(16 Jun 1999) Albanian/Nat
Ignoring warnings from NATO and the dangers of minefields, ethnic Albanian refugees streamed into Kosovo on Wednesday.
They are encouraged by the gradual departure of Yugoslav forces and the steady arrival of NATO peacekeepers.
While many are still on their way to their villages, some refugees, like the Vezaj family finally made it back on Wednesday and discovered the fate of their long lost homes.
A Kosovan mother of five began rebuilding her life on Wednesday, after arriving back home from a refugee camp in northern Albania.
But for Sofija Vezaj, it will be a long road back to normality - she returned to her village to find the family home in ruins.
She is a Croat who married an ethnic Albanian.
For more than six weeks she stayed in the U-A-E camp in Kukes (Albania).
After seeing with her own eyes the devastation of her house and village, Sofia Vezaj believes it will be long before things finally start getting back to normal.
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"We have always been a poor family it will take a long time to get back to the way we were. I don't think that even my family will live to see thing return to the way they were."
SUPER CAPTION: Sofija Vezaj
Many refugees like the Vezaj family are defying NATO safety warnings.
They are anxious to be reunited with family members and to see whether their homes are still standing.
At the main checkpoints, the flow of ethnic Albanians returning to Kosovo is gathering pace, with long lines of cars backed up at border crossings.
About eight-thousand people returned from Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday to parts of Kosovo cleared by the Yugoslav army and secured by NATO troops.
According to the U-N High Commissioner for refugees, far more are expected during the course of Wednesday.
The U-N-H-C-R is trying to temper the euphoria of the ethnic Albanians with warnings of continuing tensions in most parts of Kosovo.
The other danger facing refugees on their long-awaited journey home is landmines and booby traps left behind by the withdrawing Serb forces.
Aid agencies have stepped up their efforts to warn people of the danger of landmines.
Two people were killed and one injured on Tuesday by a mine as they crossed a field to get from Macedonia to Kosovo, thus avoiding border controls.
The U-N-H-C-R briefly registered names of people returning to try to keep some sort of record of numbers.
It also set up two way stations on the road between the Albanian border town of Kukes and Prizren to supply people with food and water during their return.
Thousands of ethnic Albanians are making the 10-hour road trip from southern Albania to reach Kukes and so return home.
The U-N-H-C-R estimates that 500-thousand people will seek to return home in the next three to four months.
The agency plans to offer organised returns by bus to key areas of Kosovo, with the International Organisation for Migration providing transport.
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