(21 May 1999) English/Nat

For the second day, a United Nations humanitarian team visited a number of towns in Kosovo as part of their tour of Yugoslavia to see first hand the effects of the conflict.

On the way, the convoy came across a group of Kosovo Albanian refugees who were trying to make their way from the town of Urosevac to Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

The team is visiting Kosovo and Serbia to assess the destruction caused by NATO airstrikes and Serb raids on ethnic Albanian villages.

The U-N mission in Kosovo on Friday toured the province and saw more evidence of the damage inflicted by NATO's bombing campaign.

One of the mission's chief objectives is to assess the humanitarian needs caused by the Kosovo conflict for future U-N action.

They began the day by handing ten metric tons of humanitarian aid for infants and children over to the local Red Cross.

Carrying items like baby food, diapers, and baby oil, the head of the U-N delegation said that the gesture was symbolic.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Ten thousand dollars for assistance for children and babies, so nobody can misinterpret this. This is symbolic, this is a donation from UNICEF, the first truck of U-N assistance that reaches the province in a month and a half. It is also a message from the United Nations team as a whole that we are committed to a regular supply of humanitarian assistance."
SUPER CAPTION: Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of U-N delegation

Driving further into Kosovo, the U-N convoy of cars made their way to the Macedonian border.

In one town, a sign of the ethnic tensions was obvious.

A complex of burned out, shattered buildings had words in green paint scrawled on it proclaiming "Serbia -- all the way to Tirana."

Along the way, several times de Mello wanted to see villages off the main road but his hosts refused saying the areas were not safe.

Despite their objections, he went into a village with a small group, leaving most of the convoy behind.

The houses in the village, which was once home to about 1-thousand ethnic Albanians, were intact and cows were grazing in the adjacent fields.

But the houses were abandoned, the workshops and barns deserted - the village was empty and looted.

There was also evidence of the toll NATO strikes had taken on many buildings which had been bombed out.

On the road to Urosevac, the group met a convoy of refugees who said they were leaving for the capital Pristina.

Urosevac is an ethnically mixed city, where a mosque and a Serb church stand side-by-side.

But now burned out houses are clearly visible.

In Kacanik, the U-N delegation went to the local mosque to speak with some ethnic Albanians.

Four old men left behind in the hasty exodus have taken shelter there.

Two are diabetic and have had limbs amputated.

The third stayed to take care of them, along with an elderly neighbour who's family left without him.

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