DIFFICULT POSITION OF 20 000 ALBANIAN REFUGEES KOSOVO

( Editorial: --> 3681 ) PRISTINA, Sept 28 (Hina) - Almost 20,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees have been forced to flee their homes after Sunday's Serbian offensive on Albanian villages in the Suva Reka, Stimlje, and Urosevac municipalities. On Monday Albanian sources did not specify if the offensive is continuing. In spite of the rain, smoke and flames are still visible above several villages in the Suva Reka municipality. The secretary of the Kosovo Democratic Alliance's Suva Reka branch, Ragip Zekoli, said that the constant rain was making the situation more difficult for 15,000 Albanian refugees. The refugees have settled in one of the valleys near the village of Vranige, in the eastern part of Suva Reka municipality. Most of them are women and children. A few more thousand refugees have settled near Buzhale village and above Budakovo village. Almost 70 per cent of the Albanian houses in Regane village, near Suva Reka, have been burned or demolished, Zekoli said. Serbian sources still have not confirmed the offensive in the area of Suva Reka, Stimlje and Urosevac. (hina) it/mbr 281515 MET sep 98