YUGOSLAVIA/MACEDONIA/ALBANIA: AIR WORKERS IN THE BALKANS CONTINUE IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO COPE WITH THE TIDE OF REFUGEES FLEEING KOSOVO

Record ID: 565769

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA/MACEDONIA/ALBANIA: AIR WORKERS IN THE BALKANS CONTINUE IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO COPE WITH THE TIDE OF REFUGEES FLEEING KOSOVO
  • Date: 1st April 1999
  • Summary: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, MONTENEGRO/KOSOVO BORDER, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 31, 1999)(REUTERS) 1. LV/SV/SLV REFUGEES WALKING ALONG ROAD, DEEP SNOW ON EITHER SIDE, CARRYING CHILDREN AND BELONGINGS (4 SHOTS) 0.42 2. SV/SLV STEADY STREAM OF REFUGEES COMING ALONG MOUNTAIN ROAD (3 SHOTS) 1.20 3. MCU (English) UNIDENTIFIED MAN: "We start, we come from Pec, we start at 8 o'clock and we are so tired. It's terrible." 1.34 4. SV/LV VARIOUS OF REFUGEES WALKING ALONG MOUNTAIN ROAD (3 SHOTS) 2.04 BLACE, MACEDONIA , APRIL 1, 1999 (REUTERS) 5. LV/SV REFUGEES SEATED IN FIELD (8 SHOTS) 3.03 6. SLV REFUGEES WASHING IN RIVER/ CHILDREN PLAYING BESIDE RAILWAY TRACK (2 SHOTS) 3.25 7. SLV REFUGEES QUEUING FOR WATER 3.33 TIRANA, ALBANIA, MARCH 31 (REUTERS) 8. SLV REFUGEES BOARDING BUSES 3.37 9. CU/SLV REFUGEES LOOKING THROUGH WONDOW/BUSES DEPARTING (2 SHOTS) 3.48 10. MCU REFUGEES ABOARD BUSES (2 SHOTS) 3.55 ELBASAN, ALBANIA, MARCH 31 (REUTERS) 11. SLV/LAS BUSES ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 4.05 12. SV/SLV REFUGEES ARGUING WITH ALBANIAN POLICE (3 SHOTS) 4.20 13. PAN EXTERIOR BARRACKS 4.26 14. SV/MCU REFUGEES GETTING OFF BUSES/ WOMAN WEEPING (2 SHOTS) 4.38 KUKES, ALBANIA MARCH 31, 1999 (REUTERS) 15. SLV REFUGEE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL 4.41 16. SV/CU INJURED WOMAN AND CHILDREN ON HOSPITAL BED (4 SHOTS) 4.57 17. SV INJURED WOMAN ON HOSPITAL BEDS 5.03 18. CU INJURED MAN ON HOSPITAL BED 5.10 19. SV OLD WOMAN REVEIVING TREATMENT 5.17 TIRANA, ALBANIA, MARCH 31, 1999 (REUTERS) 20. SLV GERMAN AID PLANE ON TARMAC 5.22 21. SLV/SV AID BEING UNLOADED (4 SHOTS) 5.38 22. MCU (ENGLISH) UNHCR REPRESENTATIVE CARSTEN BONTOPPIPAN SAYING THERE THEY ARE EXPECTING MUCH MORE AID TO COPE WITH THE INFLUX OF REFUGEES 5.58 23. SLV AID BEING UNLOADED 6.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th April 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, MONTENEGRO/KOSOVO BORDER, YUGOSLAVIA/BLACE, MACEDONIA/TIRANA, ALBANIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAOC569CDWDERCBJKQB8T35ZVZ
  • Story Text: Aid workers in the Balkans continue in their struggle
    to cope with the ever-growing tide of refugees who are fleeing
    Kosovo as the humanitarian crisis in the region deepens.

    New waves of refugees from Yugoslavia's Kosovo province
    limped into neighbouring countries on Wednesday (March 31),
    intensifying pressure on authorities seeking Western help to
    shelter some 100,000 people forced from their homes.

    Officials from the U.N.High Commissioner for Refugees
    said 11,000 ethnic Kosovo Albanians, each relating attacks and
    expulsions by Serbian forces, had moved south into Albania
    within 24 hours, bringing the total influx to 95,000.

    They said more were likely to follow.

    In Macedonia, some of the latest arrivals claimed to be
    the last surviving ethnic Albanians from the town of Pec, in
    western Kosovo, which they said was now completely ethnically
    cleansed by the Serbs.

    One of them said it had been a difficult passage to the border.

    Thousands of ethnic Albanians were taken by bus from the
    border town of Blace to camps near the capital, Skopje, after
    being rounded up by Serb forces in Kosovo's main towns and
    herded aboard trains at gunpoint.

    Kosovan refugees unhappy with conditions they are being
    offered in certain towns in Albania argued with Albanian
    police on wednesday.

    The refugees - despite having walked dozens of miles to
    reach the Albanian border from Kosovo - refused to be
    accomodated in a military barracks in Elbasan.They said that
    the accomodation was good enough for soldiers but not for
    families and children.The refugees had earlier been taken
    from Tirana to Elbasan.Refugee centres in Tirana could no
    longer cope with the numbers.

    In Kukes 50 adults and 30 children are recovering in
    hospital from what they described as their ordeal at the hands
    of Serbian paramilitaries burning villages and pushing ethnic
    Albanians out of Kosovo to avenge NATO bombings of Yugoslav targets.

    Meanwhile A German Air Force Boeing 707 carrying 14 tonnes
    of rice and other assorted aid arrived in Tirana.the aid was
    expected to be sent to ethnic Albanian refugees from kosovo in
    locations such as Kukes.

    UNHCR spokesman Carsten Bontoppipan said that the aid
    agencies were being overwhelmed with refugees and that more
    aid was desperately needed.


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