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April 7, 1999 STENKOVEC, Macedonia (CNN) -- A senior NATO military commander said Wednesday the organization desperately needs help in caring for tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees transported to new tent cities in Macedonia. British Brig. Gen. Tim Cross, who is in charge of aid operations at the Stenkovec tent city just south of the border with Kosovo, told CNN that, given the hot weather, sanitation was a key priority. "My principal concern is sanitation. The weather has been very hot today ... Deep-trench latrines need replacing, and we need people in here to help us," British Brig. Gen. Tim Cross told CNN's Matthew Chance at the 1,400-tent camp at Stenkovec. "What we have done thus far is 'coped.' But I'm not sanguine about the next 48 hours," Cross said, adding that the refugees needed showers and privacy after their ordeal. He said similar aid was needed at other camps in Macedonia, where NATO has been providing food, medical aid and shelter.
Thousands move to new refugee centersNATO officials said Macedonian authorities moved between 25,000 and 30,000 Kosovo refugees from the squalid Blace camp, close to the Macedonia-Kosovo border, to Stenkovec overnight. After hours of uncertainty, Macedonian officials announced Wednesday that about 10,000 other refugees from the Blace site had been transported to Albania. Some ethnic Albanians from Blace already had been moved to the NATO-run Brazda tent city over the past few days.
Aid workers criticize MacedoniaAid workers sharply criticized Macedonia for its handling of the Blace evacuation, saying refugees were hustled away without being told where they were going, and some families were separated. "These buses arrived unannounced with no forewarning and no information about their destinations," said a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva. Cross told CNN that the agency and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had set up a registration system to reunite refugee families. He said only families who wanted to leave the region would be supported by NATO to do so. Many refugees told CNN they want to stay in the area and eventually return to Kosovo. NATO nations have pledged to temporarily accommodate tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees.
Yugoslavia closes borders
Aid officials in Albania also stepped up the construction of refugee tent cities and other support facilities in the northern refugee collection point of Kukes. While those aid efforts were well under way, Yugoslavia appeared to suddenly change its policy Wednesday when it closed its border with Albania and Macedonia, preventing thousands of would-be refugees from leaving Kosovo. Refugees in Kukes told CNN's Catherine Bond that security forces told them to turn back. The authorities apparently told the ethnic Albanians that it was safe for them to return home, the OSCE said. Many of the refugees who escaped to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro told CNN correspondents that Serb forces forced them from their homes, seized all their belongings and money, and randomly executed some ethnic Albanians.
More food aid soughtThe U.N.'s World Food Program said Wednesday it had appealed to donor nations for a further $24.1 million "to save lives of Kosovar refugees" in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, bringing to $46.3 million the total cost of its aid operations in the region. The U.N. food agency said if the number of refugees fleeing the violence in Kosovo rises to more than 650,000, the organization will need even more money.
RELATED STORIES: NATO rejects cease-fire, resumes bombing YugoslaviaRELATED SITES: Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites
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