The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said today that about 2,200 Kosovars had entered Albania and Montenegro overnight and during the day. Sadoka Ogata said this brings to around 625,000 the number of people who are known to have left Kosovo since the beginning of the crisis. By far the biggest number, more than 305,000, are in Albania, which is Europe's poorest country.
Yugoslavia expelled another large group of refugees from Kosovo after re-opening its main border crossing with Albania. About 1,500 people from a village near the capital, Pristina, were forced by Serb troops to leave the province. International observers say its not yet clear if this was a one off exodus or the start of a renewed pattern of expulsions. Smaller groups are continuing to cross over into Macedonia where the border remains open.
Earlier it was reported that Ethnic Albanian refugees had again been queuing up to cross from Kosovo into Macedonia, suggesting that part of the frontier had been reopened on the Yugoslav side. Journalists at the Blace border crossing saw at least 200 people moving into the neutral zone between the two counties, where they were being checked by Macedonian border guards.
Yugoslavia closed the crossing points into both Macedonia and Albania last Wednesday, telling the refugees it was safe for them to return home. But last night the main crossing into Albania was reopened and up to 2,000 people were expelled. They said they had been forced out of their homes in a village about seventy miles away. The crossing, at Morina about nine miles from the town of Kukes had been used by tens of thousands of refugees every day until it was closed last Wednesday. Preparations are being made in Macedonia to transfer 30,000 refugees to other countries. A group of 76 refugees was reported to have entered Albania this morning.
In a separate development, a plane chartered by the Irish aid organisation, Goal, was struck by lightning as it approached the Albanian capital today. The plane was on its way to Tirana, but diverted to Athens after lightning struck the nose of the plane. No one was injured, and the aircraft is now being repaired before it continues its journey with a cargo of aid for the refugee camps in Albania.
