Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
When Slobodan Milosovic, Yugoslavia's President, stripped Kosova of its political autonomy in 1989 he also began a campaign of sweeping cultural, political and economic repression against ethnic Albanians who accounted for over 90% of the population.
In March of 1999 NATO began its air campaign against Serbia with an achievable goal. "The bombing will be successful", defence Secretary William Cohen stated, "if Milosovic is deterred from assaulting the Kosovan Albanians or we diminish his capacity to wage that kind of effort."
But far from being deterred, Milosovic accelerated his campaign of terror since the bombing began, forcibly expelling hundreds of thousands from their homes and killing thousands in a brutal process of ethnic cleansing that forced thousands of people from their homes.
Caption:
An old man has been wheeled over one hundred a fifty kilometres from his home near Pec to reach the safety of the border.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Emotional and exhausted, a stream of refugees flood over the Morian border in northern Albania having been "ethnically cleansed"" from their homes near Prizren. Over eight thousand people crossed in one day - most had come over 200 kilometres.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
A child peers out from the back of a truck crossing the Morina border into Albania from Kosova.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Abina and Ismail huddle together for comfort as they cross the border at Morina from Kosova into Albania. Their father was dragged from the convoy the previous day and shot dead in front of them.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
The mother of Ismail and Abina weeps as she crosses over the border into Albania from Kosova.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
This boy was caught by sniper fire when the family tried to escape from the their home in Sajkovac.Having received treatment from the field hospital at the Morina border, he waits with his father for a bus to transport them to a camp in Kukes, Albania.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Evening in the Arab camp, Kukes, Albania. With over forty thousand occupants it is one of the biggest refugee camps in Albania.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Fitnete is one of two hundred women who walked with their children from DRogochin. All the men in their group were pulled aside and the women forced to walk to a nearby Serb occupied village. They were kept locked up and crammed together in two houses unable to even go outside to the toilet. Many women from this group claimed to have been forced to have sex with Serb soldiers.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Emergency food rations are handed out in the French run camp in Kukes, Albania
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
A woman rocks her baby to sleep in the shade of a tractor, while waiting to be allocated a place in a camp in Kukes.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Dhomi is 80 years old. Forced to flee her home in Grodc in March she travelled for three weeks before crossing the border into Albania from Kosova. Separated from her family during this time she is being looked after by a family she met on the way.
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Kosova, Kosova's Refugee Crisis
May 1999
Nihu Coka, the supervisor of Kukes cemetery, says he has never buried so many dead in such a short period of time. The ninety - year old woman being buried died shortly after crossing the border after a hundred-kilometre walk. Her family couldn't be traced and the five - minute burial is done without ceremony.
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