The New York Times

Wednesday, June 9, 1999

Group: Every Kosovo Albanian Moved

By The Associated Press

KUKES, Albania (AP) -- International aid agencies are stockpiling everything from flour to diapers as they prepare to re-enter a Kosovo of burned villages, looted stores and hundreds of thousands of uprooted ethnic Albanians.

``Virtually all ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are now internally displaced people. They will be our priority,'' Anna Di Lellio, a spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program, said today.

With the end of the 11-week-old conflict in sight, humanitarian agencies are stepping up plans for emergency food, medicine and shelter inside Kosovo as well as an orderly return of some 860,000 refugees.

In Geneva, the United Nations refugee agency appealed for nearly a quarter-billion dollars to fund Kosovo emergency operations from now to the end of the year, saying it expects to help care for 1.5 million people inside and outside the southern Serb province where NATO bombings began March 24.

``We'll be spending $10 million a week until the end of December,'' said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Back in Kukes, a C-130 Hercules transport from the United Arab Emirates Air Force landed on a dirt airstrip Tuesday to begin a relief shuttle to this key frontier town packed with more than 100,000 refugees.

The first airlift from the capital of Tirana carried food and other aid for the Kukes refugees. But future flights could bring supplies as well as NATO troops for the Kosovo operation. Kukes is 15 miles from the frontier.

Planning by WFP and the UNHCR is based on the assumption that most, if not all, refugees will return within three months of a peace pact being negotiated now between NATO and Yugoslav authorities and the establishment of an international military force inside Kosovo.

But before the first refugees start heading home, WFP estimates it will daily have to truck in about 1,000 metric tons of food to feed the IDPs, or internally displaced persons. It is also considering air drops of food into remoter areas and preparing a helicopter to rush aid to the worst IDP cases.

One million daily ration packets have already sent to Macedonia, Greece and Italy for later disbursement in Kosovo, and four movable bakeries run by the British agency War Child are preparing to distribute freshly baked bread -- a staple of the Kosovo diet -- from the back of trucks.

``It will be a huge problem,'' Di Lellio said. ``We know 50 percent of the houses have been destroyed. We know businesses have been destroyed. People have been scavenging for food for a month. We will basically enter a territory without food.''

The latest UNHCR plans calls for agencies to provide returnees with not only food but kitchen sets, baby kits, school materials, blankets, candles and basic material for shelter. Some 15,000 winterized tents will be sent, in the event more permanent shelters cannot be put up by the advent of cold months.

The WFP and UNHCR will establish offices in seven Kosovo locations -- the capital Pristina, Pec, Kosovska, Mitrovica, Djakovica, Urosevac and Gnjilane. The UNHCR will initially send 350 personnel.