VICTIMS OF WAR

March 29, 1999
		According to NATO officials, refugees are arriving at Kosovo borders at a rate of 4,000 an hour. Colin Baker and Mark Austin of Independent Television News report.

Strikes in Yugoslavia Coverage March 28, 1999: U.S. F-117 Stealth fighter downed in Yugoslavia March 26, 1999: National Security Adviser Samuel Berger March 26, 1999: Background on the Balkans March 25, 1999: Defense Secretary Cohen March 25, 1999: Who is Milosevic? March 24, 1999: Comparing military capabilities. March 24, 1999: Secretary Albright discusses the air strikes. March 23, 1999: What does NATO hope to achieve through air strikes? March 22, 1999: The Yugoslavian ambassador to the U.N. discusses growing tension. March 22, 1999: Regional editors discuss public support for possible strikes. Complete NewsHour coverage of Europe   NATO U.S. State Department The Saga of Kosovo	JIM LEHRER: NATO officials said refugees are arriving at the Kosovo border with neighboring countries at a rate of 4000 an hour. They said it was causing a "humanitarian catastrophe". NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said the European Union would coordinate aid to the affected countries. We have two reports on the refugee crisis from Colin Baker and Mark Austin of Independent Television News.
	An exodus of anguish.
	MARK AUSTIN: It is an exodus of anguish, a pitiful procession by people who say they were forced from their homes at gun point in the dark of night. It is impossible to confirm what these people told us today, but they all told us the same story about the Serb paramilitaries operating in Kosovo. MARK AUSTIN: What are they saying to you? WOMAN: They say that we have - we must leave our house. You want NATO, you go to NATO. Here with Serbia, you never come back - you're never going to come back here. MARK AUSTIN: And if you don't go, what would they do? WOMAN: They kill - if you refuse. MARK AUSTIN: Those without transport have walked for up to four days, a desperate trudge through the snow. Montenegro's officials here at the border fear a humanitarian catastrophe. Many of these people will have no homes to go back to. SECOND WOMAN: They burn many, many house. It's terrible, terrible situation. Down in -- all Kosovo it's very terrible. MARK AUSTIN: And so the nearest Montenegrin town to the border is quickly filling up with thousands of people with nowhere to go, putting strain on this tiny republic, part of Yugoslavia but more pro-western, and now bearing the burden of the increasing tragedy of Kosovo.
	On the Macedonian border.
	COLIN BAKER: On the Macedonian border with Kosovo, these refugees came to ask for nothing other than sanctuary. Their little tractors carried them maybe ten miles from the village of Kachurnik emptied overnight by Serb forces. When you take a look at these tractors of refugees, there is something missing that sends a shiver through you. There are women, there are children, there are old men, there are no young men -- big brothers, young husbands segregated at gun point by the Serbs and marched away to a fate as yet undetermined, too young yet to believe that this is anything other than an adventure, but the older people tell stories of summary executions, of indiscriminate shooting, of houses burned. Most didn't want to talk; they didn't want to remember. "The police came to my house," he said, "and told us we had to leave." He went on: "I asked what do we do, and the police told me and my family to go or be shot." This man said, "I am from the valley. People are killed. Everything is burned. We have nothing."

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