MACEDONIA: WFP KOSOVO REFUGEES AID PROGRAMME
(21 May 1999) Albanian/Nat The World Food Programme in Skopje is continuing to distribute food to mountain villages on the Kosovo-Macedonia border, where hundreds of refugees have been crossing illegally. The aid agency estimates that half of the three hundred thousand refugees in Macedonia, are not in camps but living with local Albanian families. For these families, often poor themselves, food aid is a necessary lifeline to cope with the extra mouths to feed. In the village of Stucani, workers from the World Food Programme are helping people form the area to distribute food aid. The need is great. The W-F-P says more than eleven thousand refugees live in about 13 villages in the Stucani area. Many refugees fleeing Kosovo to Macedonia, do so through illegal border crossings - to avoid either Serb patrols on the Kosovo side of the border or delays at the Macedonian border. These people rarely make it to the formal refugee camps - instead they stay with local ethnic Albanian Macedonians who take them in. Local officials say the Macedonian Red Cross have refused to distribute food to these refugees because they don't have the official documents refugees are issued with when they cross at recognised border points. So it is up to locals and aid workers to get food to the needy. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "All us villagers in this area, are working voluntarily to bring this food to our refugee brothers from Kosovo." SUPER CAPTION: Faim Zymberi The W-F-P says they have delivered enough food to last this area for a month. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Macedonians, ethnic Albanians living here are very poor and it is very difficult for them and very hard for them to support refugees living in their houses. So it is important for the World Food Programme to be able to help them as much as possible because ultimately they want to try and keep the refugees in the villages.They don't want to send them to the camps. It is important that the refugees stay in the villages so that they have at least some kind of normality in their lives." SUPER CAPTION: Lindsey Davies, World Food Programme The aid was driven off to the village of Vaksince - a village where the population has doubled since an influx of refugees from Kosovo. Flour, oil, beans and sugar will be stored in a warehouse and distributed to families who house refugees. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
