DAY OF MOURNING MARKED BY KOSOVO ALBANIANS

( Editorial: --> 2294 ) PRISTINA, Aug 7 (Hina) - Kosovo's Albanian language daily newspapers on Friday marked the day of mourning declared in honour of Albanian victims of Serbian military-police operations in the southern Yugoslav province. The papers also carried extensive reports on the heavy battles which were continuing in Kosovo yesterday. The daily "Bujku" reported the Serbian offensive was continuing with unabated force, resulting in the bombardment of the villages of Rezala and Likoca in the Drenica region, followed by the ransacking and burning of Albanian homes. It is suspected a large number of Albanian civilians have been imprisoned by Serbian forces in the villages of Izbice, Ternovo, Kopiliqe and Klodernica, the newspaper said. "Koha Ditore" says a total of 15 villages which are under attack by Serbian forces in the municipality of Djakovica near the Albanian border are practically empty, looted and virtually totally destroyed. The newspaper warns a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo is currently in progress. It carries a statement by Paljok Berisha, aid coordinator with the "Mother Theresa" humanitarian voluntary organisation in Kosovo, who says that 316,000 people have fled their homes in the province, with a large number of people taking shelter in open forests and facing a shortage of food, water and medicine. He said humanitarian aid was arriving slowly, while the activities of international humanitarian organisations where being hampered by the many difficulties put up by the Serbian authorities. (Hina) mbr 071421 MET aug 98