OSIJEK, April 17 (Hina) - There are an estimated 850 Kosovo refugees in Croatia and the Government is expected to say what the possibilities of their further reception are, representatives of the Union of Albanian Associations in
Croatia said at a press conference in Osijek on Saturday. It is expected that Croatia will receive about 5,000 Kosovo refugees. The Union has already discussed this matter with government and U.N. High Commission for Refugees' officials, and it has asked the Croatian authorities to enable Albanians living in Croatia to receive their family members who are in Kosovo or in exile. Those refugees would be taken care of by their relatives in Croatia, the Union's president Ton Marku said. It has been agreed with the head of the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, Lovre Pejkovic, that Albanians who arrived in Croatia before NATO actions can re
OSIJEK, April 17 (Hina) - There are an estimated 850 Kosovo refugees
in Croatia and the Government is expected to say what the
possibilities of their further reception are, representatives of
the Union of Albanian Associations in Croatia said at a press
conference in Osijek on Saturday.
It is expected that Croatia will receive about 5,000 Kosovo
refugees. The Union has already discussed this matter with
government and U.N. High Commission for Refugees' officials, and it
has asked the Croatian authorities to enable Albanians living in
Croatia to receive their family members who are in Kosovo or in
exile. Those refugees would be taken care of by their relatives in
Croatia, the Union's president Ton Marku said.
It has been agreed with the head of the Government Office for
Displaced Persons and Refugees, Lovre Pejkovic, that Albanians who
arrived in Croatia before NATO actions can register with regional
offices and granted refugee status.
The Union is ready to on its own gather about 200 tonnes of aid, and
ship it to Kosovo refugees.
Union representatives estimated that the president of the Kosovo
Democratic Alliance, Ibrahim Rugova, was a "hostage of the Serbian
policy and police forces" and "has no right to sign any agreement
with Milosevic", because the only legitimate representatives of
Kosovo Albanians are the premier of the new Kosovo government,
Hashim Thaqi, and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) main staff.
Speaking about the situation in the southern Yugoslav province,
Marku said more than one million Albanians abandoned the area in the
past year. The fate of about 150,000 Kosovars, mostly men, is
unknown at the moment. It is believed that they are in special camps
or are being used as live shields for Serbian military targets,
Marku said. He confirmed that a certain number of Albanians,
participants in Croatia's Homeland War, are fighting on the side of
the KLA, but denied that Croatian Army officers were fighting on
KLA's side.
The recent massacre of Albanian refugees near Djakovica was falsely
presented in the Serbian media, Marku said. Since he was born in and
knew the area, Marku claims NATO attacked an area five km from the
location where Albanian refugees were massacred. The refugees were
moving towards Albania and were attacked by Serbian cannons from
nearby positions and not by NATO planes, Marku said.
(hina) rml