MACEDONIA: KOSOVO CRISIS: KOSOVO REFUGEES LATEST (2) скачать в хорошем качестве

MACEDONIA: KOSOVO CRISIS: KOSOVO REFUGEES LATEST (2)

(1 Apr 1999) Albanian/Nat Thousands upon thousands of refugees are still travelling to the Kosovo-Macedonia border, where authorities are allowing them to cross to safety. Many are tearful, telling their accounts of atrocities they have witnessed. Aid agencies are now stepping up operations to ease the difficulties caused by the huge influx of people at the border. And to alleviate the pressure on resources near the border, more than 1-thousand refugees are being moved to relative safety deeper inside Macedonia. Thousands more refugees are streaming out of the embattled Serbian province of Kosovo. Many claim Serb police burned their homes, herded them into trains and shipped them off to neighboring Macedonia. Macedonia was blocking entry by Kosovo refugees. But it has finally relented and let more than ten-thousand cross the border as international officials scramble to set up refugee camps. Thousands more fled into Albania and the Yugoslav province of Montenegro. NATO say at least 118-thousand people have fled Kosovo since the bombing began a week ago. Many of these refugees had been on a train out of Kosovo. But they say Serb patrols forced them off the train, making them walk to the border. The ground on both sides of this railway line is mined. In scenes reminiscent of World War 2 the refugees stream from their homeland in queues several miles (kilometres) long. Some, too young, old or weak to walk are carried from the war zone. The newcomers joined about 14-thousand other Kosovo Albanians whom the United Nations estimates had already entered Macedonia. Some had spent more than a day in the no-man's land separating Yugoslavia and Macedonia. There are several reports that Yugoslav forces have been killing or locking up ethnic Albanian men and teenage boys in concentration camps. With international monitors gone and virtually all foreign journalists kicked out of Kosovo, the refugees' claims are impossible to verify. But almost all their stories are the same, stories of violence, persecution and expulsion. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "There have been massacres. All these people have seen houses being burned. They burned them to the ground. Escape was the only option." SUPER CAPTION: Refugee They are safer now, but the strain they're placing on Macedonia's resources is immense and aid agencies are warning the human cost of the catastrophe is likely to grow considerably. In an effort to head that off as long as possible, the aid effort is being extended. Refugees are being transported deeper into Macedonia, further from the bombing. Local Macedonian buses picked up the refugees in Blace and drove them to Cegran, a village 100 kilometres south of the border. More than 1-thousand Kosovar refugees have now arrived in the town. So far, it has been the local Albanian population in Macedonia that has coordinated a grass roots aid effort. Most of the 1500 or so refugees who have arrived in Cegran came across the border into Macedonia on Wednesday. They are being sheltered here in rudimentary houses, with only the most basic supplies. The first airlift of international aid is set to arrive at Skopje airport on Thursday afternoon and then to be distributed to villages like this one. It is at least something for the exhausted, hungry and distraught masses to look forward to. While the nightmare may not be over for these refugees, they have at least escaped the hell reported in Kosovo. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...