Subject: 4,000 ethnic Albanians have fled southern Serbia to Kosovo: UNHCR
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 6:40:15 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BELGRADE, Nov 30 (AFP) - More than 4,000 ethnic Albanians have
fled the buffer zone in southern Serbia into the UN-run province of
Kosovo, in fear of renewed fighting between Kosovo separatist rebels
and Serbian forces, the UN refugee agency said Thursday.
"Some 4,400 people have left southern Serbia for Kosovo in a
week, out of which a thousand left yesterday...they found refuge
with their families in Kosovo," Maki Shinohara, the spokeswoman for
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Belgrade told
reporters.
Shinohara added that the people "have not reported any act of
intimidation or violence to UNHCR."
"Basically, they say they moved out of the area as a
precaution," Shinohara said.
The situation in the buffer, which runs five kilometre
(three-mile) in Serbia along its border with Kosovo, remains calm
but tense after last week's fighting betwen ethnic Albanian
guerillas and the Serbian police in which three policemen were
killed.
The area was demilitarized last year under an accord between
Yugoslavia and NATO which allows only lightly armed Serbian police
to enter the zone.
Shinohara said that no refugees were reported to have arrived in
nearby Macedonia.
Some 150 people were sheltering at centres in Bujanovac, the
main Serbian town in the area, just outside the buffer zone.
She also noted the problems of Serbs in eastern Kosovo, whose
convoy has been blocked at the administrative border, unable to
cross into Serbia to buy food and medicine.
Shinohara said the UNHCR very much appreciated the gesture of
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica who has expressed his will to
find a diplomatic solution to the problems in and around the buffer
zone, and to avoid the use of force.