Kosova Crisis Center - Refugee News
link to alb-net
Direct reports from the area confirm hundreds of deaths due to starvation in Drenica region in Kosova.
Below you can read about the aid being distributed to people that have already left Kosova. What will happen to close to one million Albanians still in Kosova???
18 April 1999
AT A GLANCE
Four refugees were killed and more than 20 wounded early Sunday morning when a mine
exploded while they were waiting to enter Albania at Morini.
The influx continued with around 24,000 refugees arriving on Saturday in Albania (20,000)
and Macedonia (FYROM) (4,000).
The estimated total numbers of refugees are 359,000 in Albania and 132,700 in Macedonia
(FYROM). An additional 73,000 Kosovars have been displaced to Montenegro.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
ALBANIA
A mine explosion among Kosovar refugees waiting in no man’s land at the Morini border
point at 2:40 Sunday morning killed one elderly woman and three children, and injured over
20 other refugees, according to UNHCR and NGO staff present at the time.
The explosion hit a tractor which was stopped between concrete blocks which mark the
actual border between the two countries and the Albanian frontier post.
There were an estimated 50-100 refugees in no man’s land at the time. There was
initial confusion about the nature of the explosion, and UNHCR and NGO staff who were at
Morini withdrew to about 1 km from the border, fearing a mortar attack. They reported that
automatic weapons fire could be heard as far as a kilometer away from the border.
The most seriously wounded were evacuated by ambulance to the hospital in Kukes.
During the two previous days, a growing number of refugees fleeing Kosovo bore war wounds.
On Friday, 16 April, 23 people crossing at Morini had bullet or shrapnel wounds, with four
of the victims under five years of age. On that day another 25 refugees showed signs of
severe beatings by Serbian troops.
Many of the newly arriving refugees are generally extremely weak, UNHCR staff report, with
many walking for three or four days to the border. All those arriving on foot are
transported, around the clock, to Kukes, in 20 trucks operated by UNHCR and other
agencies.
Additional buses are being sent from Tirana to help decongest Kukes. More than 100,000
refugees are now in the northern town, and aid workers worked all night pitching 70 large
tents. UNHCR and NGOs are working urgently to expand four transit camps to accommodate an
additional 38,000 refugees.
MACEDONIA (FYROM)
At least 4,000 refugees entered Macedonia on Saturday after arriving by train, bus and on
foot. The new arrivals crossed at the Blace and Jazince border posts and through the
mountains, where they entered at a Macedonian border village called Male Malina.
There were no additional arrivals during the night between Saturday and Sunday in
Macedonia. However, over the past several days groups of refugees have appeared regularly
by train and bus in the late morning.
At Blace, passengers on a train sent by Serbian authorities from Urosevac were reportedly
then prevented by the Yugoslav border officials from leaving Kosovo if they could not
produce valid identity documents. Refugees who were able to leave told UNHCR that the
people turned back were not just men, but included whole families. Many people elected to
stay in Kosovo with family members when one of the group was not allowed to cross to
Macedonia owing to lack of documents.
Refugees who arrived at the village of Male Malina on foot said they came from the area of
Gnjilane, and had been walking for 21 hours straight. They said they had left their houses
in villages around Gnjilane on Friday morning when villages were set on fire.
Male Malina is located 60 km north of Skopje, in a mountainous area to the east of the
General Jankovic road.The population is mainly of Albanian origin, and the 600 inhabitants
have taken more than three times that number into their homes, with dozens of refugees
crowding into many residences. On Sunday UNHCR immediately sent a convoy of food aid to
the village.
350 tents which were set up to expand capacity at Stankovec 1 are to be dismantled today
after disagreements with local farmers over the expansion of the camp. 150 of the tents
are already occupied by families. Macedonian authorities had agreed in principle to the
expansion of the camp. UNHCR continues to work on practical arrangements for enlarging
this and other sites.
MONTENEGRO
After large numbers of displaced Kosovars crossed the border during the week, arrivals on
Saturday seem to have dropped off sharply, with only around 140 persons registered at the
Rozaje checkpoint during the day on 17 April. The new arrivals in the night of 16-17 April
and during the day of 17 April came in tractors and private vehicles and reportedly
orginated from Mitrovica. They said they were part of a long column of vehicles being
pushed toward Pec. In Pec, security forces redirected the great majority toward Albania,
and only some were sent toward Montenegro. One family reported having been separated in
this manner, with some family members on one tractor obliged to head for Albania, and
others sent to Montenegro.
The road to Montenegro is not favored by displaced people due to Serbian police
checkpoints along the way. Around 25 of the new arrivals had been badly beaten and needed
medical treatment by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff on arrival in Rozaje. The
security situation for the Kosovars in Rozaje remains worrisome, in view of the presence
of Yugoslav army forces nearby.
Rozaje, which houses over 20,000 displaced people, is under enormous strain from the
continuing arrival of Kosovars. The mayor met on Saturday with directors of factories and
requested their permission to continue to use their buildings to house displaced people.
Meanwhile, UNHCR continues to try to mobilize NGOs to work in Montenegro, and in Rozaje
specifically. International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) have
made assessment visits, as has the German NGO called Help.
On Saturday, UNHCR reunited a 15-year-old Kosovar girl with her mother. The child had fled
to Montenegro where she was living in Ulcinj with friends from her home town of Pec, while
her mother had fled to Albania. UNHCR arranged for the two to be reunited at the Bozaj
border crossing between Montenegro and Albania.
The situation in the coastal municipality of Ulcinj, where around 25,000 displaced
Kosovars are living, is stable. In Ulcinj town, no incidents of harassment of displaced
people and no presence of Yugoslav military has been reported. However, there is a much
stronger Yugoslav military presence in the border area, which is not considered secure for
displaced people.
HUMANITARIAN EVACUATION PROGRAM
On Saturday, 17 April, 314 refugees were flown out of Skopje to Germany on two flights.
UNHCR is beginning evacuations to a number of new countries, upon completion of the
movement to Germany of the first 10,000 refugees whom that country agreed to take in.
France and Belgium will start receiving refugees today, 18 April, while movements to
Poland are due to begin on Monday 19 April. Departures to Turkey will resume on Tuesday 20
April.
A number of countries outside of Europe, including Australia, Canada and the United
States, have generously offered to take in Kosovo refugees under the humanitarian
evacuation program. UNHCR has not yet asked countries outside of Europe to activate their
offers, although this may become necessary on very short notice, depending on the
evolution of the situation.
For more news, visit http://www.unhcr.ch
To search for your relatives, visit http://www.refugjat.org