The crisis is compounded by the departure of international relief officials from Yugoslavia shortly before the NATO bombing began. Most aid agencies' stockpiles of food, shelter and medical supplies remain locked down in Belgrade. The humanitarian crisis could grow even more dire if Milosevic moves against the pro-Western leadership in Montenegro, the junior republic in the Yugoslav federation. The massive refugee surge also poses dangers for Macedonia, where the economy has sputtered and tensions run high between the country's Serbs and Albanians. Ethnic Albanians make up one-quarter of Macedonia's population.
Some Albanian agitators aspire to break away from Macedonia to form a greater Albania.
The arrival of 100,000 new Albanian refugees may lend the movement strength. Last week many refugees in Macedonia found shelter in the homes of ethnic Albanians. But we will not abandon our ethnic brothers. However magnanimous, that kind of talk may only serve to incite the increasingly belligerent Macedonian Serbs. For all the pain they have already endured, all the tears shed and horrors witnessed, the Kosovars displaced last week could face an even bleaker future.