From 2 April ’91, January-June ’97, to the killing of Azem Hajdari, political crimes with no perpetrators The State Informative Service raises the alarm and asks for help from the Government Page 2

The UNHCR High Commissioner, Mrs. Ogata, arrived in Albania today. According to reports coming from Kosovo and parts of Albania, at least half a million could be killed if the Serbs continue their attacks. Her agenda includes meetings with senior officials and discussion of this assessment made by the director of the organization’s refugee operations at headquarters in Geneva, Mrs. Sadako Ogata. What is interesting is that the horrors of this assessment are also coming at the same time as the decisive move to keep the Albanian government away from assistance and the care of refugees by UNHCR. This was also stated recently by the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Peter Hansen, in a session of the Security Council, although he said that Albanians and Kosovar Albanians have given unstinting help to cope with the influx of refugees from Kosovo. Ogata warned that refugees from Kosovo could reach 800 per day. Speaking at Rinas Airport to the country’s television and print media, the head of the UNHCR mission in Tirana said that this number would reach one million refugees in June if NATO begins its ground offensive. For this reason, next Wednesday (OTP[?]) high-level political representatives of the world’s main states will hold a crisis meeting in Washington, D.C. to review the growing scale across all areas of the conflict. Is a catastrophe looming just ahead? Only diplomacy can provide all the answers. The best way is to calm the situation and not trigger conflict through a NATO offensive, which would mean the gathering of more Serbian troops and more horrors for the people of Kosovo. Mrs. Ogata said in Tirana that a crisis of such magnitude is the envy of any other European government. She stressed that UNHCR, being in such a situation, has the responsibility to assess and determine whether it should do more to help[?]. The European Union has requested that assistance be provided where refugees can be helped and not in a permanent situation where someone has to keep helping. As for the Serbs’ killing policies in Kosovo, she said that Albanian and international NGOs have not remained silent in support of Albanian NGOs. To come to Albania, Mrs. Ogata set out after traveling to Skopje, Budapest and Belgrade for meetings with the main leaders of those countries. The two meetings that Mrs. Ogata and senior UNHCR officials will hold in Tirana are with the relevant minister and the President. In the meeting with the minister of public order and the government, the chief[?] of the world’s largest refugee organization will discuss how refugees arriving from Kosovo to Albania can be helped. Ogata will also meet President Rexhep Meidani. After leaving Tirana, as the crisis took on a more delicate character, the director-general of the refugee organization also gave a special interview to the Albanian service of the BBC, where she revealed that the role of the refugee organization would be limited only to helping cope with the influx of refugees from Kosovo into Albania. Ogata said that it must be understood that if NATO forces launch a ground assault, Milosević’s army will become even more brutal. Such a move would mean more lack of international controls, more refugees across the countries of the region, a lack of cooperation, etc. Here is the value of a fragile Albanian economy in the face of 99 UNHCR[?]. If not for the publicly released figures, in relation to 74 aircraft of the UN fleet as well as 20,000 specialists to help and stand alongside the oppressed refugees. In Tirana, when the crisis has taken hold in Albania[?], Ogata explained to her staff that Albanians must stay and maintain the direction of a state that can cope with the increased work of receiving and sheltering those fleeing from Kosovo, and she promised that the refugee center in Albania would take on more responsibility in the event of the start of the ground offensive. A UNHCR spokesperson said that, according to the director for operations in Geneva, they would be ready with real figures and with a budget dictated by the Geneva summit, where the Kosovo crisis constitutes the final point of an extraordinary shock[?]. From our staff at UNHCR.

Page 17 The tragic, endless story of the two abandoned motorcycles Elbasan, racism causes victims

Address: Hoxha Tahsim Street Tel. (355 4) 2349 49 / 51 62 1 64 84 / 308 57 / 755 80 For reservations contact

02 April 2000 5 TELE-BINGO with 80 million each 1 MACCI-BINGO with 2.5 million 1 STAR-BINGO with 1.5 million 100 MINI-BINGO winners with 100 thousand lek each