Those fears appeared warranted given the large number of refugees who entered Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro in recent weeks recounting brutal treatment at the hands of the Serbs. Tales of mass executions, rapes, and plundering by Serb soldiers and paramilitary police are epidemic in the refugee camps, leading NATO and humanitarian officials to conclude that there is little doubt about their veracity. Bruce Atwood, U.S. coordinator for Kosovo relief operations, expressed grave concern about the ethnic Albanians who remain inside the region. We have seen evidence of tank columns moving along the road with refugees walking on both sides of the tanks, so there is no question they are being used for human shields. Resije Mishi, herself an Albanian refugee, discovered this abandoned child sitting naked in mud at a camp.
Relief workers continue to search for the child's parents.
Hundreds of thousands of other ethnic Albanians have managed to elude the Serb forces, taking refuge in forested mountains much like their Bosnian counterparts did earlier in the decade in their fight with the Serbs. But with a mix of cold, snow and rain in the region, humanitarian officials are concerned that the Kosovars lack shelter, food, and medical supplies. More than 500,000 ethnic Albanians now have fled the Kosovo region. At least 500,000 ethnic Albanians have fled the region during the past two weeks, most of them into Albania and, to a lesser extent, Macedonia. Montenegro also has absorbed tens of thousands of refugees.