Fino was chewing gum while children from Kosovo were dying from lack of food The arrivals from Kosovo, abandoned by the government in Tirana

State-paid police fire on democrats Shocking testimony from Tropoja. The tide of despair is swelling. Speaks the former director of Albanian Radio-Television and eyewitness to the shooting. Ballkanweb (Fax) SPECIAL ON PAGE 2

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The Union for Democracy denounces one of the Tirana SHIK against Democratic Party deputies ON PAGE 4

By Astrit Vitozaj The continuing efforts of the Serbs in Kosovo and the deployment of their forces in the last moments are suffocating the Albanians of Kosovo. The concentration of Serbian forces on three sides of the province, closing all roads, marks the failed aim of Milosheviç's regime to uproot them from their own lands. The main goal of Milosheviç's forces is the cleansing of Albanian territories in Kosovo. On Thursday evening, Serbian military and police forces intensified the shelling on the border with Albania. On Friday the Serbs continued the offensive with intensity in several directions, surrounding Kosovo on three sides and closing all roads. This is grave and signals a general offensive. The Serbs are creating a fortified chain along the Albanian-Albanian border so that the Albanians of Kosovo will have no way to get away in order to leave. Last night, Serbian military and police forces attacked Albanians who were leaving Kosovo by firing weapons, killing 17 Albanians and wounding others. Meanwhile, military and police forces have been deployed in the villages of the Tropoja and Has areas. Information received indicates that tanks, cannons, mortars, grenade launchers, soldiers and armed police have been positioned on the Albanian-Albanian border. It is clear that a complete encirclement of the Albanians of Kosovo from three sides is being created. So far, thousands of Albanian residents have been forcibly displaced from the areas of Drenica, Dukagjin and the Kosovo Plain. They are moving in miserable conditions, without bread, without water, without medicine and without shelter. Children, women and the elderly are dying in the mountains from hunger, cold and wounds. The Albanian government has shown complete inability and irresponsibility to help them. While the international community continues to send mixed signals, the Albanians of Kosovo are facing a human catastrophe. Democracy and stability in the region cannot be built on silence in the face of this tragedy. The Albanian people cannot accept the massacres of Bosnia being repeated in Kosovo. If the international community does not act quickly, the consequences will be incalculable. ON PAGE 6

People and five right-wing parties have come from the north looking for food for Kosovars, Albanians surrounding this militia ON PAGE 3

We give for them from the heart ON PAGE 7

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killings ON PAGE 6