(31 Mar 1999) English/Nat
Thousands of Kosovar refugees continued crossing the Albanian border on Wednesday.
Albanians authorities have now slowed the flow of ethnic Albanian refugees, registering and checking the names of each member of the family as they enter the country from the border province of Kosovo.
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels were stopping hundreds of young men and sending them back across the border to fight against the Serbs.
The flood of ethnic Albanians refugees continued as thousands went through the Morini border crossing on Wednesday towards safer Albania.
Up until lunchtime, 86-thousand refugees had crossed this border.
Albanian's foreign minister said work has started on building camps for them outside the capital Tirana.
Tirana is struggling to cope with the huge influx of refugees, many are being sent out to villages and towns where resources are more readily available.
At Morini, K-L-A rebels were looking for young men and forcing them to go back Kosovo
to fight against the Serbs.
Albanian authorities are overwhelmed by the massive flood of refugees.
They register everyone of them, as their passports or any proof of identification have been taken away from them by the Serbs.
They say the process to register all of them could take days or even weeks.
The arrival of refugees are controlled by members of the O-S-C-E and other aid organisations.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We are hearing that there are lots of convoys of refugees coming this way. We are a little surprised that most of them haven't arrived, by the numbers we've been told about. But we're not sure whether they're hoping against hope that this cross will pass in some way and they'll be able to avoid becoming permanent refugees."
SUPERCAPTION: Owen O' Sullivan, OSCE monitor
Some of the refugees tell harrowing tales about being driven out of their homes by Serbian soldiers.
Many were often given only minutes notice and had to leave with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Some of them, like Sabri Hajzeri, talk about the ethnic cleansing process that Milosevic is carrying out.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"That's pure ethnic cleansing there. For example police came house by house and say: you go out to the street. Yesterday, like cattle, we were put in the streets. Even now we don't know where we go or what we do now."
SUPERCAPTION: Sabri Hajzeri, refugee
On Wednesday afternoon, a vast convoy of 100-thousand refugees was stranded somewhere between Prizrem, a Kosovar village, and Albania's borderline.
For them, it could take days before they could get to safer land and receive assistance and protection.
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