|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]()
|
Peace Plan Highlights | Photo Gallery | Strike Assessment | News Video Archive | Strike at a Glance | Who's Who | Roots of the Conflict | Story Archive | Links | Discussion New refugees describe forced evacuation, possible massacre
April 28, 1999
MORINA, Albania (CNN) -- A new wave of terrified Kosovo refugees poured over the border into Albania on Wednesday, describing scenes of mass executions and forced evacuations by Serb forces. About 4,000 Kosovars, mostly women, children and elderly men, entered Albania on Tuesday and Wednesday, the largest influx since more than 40,000 people crossed at Morina from April 16-18. Many of the refugees said Serb police ordered them to flee their homes and then separated young men from the group near the village of Meja. Some said they heard gunshots behind them as they were forced to move down the road. Ethnic Albanians who later passed Meja on their way to Albania reported seeing scores of male bodies beside the road. "I saw 150 bodies in the field, all piled together," said one man. While it was impossible to independently verify the accounts, the U.N. refugee agency said similarities among the accounts pointed to new atrocities and possibly a massacre. "The stories ... seem to indicate that a lot more people have been killed over the past few days ... than in any other single case of attack before," said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Relief workers see evidence of tortureAs NATO's air war against Yugoslavia continues, relief workers say, the Serbs are making ethnic Albanians pay an ever-increasing price. Ajmal Khybari, a UNHCR official at the Morina border crossing, said many of the refugees show signs of mistreatment consistent with "a pattern of trauma." "We have seen some of them who have been wounded and some of them have been brutally tortured," Khybari said. "There were wounds on their faces. Some had fractured bones in their limbs." Meanwhile, France's ambassador to Macedonia called Wednesday for a "humanitarian corridor" to help refugees flee from Kosovo into Albania and said Macedonian camps were at the saturation point. Jacques Huntzinger told French television that there was a need for a "transit, with the agreement of governments, toward the Albanian border." More refugees push Macedonian camps to the limitAnother 4,000 refugees lined up to cross from the strife-torn Serbian province of Kosovo into Macedonia on Wednesday, as U.N. relief workers warned that the country's refugee camps were overflowing. "Blace is full," said Ron Redmond, part of the U.N. staff in Macedonia.
As many as 5,000 refugees passed through Blace on Tuesday, following an influx of 3,500 on Monday. Aid officials warned that overcrowding in the refugee camps could lead to unrest, perhaps rioting. At Stenkovec, where as many as 40,000 refugees are awaiting transfer away from the border, aid workers say the camps have exceeded their capacity. The need for more water and sanitation facilities is a major problem. Macedonian officials have given the go-ahead for UNHCR to start building one of three additional refugee camps it has requested. The new camp could be in service as early as Friday and will hold about 10,000 people, relief workers told CNN. Correspondents Jane Arraf and Bill Hemmer and The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Children reported killed when NATO bomb missed target RELATED SITES: Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top |
© 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |