- Title: ALBANIA: SEVERAL HUNDRED REFUGEES CROSS INTO ALBANIA FROM KOSOVO
- Date: 2nd June 1999
- Summary: MORINA, ALBANIA (JUNE 2, 1999)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV TO HILLS IN BORDER AREA 0.03 2. SV ALBANIAN POLICEMAN SPEAKING TO OSCE OBSERVERS IN VEHICLE 0.08 3. SLV MALE KOSOVO ALBANIAN REFUGEES WALKING DOWN ROAD, MAN CARRYING CHILD ON HIS BACK 0.33 4. SV DONKEY LOADED WITH BELONGINGS 0.45 5. SLV MEN WALKING DOWN ROAD 0.49 6.
- Embargoed: 17th June 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MORINA, ALBANIA
- Country: Albania
- Reuters ID: LVA8OQU6X0UMMKAK2H3LHGJ7G09M
- Story Text: Several hundred male refugees, with some women and
young children among them, have crossed into Albania from
Kosovo.Some of the men told how they had been beaten by
Serbs.
There was a sense of death coming from all sides at
Morina on Wednesday (June 2), as NATO fighters boomed overhead
and Serbian artillery hit points near villages just three kms
(two miles) away.
For the first time, the UNHCR refugee agency had to look
closely to work out whether passing tractors were filled with
traumatised Kosovo Albanians fleeing Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's forces or local villagers afraid NATO
would make another mistake.
Only the trail of exhausted and parched refugees trudging
through Morina -- some fresh from the Serb prison of
Smrekonica with bruises and emaciation to show for their
treatment -- seemed relieved to be there.
Increasingly intense fighting around nearby villages has
forced the UNHCR to retreat a few kms (miles) closer to Kukes,
meaning the refugees had to go further to find food and water.
"It's dangerous here!" an Organisation for Security and
Cooperation for Europe officer shouted as refugees stopped to
talk to reporters.
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