(15 Jun 1999) Eng/Albanian/Nat
One ethnic Albanian refugee died and another injured after stepping on a land mine trying to get home to Kosovo.
It is believed to be the first fatal landmine explosion since the beginning of NATO's peacekeeping mission in the province.
The news came as thousands of ethnic Albanians began to pour back across the border into Kosovo in an attempt to start their lives over again.
An elderly woman was killed and her husband injured by a landmine as they tried to return to their home in Kosovo on Tuesday.
The couple detonated the mine in a field as they crossed over the border from Blace, in Macedonia, to the village of Deneral Jankovic.
Ethnic Albanians are flooding back to the province now Serb troops have begun moving out of the province.
Many of them have ignored United Nations warnings to wait until the ground has been checked before they attempt to return.
Landmines and booby traps are known hazards, but many of the Albanians seen here queuing up to leave Macedonia are so eager to go home they do not pay attention to the warnings.
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"I am from Pristina, been here in Macedonia. We want to thank everybody. We are happy that we are coming back home and we are thankful to NATO and KLA and everybody else that helped us to come back to our home."
SUPER CAPTION: Ethnic Albanian Returnee, Vox Pop
Now that NATO is replacing the Serb troops in Kosovo, ethnic Albanian refugees are keener than ever to get back to their homes.
There are 750,000 displaced ethnic Albanians and even if they wanted to, the United Nations probably could not force them to remain in their refugee camps.
All they can do is ask the refugees to wait those few more weeks.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"As you can see there are at present more than one thousand people trying to return to Kosovo. Yesterday already three hundred and fifty have returned. U-N-H-C-R are extremely concerned about things because the situation is not safe at all in Kosovo. NATO is still deploying troops they're are trying to find out whether the areas are safe or not. There are a lot of mines everywhere and U-N-H-C-R is only just setting up their offices and we cannot give protection at the moment to these refugees who are returning now.We are warning them, but that is all we can do, we cannot stand there and stop them, because they really want to go home, but its very, very ,very unsafe. As we have seen last night, a couple tried to cross through the hills because they didn't want to hand in their green card, and they stood on a mine. They both got wounded and one of the two died seven hours later. They were found by the K-L-A and the K-L-A is now taking care of the body and of the wounded other person but this shows that it is very, very unsafe at present in Kosovo and I would advise anyone please wait and go back later when everything is safe."
SUPER CAPTION: Astrid Kahn, Spokeswoman, United Nations High Commission
Maybe the thought of what happened to the couple today will make some refugees think before they go back home.
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