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World - Europe

Turkey welcomes first mass resettlement of Kosovo refugees

Refugees wait in front of an aircraft at the Skopje, Macedonia, airport bound for Turkey

related videoRELATED VIDEO
CNN's Christiane Amanpour recounts the harrowing tales of refugees arriving in Kukes, Albania (April 5)
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CNN's Mike Boettcher describes the plight of Kosovo's refugees from inside a teeming transit camp on the border Monday (April 5).
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CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports NATO countries are deploying helicopters, troops and other resources to cope with the humanitarian crisis (April 4)
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InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
Kosovo Refugees

The refugee children of Kosovo

Belgrade cruise missile strike

The Serbs and Kosovo
 ALSO:
Voices of refugees

Clinton warns Milosevic against partial compliance

More explosions in Yugoslavia; civilian casualties reported

 MESSAGE BOARD
Crisis in Kosovo
 MAPS
NATO officials describe attacks from day one through day eleven
 

Albania protests scattering of Kosovars

April 6, 1999
Web posted at: 4:32 a.m. EDT (0832 GMT)


In this story:

Hungry, weakened masses stuck in Macedonia

Albania aid base established

More food aid needed

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- Hundreds of ethnic Albanians boarded planes bound for Turkey on Monday, launching a plan to relocate more than 100,000 refugees stuck in dank, overcrowded camps near the borders of Kosovo.

Upon their arrival, the 1,360 refugees were checked by doctors and received food from aid workers. Buses and ambulances lined up outside the airport in the northwestern town of Corlu to take the refugees to their new homes 60 miles away. Some refugees also arrived in Norway.

Turkey has agreed to take in 20,000 refugees in addition to the 6,000 already settled there. The United States has offered to grant temporary asylum to 20,000 people; Germany will accept 40,000, Norway 9,000, Sweden 15,000 and Canada 5,000.

NATO is hoping to ease the growing humanitarian burden on Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, which have scrambled to handle nearly 400,000 Kosovo Albanians in less than two weeks.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said that, although some NATO countries have agreed to take in refugees, they do not intend to allow the ethnic Albanians to stay indefinitely.

"Clearly, we want the refugees to be able to go back quickly. Those NATO governments who have agreed to receive those refugees have made it clear that this is on a temporary basis," said Shea, reiterating that NATO was insisting the Yugoslav government allow the return of the refugees to restore a multiethnic Kosovo.

Although Albania alone has already been forced to accommodate more than half of the refugees, its government protested plans to resettle the ethnic Albanians across the world.

Albanian officials voiced concern that many refugees might not return to Kosovo when the crisis is over.

"Albania doesn't want to be part of the ethnic cleansing mechanism, which is forcing ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo," said Information Minister Musa Ulqini.

Foreign Minister Paskal Milo told Albanian state television that his country would accept more refugees from Macedonia.

Factory
Kosovar refugees have found temporary shelter in places like this glass factory  

"They will find shelter with their fellow Albanians and share with them the bread and salt," the traditional symbol of hospitality, Milo said.

Hungry, weakened masses stuck in Macedonia

Aid agencies said tens of thousands of refugees remained stranded in a cold and muddy no man's land between Yugoslavia and Macedonia, without proper food supplies and increasingly prone to disease.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday it was vital to get the 85,000 refugees out of the border zone, which has been barred to international aid agencies by the Macedonian authorities, who have been moving slowly in registering the incoming wave of exhausted and often traumatized refugees.

However, CNN Correspondent Mike Boettcher managed to cross into the refugee mass near the Macedonian border area of Blace. He observed people apparently suffering from bad health and sickness.

Some ethnic Albanian refugees said that a fair number of people were sick and that some had died.

"We need to get these people out," UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghebini said.

"It is terrible there. It is extremely muddy. The rain is not helping. We have already weakened people who went through a harrowing experience for four days. They waited at the border; they have not eaten," she said.

Aid
Several hundred tons of emergency food supplies have been flown in for refugees  

The UNHCR, which is coordinating aid efforts with NATO, said Monday that refugees were now being moved to the newly established transit camp in Brazda, near Blace, where they received food aid, medical assistance and shelter.

NATO said Monday it was rushing 31 flights to the Kosovo crisis region to provide 200 tons of emergency food aid to help tens of thousands of refugees huddled on the Albanian and Macedonian border.

European Union countries have begun flying food, tents, medical supplies and other equipment to Kosovo's neighbors.

NATO troops from Britain, France and Italy were setting up tents at Brazda, where eventually about 100,000 refugees were to take shelter.

The tent city will serve as one of two holding centers before the refugees are ferried to airports to be flown to other countries.

Israel, citing its own memories of persecution in Europe, sent a 100-bed army field hospital and staff to Macedonia on Tuesday to help ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was driven to act because of its memory of the Holocaust in Europe during World War II when six million Jews were killed.

"This is a humanitarian mission that the people of Israel have immediately mobilized for because we have terrible memories from the soil of Europe and we feel it's our obligation to help where we can.

The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency was also sending aid on three flights this week, the first one to the Albanian capital of Tirana. The flights will carry tents, blankets, sleeping bags, baby food and powdered milk.

Albania aid base established

NATO troops were also setting up an aid camp beside the airport in Tirana on Monday to handle relief operations.

Two U.S. military transport planes brought in supplies and equipment, including machinery for the quick unloading of aircraft. More planes were expected during the day.

"This initial element of 35 people is preparing the way for 400 to 500 professionals ... to be a larger humanitarian relief force which will provide for the reception and distribution of humanitarian relief supplies," a U.S. military spokesman said.

Sleep
Health conditions are poor for many refugees who have no shelter or food  

French military helicopters were also flying shuttle missions to and from the northern border town of Kukes, the main collecting point for refugees who were to be transported farther south in Albania.

More food aid needed

Medical officials in Kukes told CNN that many of the refugees showed signs of beating by Serb forces and wounds caused by what the refugees said was shelling of their homes by Yugoslav army and police forces.

"We have food coming in (but) we still need more ready-to-eat food," Red Cross delegate Ellem Berg Svennes told CNN in Kukes.

Germany, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, said Monday that the Union's main priority was to look after Kosovo refugees on the ground in camps.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told a news conference in London that NATO troops were stepping up coordinated aid efforts with the UNHCR but were also maintaining the NATO bombing campaign against Serb military targets in Yugoslavia.

Cook bluntly warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic there would be no peace unless he agreed to reverse his policy of driving ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.

"Don't bother offering peace unless you are prepared to reverse the ethnic cleansing of the war," Cook said.

"Peace in Kosovo without the population of Kosovo would be a hollow mockery. NATO's campaign will continue until the refugees can return to their homes under international protection," he said.


RELATED STORIES:
NATO rushing 31 aid flights to help Kosovo refugees
April 5, 1999
Aid efforts for Kosovo refugees intensified
April 5, 1999
Pentagon: Apache helicopters, more troops headed to Balkans
April 4, 1999
Russian anger at NATO attacks goes deeper than 'Slavic brotherhood'
April 4, 1999
Yugoslav official: Captured U.S. soldiers won't face trial
April 4, 1999
More blasts rock Belgrade
April 3, 1999
Kosovar says he survived burning of bodies
April 3, 1999
Montenegrin political parties agree to resist military takeover
April 3, 1999
Pentagon not reassured by Yugoslavs on captured troops
April 3, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites
  • Kosovo

Yugoslavia:
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News


Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis

Relief:
  • World Vision
  • CARE: The Kosovo Crisis
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page


Media:
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
  • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
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