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| REFUGEE CRISIS | |
 April 1, 1999 
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Following a report on the refugee crisis, Media correspondent Terence Smith talks with ITN's Mark Austin about the worsening humanitarian crisis.
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JIM LEHRER: More on the continuing refugee crisis. We have two reports from Independent Television News. The first is by Tom Bradby in Albania. TOM BRADBY: Today it was clearer than ever that what is happening in Kosovo is the exodus of a whole people. Thousands upon thousands were crossing the Albanian border, most from Pristina. They brought a consistent story of the organized and determined way in which the Serbs appear to be clearing the city. They said men with guns came to every house yesterday and forced each family into the streets to join thousands of others marching in silence. WOMAN: Those people are from prison, are out from prison now, criminals and gypsies with big weapons, with black masks. TOM BRADBY: They were forced to march to the train station, where they were joined, they said, by tens of thousands of others. They waited all night. Several babies were born by the track. ANOTHER WOMAN: We were forced by guns behind us, no speaking, a silence, a silence. I never seen such kind of silence and such kind of fear in my life. TOM BRADBY: In the morning, they were forced onto buses and trucks, taken towards the border, and then told to walk. Drita, whose name means "light," is nine months pregnant. She and her husband walked all night with their daughter, called Yette, or "Life." DRITA: She has all these nightmares. She's afraid. I'm afraid. I don't know poor my mother, poor my two brothers, poor sister. TOM BRADBY: What's happening here doesn't compare with previous days. This queue stretches for miles and mile, and each family crossing the border has a story that's terrible in its own right. Some have left elderly relatives behind who didn't want to leave their homes. They had a few minutes to say good-bye. They don't expect to see them again. As the refugees crossed the border, they were handed food. Many had not eaten for days -- children who have nothing given something to comfort them. The aid agencies are acknowledging now that if the exodus continues at this rate, it may be difficult to feed everyone. WILLEM SMIT, Red Cross: Coping with it, I don't think anybody can cope with it at the moment. The only good thing that they can do at the moment is transporting the people more to the coastal area, to the cities and get an enormous international aid program to assist the people at the moment. TOM BRADBY: The Albanian authorities are moving people out quickly, but food is running short. And as to the eventual numbers, who now can guess? The people of Kosovo, in their own words, are leaving behind a wasteland. |
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