Almost 400,000 people flee Kosovo: UNHCR<\/p>\n
GENEVA (Reuters): The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR,
\nsaid on Monday almost 400,000 people had fled Kosovo since NATO
\nbegan bombing Yugoslavia last month.<\/p>\n
The Geneva-based agency also reported that some of the tens of
\nthousands trapped in squalid conditions in no-man's land at the
\nMacedonian border had been allowed to move to a transit camp
\ninside the former Yugoslav republic.<\/p>\n
UNHCR, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is
\nthe United Nations' main humanitarian agency for the Balkans
\nregion. This means it has responsibility for coordinating efforts
\nto help the Kosovo refugees.<\/p>\n
UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata has convened an emergency meeting to
\ndiscuss the refugee crisis for Tuesday in Geneva. Representatives
\nof 56 nations have been invited to attend.<\/p>\n
NATO and the refugees streaming out of the Serbian province
\nsay Yugoslav forces have stepped up their campaign of \"ethnic
\ncleansing\" in the area, forcing ethnic Albanians to leave, since
\nthe alliance began its bombing campaign on March 24.<\/p>\n
UNHCR said its latest total for the number of refugees who
\nhave left Kosovo was composed of 226,000 people who had arrived
\nin Albania, 120,000 in Macedonia, 35,700 in Montenegro, 7,900 in
\nBosnia and 6,000 in Turkey.<\/p>\n
\"By tomorrow morning it's going to be 430,000. It's growing by
\n30,000 a day,\" UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told Reuters.
\nUNHCR said a transit camp set up to deal with the estimated
\n65,000 people stranded in no-man's land close to the Macedonian
\nborder town of Blace had received its first refugees.<\/p>\n
\"The operation began unexpectedly, in the dead of night late
\nSunday when Macedonian authorities sent 11 buses without any
\nwarning to the site,\" the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It said around 2,000 people had been bused to the camp at
\nBrazda. The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said its staff on the
\nground had also reported the arrival of refugees at the camp.<\/p>\n
The WFP's Geneva-based spokeswoman, Christiane Berthiaume,
\nsaid the flow of refugees into the camp was very slow. \"We still
\ndon't have access to the people in no-man's land,\" she added,
\nsaying only the local Red Cross was permitted to tend to the tens
\nof thousands not yet allowed over the border and stranded in a
\nmuddy field without even basic sanitation.<\/p>\n
Berthiaume told Reuters the WFP had begun airlifting food
\nsupplies into the crisis areas and the number of flights would be
\nstepped up over the next few days.<\/p>\n
Janowski said Tuesday's emergency meeting of a forum called
\nthe Humanitarian Issues Working Group, originally set up to deal
\nwith the Bosnia crisis, would allow different countries and
\nagencies to pool information.<\/p>\n
\"It won't take any particular decisions. It's more to compare
\nnotes and draw attention to the gravity of the situation,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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