(4 Apr 1999) English/Nat

Humanitarian aid supplies from NATO countries are arriving in Albania, where the capital's airport has become the centre of this massive relief operation

Military teams from the U-S and France flew in on Sunday with supplies of food and medicine for distribution to ethnic Albanian refugees in camps set up with Italian aid.

The U-S Deputy Secretary of State continued his tour of crisis-hit Balkan states with a visit to Macedonia where
he accused Slobodan Milosevic of using the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo as a weapon of war.

The United States says it will take thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees for temporary settlement, to relieve some of the burden on states neighbouring Kosovo.

The U-S Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees made the announcement as she toured a camp at Blace on the Macedonian border, where medical workers are struggling to treat the sick, exhausted and wounded.

00-00
The first NATO troops have been deployed on Albanian soil.

French and American soldiers arrived to set up an air bridge to speed the flow of aid from Tirana airport to refugees languishing along Kosovo's border.

00-12

The planes carrying the troops also brought tons of international aid - including water, ready prepared meals and blankets.

Albania itself is struggling to cope with the two hundred thousand refugees from the shattered province of Kosovo.

But buoyed by a pledge of support from NATO, the government has decided to take in an extra one hundred thousand more.

00-32
At the US embassy in the Macedonian capital of Skopje, guards were on full alert.

US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott accompanied by Ambassador Christopher Hill, arrived to inspect
the damage caused during riots only days ago.

The embassy was the prime target for Serb demonstrators when the first cruise missiles fell on Yugoslavia.

00-56
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The essence of what is happening by the way is that in addition to the outrage that President Milosevic is perpetrating against the people of Kosovo, he is also using refugees as an instrument of war, as a weapon against the stability of neighbouring states. He will not succeed in that and one reason he will not succeed in that is that the international community is rallying around its friends here in Macedonia."
SUPER CAPTION: U-S Deputy Secretary State Strobe Talbott

01-27

In Blace, (pron BLACHAY) on Macedonia's border with Kosovo, the true scale of the refugee crisis is apparent.

A hellish scene of misery, hunger and desperation is played out on a muddy hillside.

The lucky ones may end up in the US.

01-41
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We will do a burden sharing to temporarily take out of Macedonia large numbers of the refugees for temporary asylum until it is safe for them to go back to their homes in Kosovo and can start their lives in freedom. The first people will be moving out today, no, not today but in the next couple of days, for European countries. The U-S is planning also to take a large number."
SUPER CAPTION: Julia Taft, U-S Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees

02-12

Overcrowding and freezing weather have lead to the spread of disease.

Having escaped death at the hands of the Serbs, they are now faced with different potential killers

02-26
VISION ENDS

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть