(29 Mar 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat

The authorities in Montenegro are calling for international aid to help them absorb the thousands of frightened ethnic Albanians who have fled across the border from neighbouring Kosovo.

Some 11-thousand Kosovars have reached Montenegro in the past two days, with 5-thousand of them crossing the border on Monday alone.

And the crisis looks set to worsen as reports of Serbian atrocities against the ethnic Albanians continue to multiply.

Refugees from Kosovo travelling in carts, trucks and even on foot continued to pour across the border into Montenegro on Monday.

The number of refugees leaving the Serb province has grown alarmingly in the past two days as reports of Serb atrocities against the ethnic Albanians have multiplied.

Montenegran authorities estimate that some 11-thousand Kosovars have crossed the frontier since Sunday, five thousand of them on Monday alone.

To add to their misery, Montenegran police are said to have asked many of the refugees for sixty U-S dollars in order to let them cross the border.

Monday's latest arrivals, mainly women, children and elderly people, said they were expelled from the area around Pec, in southwestern Kosovo, by Yugoslav army and police forces.

VOXPOP: (Serbo-Croat)
"Just as we were about to leave, as we were loading up our things, they hit a house 30 metres (yards) away from us. They destroyed the house as a clear message to us to go as soon as possible."
SUPER CAPTION: VOX POP

Under the strain of the sheer number of refugees, the Montenegran government has asked for international aid to help absorb the new arrivals.

One-quarter of Kosovo's populace has now been made homeless since Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic launched the crackdown 13 months ago.

NATO is describing the refugee crisis as Europe's worst humanitarian disaster since World War II.

In what is being slated as a "scorched earth policy", an ethnic Albanian leader, Fehmi Agani, and other prominent ethnic Albanians are reported to have been executed.

And the fate of many ordinary ethnic Albanian Kosovars has been no less tragic.

VOXPOP: (Serbo-Croat)
"First came the army, then came the police. And they told us that we had to leave the village immediately. Then, last night we spent the night in a church. All the villagers came to spend the night in the church, waiting to see what the Serbs would do next. They set one house on fire while we were there. We left in the morning."
SUPER CAPTION: VOX POP

Judging from the current situation, with NATO planning more air strikes on Serbia on Monday night, the Serb hatred towards the ethnic Albanians is bound to grow stronger, meaning no end in sight to the refugee crisis.

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