(8 May 1999) Eng/Albanian/Nat
Fort Dix has welcomed a second wave of Kosovo refugees airlifted from the Balkans.
A plane carrying another 407 ethnic Albanians landed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey on Friday afternoon, two days after the arrival of the first wave of refugees.
Immigration workers and relief agencies have already started interviews to help the first group move off the base and into homes of their own.
A second planeload of Kosovo refugees arrived in the United States on Friday.
A small crowd of military officials and civilians applauded as the refugees made their way to a row of waiting buses.
A doctor on the base said the refugees - 202 adults, 197 children and eight infants -
were in suprisingly "excellent health".
Back at Fort Dix, the first group of refugees to arrive in the U-S are settling in.
These children look just like any other happy, healthy children.
But over the past two months, many of these youngsters have suffered unimaginable circumstances.
The refugees here are the first of 20-thousand ethnic Albanians who will be brought to the United States after fleeing their homeland.
They will be housed temporarily at Fort Dix or placed directly with sponsors or relatives.
Base spokesmen say the children appear to be adapting well and taking advantage of newly installed playground equipment.
Like so many families here, the Osmani family was forced out of their home in Pristina two months ago by Serb paramilitary forces.
In America, Fatmir Osmani says, they finally feel safe.
After they were forced from their home, the Osmanis - including four children - were pushed onto a train.
And as Fatmir describes, the horrors only got worse...
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian with English Translation)
"When we were leaving, they took our wallets, they took our identification, they took everything we had. They came up to him in the train station, they forced them on, they put a gun up to them and then said, 'Give us everything you have.' They said, 'If you want to go, you have to pay for your children, give us everything you have. We'll keep your children if you don't give us everything.' And they had to take off everything they had to get their children back."
SUPER CAPTION: Fatmir Osmani, Kosovar Refugee
Fatmir says he welcomes NATO's involvement in his homeland.
He explains the atrocities have been going on as long as he can remember, only now, they're out in the open.
Fatmir also says despite all his family has been through, they will undoubtedly return to Kosovo as soon as its safe.
Immigration officials expect it will be two to three weeks before the refugees are placed with sponsors and settled in communities.
Once a refugee family is paired with a sponsor, they will be flown to the community where the sponsor lives, they'll get help finding apartments and jobs and the children will be enrolled in school.
Officials expect to process about two-thousand refugees a week through Fort Dix and New York's Kennedy airport.
Muslim clerics and other clergy from Fort Dix and the Army Chaplain Service were here to minister to the refugees. Despite all they have been through, Zais said male refugees he has spoken with don't like being idle and would like to work.
"They don't like the fact that they are forced to accept charity and are unable to reciprocate in any way," Zais said. The government is working to find sponsors for the refugees, generally churches and other charities. Most in the first group do
not have family here. Some showed their appreciation to the 14-member flight crew,
classes.
services.
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