Subject: Six hundred civilians enter Kosovo fleeing fighting in Serbia: UNHCR
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 6:00:20 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Newsgroups:
clari.world.europe.balkans,clari.news.conflict.misc,clari.world.europe,biz.clari\
net.sample,clari.news.conflict
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample


PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Nov 24 (AFP) Some 600 civilians have fled
into Kosovo from southern Serbia in the past three days as fighting
intensifies between ethnic Albanian rebels and Yugoslav forces, a
UNHCR spokeswoman said Friday.
"After several months of no new arrivals of internally displaced
persons (IDPs) the security situation has deteriotated rapidly,"
Astrid van Genderen Stort told a Pristina news conference.
"The recent clashes between the UCPMB (Liberation Army of
Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac) and Serb police are involving
villages which until now were out of the firing line," she added.
She said civilians mainly came from the villages of Lucane and
Konculj -- which an AFP reporter at the scene said are on the front
line between the rebels and Serb forces -- but also from other parts
of the Presevo valley where some 70,000 ethnic Albanians form the
majority of the population.
"On Wednesday UNHCR staff observed over 200 people from Lucane
entering Kosovo with their tractors and private vehicles in a two
hour period. All of these people were forced to leave the town due
to fighting that was taking place in the village," she said.
"On Thursday UNHCR monitored the Gate Five border crossing for
most of the day and again witnessed at least 350 people arriving
from the Presevo Valley," she added, estimating the final total by
Friday at around 600 displaced persons.
Gate Five overlooks the village of Dobrosin, which is held by
rebel fighters.
Some IDPs arrived without even an overcoat, she added. Others
dropped off women and children before returning to souther Serbia.
"Yesterday it was reported that four mortars shells fell in
Konculj and three others in Lucane," she said, "In Lucane two
private houses and the village school were shelled. The shelling
supposedly came from the Yugoslav army barracks in Samolijca."