At the same time, however, Macedonia's ethnic Albanians feel an obligation of kinship in opening their homes to the Kosovo refugees. In Vaksince, about 30 miles northeast of Skopje, a key showdown took place Tuesday as police tried to force more than 1,000 refugees onto buses bound for the camps. We intend to take as many as possible. It's just a question of us getting them before the police,'' said Bashkim Amidi, a resident who helps keep a log of the new arrivals in a small room in the elementary school. Once the refugees are registered with area authorities they can receive papers keeping them from the camps, Amidi said Wednesday.
Men take care of shopping and finding clothes and bedding.
The camps are inhumane. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates nearly 60,000 refugees have been packed into six camps in Macedonia, where the government has been slow to authorize new refugee areas. A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, Ron Redmond, said the camps are near the ''breaking point'' and epidemics of measles, hepatitis or other diseases are possible. The girl's mother Nazmije sat nearby. She had fainted while being loaded by Macedonian police onto a bus and a village man persuaded the officers to let her off with her two daughters.