AIRLIFT OF REFUGEES FROM MACEDONIA TO START SOON

SKOPJE, April 5 (Hina) - Since Sunday night, aircraft, staying at the Skopje airport, have been poised to transport Kosovo refugees from Macedonia to several European countries and the United States, and are awaiting only the permit fot the start of the airlift. Facing an imminenent danger of humanitarian diasater, NATO member- countries on Sunday voiced readiness to accommodate temporarily people deported from Kosovo. According to the latest announcements, Germany is willing to accept 40,000 refugees, Greece is to take 50,000 of them, Turkey 20,000, Norwey 6,000, Austria 5,000, the United States 20,000 and Canada 5,000. Macedonian Police Minister Pavle Trajanov said on Sunday night that Macedonian assessments that it could shelter only 20,000 Kosovo refugees proved correct. As soon as this tiny Balkan country received 30,000 fleeing people, accommodation facilities were overcrowded, Trajanov explained. He stressed that Macedonia could not accept allegations of the foreign media that the Macedonian government was inhumane. We have warned about the problem, but at the moment the international community is being surprised by its scope and has no plan to cope with it, he added. Overnight the new columns of the expelled Kosovans were arriving at the Macedonian border. Yesterday and last night Macedonia accepted 13,000 sick people, mothers with children and the elderly. The Macedonian Government has reported that there are no epidemics of illness for the time being, but it fears they may break out. (hina) ms