ZAGREB ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - A group of 87 refugees from Kosovo arrived in Zagreb shortly after 11.00 pm Wednesday aboard a plane of the Croatia Airlines company, which flew from Skopje, the Macedonian capital.
Upon their arrival at the Zagreb airport, the refugees, most of whom are ethnic Croats, were taken in three busses to the refugee centre "Sasina Greda" near Sisak, about 50 kilometres south-east of Zagreb. They should stay overnight at Sasina Greda and have medical examinations. After that they can be accommodated in houses of their relatives or friends in Croatia. According to previous announcements, 105 people should have come from Kosovo to Zagreb last night, but some of them did not want to be separated from their families who are still in that war-stricken area. There are now about 1,000 ethnic Croats in Janjevo and Letnica, the Kosovo area which used to be populated by
ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - A group of 87 refugees from Kosovo arrived
in Zagreb shortly after 11.00 pm Wednesday aboard a plane of the
Croatia Airlines company, which flew from Skopje, the Macedonian
capital.
Upon their arrival at the Zagreb airport, the refugees, most of whom
are ethnic Croats, were taken in three busses to the refugee centre
"Sasina Greda" near Sisak, about 50 kilometres south-east of
Zagreb.
They should stay overnight at Sasina Greda and have medical
examinations. After that they can be accommodated in houses of
their relatives or friends in Croatia.
According to previous announcements, 105 people should have come
from Kosovo to Zagreb last night, but some of them did not want to be
separated from their families who are still in that war-stricken
area.
There are now about 1,000 ethnic Croats in Janjevo and Letnica, the
Kosovo area which used to be populated by a significant number of
Croats.
Most of those who remain there are the elderly, children and women,
said Croatian President's advisor on humanitarian issues, Dr.
Slobodan Lang, who escorted refugees from Skopje to Zagreb.
We have asked the Yugoslav Red Cross to offer a hand to us and to let
us enable the remaining people to go to safety areas, Dr. Lang said
and expressed belief that there are some persons in the Yugoslav Red
Cross who are willing to help.
Lang conveyed his country's stand that it was necessary to help
everybody and said that, in addition to assistance offered to
Kosovo Croats, Croatia had also sent relief aid for other Kosovo
refugees.
A group of about 30 Croat refugees from Kosovo was transported to
Zagreb last week aboard a plane of the Macedonian carrier "Avio-
Impex". The air lift between Skopje and Zagreb will continue, but it
is still unknown when exactly the next group of refugees may arrive
in Croatia in this way.
There was a Croatian doctor from Pristina among those who came last
night. Dr. Ivanka Plana, along with her husband and three children,
had previously been two and a half days in the Blace valley with
other deportees from Kosovo.
Blace is a place of the living dead, Dr. Plana said describing the
no-man's land between Yugoslavia and Macedonia where thousands of
refugee have been stuck.
"There are no words to describe it, one should go to that hole, it is
something which the contemporary world has never seen," Dr. Plana
said. She told reporters that those who remained there were in very
poor health conditions. People are exhausted and hungry and I fear
epidemics of illnesses, first of all of jaundice, can break out, she
added.
(hina) ms