Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yaacov who wrote (8387)	5/14/1999 3:32:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Refugees in Macedonia resist move to Albania 12:50 p.m. May 14, 1999 Eastern By Shaban Buza CEGRANE, Macedonia, May 14 (Reuters) - The number of Kosovo refugees in Macedonia is slowly diminishing as they are sent to other countries but their unwillingness to go to Albania slows the process, officials said on Friday. Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UNHCR refugee agency, said ''an educational campaign'' was being run in the camps to tell Kosovars about conditions in Albania. A camp for 6,000 people from Macedonia is ready in Albania and more room could be avaliable shortly, but so far the UNHCR, which says no one should go against their will, transferred only 150 on Monday. Redmond said most wanted to stay as close to their homes in Kosovo as possible, hoping to return quickly, but if they can't go home soon, would prefer a delevoped country in the West to a long stay in poor, refugee-crammed Albania. Macedonia's Interior Ministry said on Friday, nearly 51,000 have been moved out since the crisis started in March. It said 230,000 were in Macedonia now, down from the peak of 250,000. In the Stankovic One camp alone, the number of Kosovo Albanians went down to 18,000 from 29,500 it housed on May 5, when the influx of new arrivals stopped, Redmond said. A random poll in the Cegrane camp showed that 10 out of 12 people wanted to go back home. ''I want to go back even if I have to live in a tent, '' said Shefki Karametaj, 52, from Magure village near Lipljane in southern Kosovo. But, in a reflection of an apparently growing mood, 23-year-old Fahredin Hasani said: ''If it takes too long, I want to go away.'' Out of the same 12 people, only two said they were ready to wait indefinitely to go home. Others said they might be prepared to move to some other country. All of them named western Europe and no one agreed to go Albania which struggles with over 430,000 but says it would take in as many as needed. ''To live in a (Albanian) camp? I better stay here,'' said Brahim Hasani, 67, from the village of Belince near Stimlje. Macedonia is extremely keen to move Kosovo refugees out, saying both political and economic reasons make it impossible for them to accomodate such numbers for long. Interior Minister Pavle Trajanov told a news conference in the capital Skopje that crime had been on the rise since the crisis started, including arms smuggling. Ethnic tensions are also growing, he said. With the refugees, Albanians now make up a third of the people now in Macedonia, compared to a fifth before the crisis. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited