KLA pressure male refugees to return to fight
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Gjegjan, Albania
Updated at 9.07am:
Kosovo rebels were stopping tens of thousands of
ethnic Albanians as they fled the Serbian province and
sending many of the men back across the border to fight
the Serbs.
Kosovo Liberation Army rebels have set up several
checkpoints along the main road near the
Kosovo-Albania border, looking for male refugees of
fighting age.
''The KLA is recruiting soldiers for the army to go back
and fight,'' said Binak Likaj, 23. ''I'd like to go if my
family will let me.''
Meanwhile, European Union Commissioner for
Refugees Emma Bonino and Gunter Verheugen,
Germany's European Affairs' Minister, arrived in
Albania on Wednesday (early Thursday, Hong Kong
time) and pledged more aid for refugees. Ms Bonino
said the European Union would provide an additional
US$12 million (HK$93m) while Mr Verheugen
announced Germany plans to send some US$14 million
worth of aid.
He also called on Nato to continue its bombing
campaign.
It was unclear how many men have joined the KLA
since tens of thousands of terrified Kosovo Albanians
began streaming over the border last weekend, when
Serb police and soldiers began systematically forcing
ethnic Albanians from the province.
It also was unclear how much coercion had been used
to persuade men and boys to leave their families and
report to makeshift camps, which the rebels maintain in
the hills a few kilometers west of the border.
Some travellers said they have seen KLA fighters taking
men off buses that have been ferrying refugees from
nearby Kukes to other towns and cities in Albania for
resettlement.
Many ethnic Albanian men fleeing Kosovo are torn
between fear, loyalty to their homeland, and their
responsibilities to care for mothers, wives and children
who face an uncertain future as refugees.
''They are stopping young guys,'' said Tefik Kryeziu, 21,
who fled the village of southwestern village of Rogova.
''What can I do? If I'm asked to go and fight, I will. But
it's all on fire there, and we'll get killed.''
His mother, who refused to give her name, had other
ideas.
''We want him to come with us,'' she said, tugging at her
son's arm. ''He has to look after us. If he doesn't, who
will?''
At an electric power substation about 12 kilometres
southwest of the border, about 10 KLA fighters,
wearing fatigue uniforms with the red and black KLA
patch, milled around a group of refugees who had
parked the tractors, small cars and a few trucks which
had brought them from Kosovo.
A 30-year-old male refugee, Asllan Kryeziu, said he
was willing to return and fight but only after he knew his
wife and three children would have a safe place to stay.
''It's not suicide to go and fight for Kosovo's
independence,'' he said. ''We've left behind a lot of
property. My uncle has worked 20 years in Germany
and everything we've got is there (in Kosovo.) We are
not immigrants. That's where we belong. And we're not
giving it up that easily.'' |
