIA: HILLARY CLINTON, VIPs VISIT

17 May 99 - US First Lady Hillary Clinton visited Macedonia on Friday
morning, to highlight the plight of Kosovan refugees and assure
Macedonia that the US understands the stress that the influx has placed
on it, reports the Los Angeles Times. At Brazda refugee camp, Mrs.
Clinton announced the release of the first US$2m in a US$21m economic
development package for Macedonia to help it create new small
businesses. Several of the refugees with whom Mrs. Clinton spoke, said
they were happy and surprised by her visit. They did not know she was
coming until about an hour before she stopped into their tent. AFP
reports almost every day some jet-setting VIP pops in to walk the dusty
rows of crowded tents, chat with Kosovans, and beg the world not to
forget their plight. Others last week included actors Roger Moore and
Vanessa Redgrave; Bianca Jagger; Italian President Oscar Scalfaro; and
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
expected this week. The Guardian adds that aid agencies, facing signs of
compassion fatigue, know there's no business like show business to keep
donations coming in.
[First Lady Hears Heart-Rending Story From Refugee Mother -
www.latimes.com; VIPs lend celebrity glitter to Kosovo refugee camps -
www.afp.com; Showbiz aid cuts compassion fatigue - www.guardian.co.uk]

ALBANIA: FEW CROSS BORDER AMID BOMBING

17 May 99 - NATO jets pounded Yugoslav targets close to the main border
point between Kosovo and Albania for the fifth consecutive day on
Saturday as only a handful of refugees came across, reports Reuters.
Relief officials said it was not clear if the flow had been reduced in
recent days because refugees feared being caught by NATO fire while
heading for the border. Eyewitnesses reported at least 10 explosions by
midday aimed mainly at the Kosovo town of Zhur beyond the border
crossing at Morina, near Kukes. The refugees crossing into Albania on
Saturday included an injured man carried by two others. He was said to
have been wounded by Serb shelling near the town of Meja.
[Fighting, few refugees, at Albanian border - www.reuters.com]

ALBANIA: 'EMERGENCY' ENDS

17 May 99 - The Albanian government has overcome the "emergency stage"
of the humanitarian crisis caused by the influx of about 430,000
refugees from Kosovo, Information Minister Musa Ulqini said on Saturday,
reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "We are now working on a medium-term
programme for the refugees," said Ulqini. Refugee camps have been set up
in several cities of Albania. The government has also turned formerly
factories, military buildings, dormitories and other public facilities
into refugee accommodation centres throughout the country. Ulqini also
said that for the first time, after several days of evacuation, the
number of refugees in Kukes had fallen below the figure of 100,000.
About 6,500 refugees were evacuated in 48 hours. But the Los Angeles
Times reports UNHCR's mass evacuation has taken less than 10% of the
displaced Kosovans southward since it began Friday, but officials expect
the pace to accelerate as new accommodation opens for 160,000 people
along Albania's coast. "We have always said that refugee camps shouldn't
be set up on borders. There is the risk of shelling, the risk of
spillover of the conflict and the risk of infiltration of non-refugee
elements," said UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic. But only those sleeping
in the open or under plastic sheets are being swayed by the call to move
out of Kukes.
[Refugee 'emergency stage' overcome, Albanian minister says -
www.dpa.com; Many Refugees May Have to Move Again - www.latimes.com]

ALBANIA: KOSOVANS KILLED ON BOAT TO ITALY

17 May 1999 - At least three Kosovan refugees died overnight Saturday
when a boat smuggling more than 40 refugees from Albania to Italy hit a
reef in the bay of Vlora off the southwestern Albanian coast, Italian
officials said, reports AFP. The bodies of a woman and two children were
found by Italian customs and navy boats, who carried out the rescue
operation, said Captain Bruno Biagi. Thirty-nine others were injured in
the accident, and "it is feared that three children are still in the
water under the rocks," Biagi said, adding that the exact number of
refugees aboard the craft was unknown. The smugglers fled the scene, he
added. It is not yet known how the accident, which occurred shortly
after midnight, happened. Thirty-eight of the injured were being treated
in a Vlora refugee camp run by the Italians, while one seriously injured
child was hospitalised in Tirana, Biagi said.
[At least three Kosovo refugees die in boat wreck off Albania -
www.afp.com]

MONTENEGRO: SERBS SEIZE MEN FLEEING

17 May 1999 - The Yugoslav army has seized up to 150 male Kosovo
refugees as they tried to flee to Albania and Bosnia via Montenegro,
local refugee organisations said yesterday, reports Reuters. Officials
believed that the ethnic Albanians had been transported back into
Kosovo, leaving their families stranded in Montenegro. "This is the
first time that the army has taken men and stopped people from going to
Albania. It is extremely alarming,'' said Dzema Nikaj, head of a refugee
crisis centre in Tuzi, a small southeastern town near Albania.
Montenegro's reformist government, which is strongly opposed to Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic, has denounced the army action and called
on the military to leave the border areas. The Daily Telegraph reports
the Yugoslav army tightened the noose around the increasingly
insubordinate republic of Montenegro at the weekend when it rounded up
about 100 ethnic Albanian refugees seeking sanctuary across the border
in Albania. Le Monde reports UNHCR has asked the government to relocate
refugees away from the tense border town of Rozaje.
[Yugoslav army seizes Kosovo men in Montenegro - www.reuters.com;
Montenegro refugees rounded up - www.telegraph.co.uk; Serb forces use
same methods in Montenegro's Rozaje - www.lemonde.fr]

KOSOVANS: NATO CHIEF WANTS RETURNS BY WINTER

17 May 99 - Nato chief Javier Solana has said he wants the Kosovo
Albanian refugees home this year, reports BBC News. "It is our wish, and
we are doing our best so they can return home as soon as possible, in
any case before the winter." He said he also expected to learn "dramatic
facts" of alleged atrocities of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo once
international troops had escorted the Kosovo Albanians home. The
Washington Post reports US and European officials have stepped up work
on how to restore order in Kosovo and resettle masses of refugees after
1.5 million ethnic Albanians were displaced and Kosovo's devastation
altered many of the assumptions behind peacekeeping plans drafted by
NATO before the bombing. Meanwhile Paul Rogers, professor of peace
studies at Bradford University, in the Guardian said it's time to talk.
Agree a ceasefire but insist on a UN military force in Kosovo. If it
comes to a ground war, it may not be feasible to overrun Serb forces in
Kosovo in the time-scale necessary and, even if Kosovo is occupied, the
difficulties of maintaining control may be sufficiently high to dissuade
refugees from returning. It could take up to two years to resettle the
refugees, with all the implications that entails for caring for
three-quarters of a million displaced people.
[Nato: Refugees home by winter - http://news.bbc.co.uk; NATO Plans for
More Troops in Kosovo to Handle Damage, Refugees -
www.washingtonpost.com; Exit strategy - www.guardian.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: ALBRIGHT, COOK SAY FIGHT IS RIGHT

17 May 99 - We and our NATO allies initiated a campaign in response to
ethnic cleansing in Kosovo because it was the right thing to do, say US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Foreign secretary
Robin Cook in an op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday. Continuing that
campaign is still the right thing to do. We will not stop until we have
prevailed - created the conditions under which the ethnic cleansing of
Kosovo can be reversed. It is time for a reminder of what this is all
about. We are fighting to get the refugees home, safe under our
protection. Their homes have been destroyed, their villages burned,
their lives ruined by a regime determined to achieve ethnic purity and
prepared to use cruel and violent means to achieve it. We are pursuing a
settlement under which President Slobodan Milosevic would withdraw his
forces and allow the deployment of an international security force, with
NATO at its core, thus enabling the refugees to return in safety. We
remain supportive of the political framework negotiated at Rambouillet
under which the Kosovars would enjoy genuine self-government, and the
territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would be
preserved. These are the terms of a fair settlement. If Milosevic
accepted and began to implement them immediately, the NATO air campaign
could end immediately. We are determined to persist in our efforts until
Milosevic reverses course and the people of Kosovo are able to return,
reunite and begin, with our help, to rebuild.
[The Air Campaign Remains the Right Thing to Do -
www.washingtonpost.com]

KOSOVANS: UNHCR COPES BADLY, SAYS REPORT

17 May 99 - A committee of British MPs has condemned UNHCR for its
handling of the Kosovo refugee crisis, reports BBC News. They said UNHCR
had not coped well when the crisis first broke and was still failing to
meet refugees' needs. The International Development Committee report,
published on Saturday, said: "UNHCR did not even make adequate
preparations for the volume of refugees which it itself had predicted
would flee from Kosovo . . . Several weeks into the crisis we have no
sense that UNHCR has as yet taken control of the situation, providing
clear direction, leadership and co-ordination." Committee chairman,
Conservative MP Bowen Wells, said it was no excuse that UNHCR had been
taken by surprise by the crisis. The report also highlights the failure
of UNHCR to set up a registration system for refugees after they had
their identity documents taken by Serb forces. It said little had been
done to provide proper shelter for winter or sanitation for summer. BBC
News separately reports UNHCR has attacked the report. UNHCR's London
representative, Hope Hanlon, said the criticism was "regrettable." UNHCR
was not consulted and in some cases it was based on inaccurate
information, she said. UNHCR spokeswoman Judith Kumin said observers
visit the camps for 24 hours, getting only a "snapshot" view. "It would
be much better to see them working day after day, week after week and
month after month in exhausting conditions," she said.
[UN failing Kosovo refugees: MPs + UNHCR hits back at critics -
http://news.bbc.co.uk]

KOSOVANS: COSTS COUNTED

17 May 99 - Officials in Brussels and Washington are being forced to
produce numbers, however tentative, on the eventual costs for
reconstructing the Kosovo region and taking long-term care of the
hundreds of thousands of refugees, reports the Financial Times. The job
of assessing the needs and of mobilising donors has been handed to a
special task force formed last week by officials of the World Bank and
the European Commission. Initial estimates suggest humanitarian
assistance for coping with the refugees could amount to around US$780m
based on a total of 967,000 refugees, a nine-month conflict and a
12-month period of return and resettlement. Meanwhile, Michael Emerson,
a senior researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies in
Brussels, also in the Financial Times says the European Union must add
substance to its promise to draw up a Balkan stability pact. The Balkans
need something as effective as a Marshall Plan. This should include
emergency assistance and compensation to households and local
authorities to accommodate refugees away from tent cities.
[Reconstruction costed + After the war is over - www.ft.com]

CYPRUS: SERBS FLEE BOMBS

17 May 99 - With no end in sight to the NATO bombing campaign on
Yugoslavia, growing numbers of Serbs are seeking safety in Cyprus,
taking advantage of Greek-Cypriot sympathy for their Orthodox
co-religionists, reports AFP in Nicosia. At least 120 Serb families have
applied for asylum in the island since late March, UNHCR's Cyprus
representative said. The Cyprus-Yugoslav Humanitarian Fund, a support
group which raises funds to help Serbs fleeing the war, said up to a
thousand Serb women and children had come to Cyprus via Bulgaria and
Hungary since the beginning of the NATO bombing campaign. "It's mostly
women and children coming here because a lot of the men are sending
their families away. The men don't want to leave - they are waiting for
the ground war," said a fund worker. The growing influx of Serbs fleeing
the war is hampering the authorities' ability to process applications
for full asylum.
[Serbs seek refuge from NATO bombing campaign in friendly Cyprus -
www.afp.com]

BOSNIA: SERBS SEEKING AID

17 May 1999 - The head of the Bosnian Serb refugee agency on Friday said
it did not have enough money to take care of some 30,000 Serbs who had
fled Yugoslavia since the NATO bombing campaign started on March 24,
reports Reuters. Dragan Kekic, commissioner for refugees, told the
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA that he would seek funds from UNHCR and
the Serb republic's government for food, medicine and shelter. "The
arrival of these unfortunate people - mostly women, children, elderly
and sick - has caused new problems for the Serb republic Commissioner
for Refugees, which is not in a position to find shelter and feed all of
them," he told SRNA.
[Bosnian Serbs struggle to cope with Yugo refugees - www.reuters.com]

(...)

Europe

EUROPE: APPLICANTS DROP BY 20%

17 May 99 - In spite of the escalating crisis in Kosovo, the number of
people applying for asylum in European countries in the first three
months of this year was one-fifth lower than at the end of 1998, UNHCR
said Friday, reports AP. The number of Yugoslav citizens overwhelmingly
Kosovo Albanians who made applications in 21 western and central
European countries fell from 38,000 in the last quarter of last year to
26,300 between January and March, a 31% drop. "One can only speculate on
the reason for the decline," said UNHCR spokeswoman Judith Kumin. The
blocking of traditional routes across Serbia into Central Europe could
be a factor, she said. "And the fact that most people don't have any
money any more to pay for the passage because they've either spent it or
it was taken away from them when they were leaving would explain why
there has been less movement into Western Europe than we would expect,"
Kumin added. Asylum applications by Yugoslav citizens accounted for 29%
of the 92,200 new requests made in Europe a quarter of them in Germany,
19% in Britain and 13% in Switzerland between January and March. The
total figure was down from 114,590 between October and December.
[European asylum applications drop despite Kosovo crisis - www.ap.org]

(...)

This document is intended for public information purposes only. It is
not an official UN document.


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