MACEDONIA PREPARING CAMP FOR POSSIBLE KOSOVO REFUGEES - SERBIAN PAPER
BBC Monitoring International Reports - March 22, 2007 Thursday

Text of report by Serbian newspaper Vecernje novosti on 21 March

[Report by "M.S.," permanent correspondent in Skopje: "Refugee Camp Being Prepared in Skopje"?]

According to a scenario already seen in 1999, representatives of the international community are busy making preparations to receive possible refugees from Kosovo-Metohija in Macedonia.

According to Vecernje Novosti's information, the approximate figure mentioned at preparatory meetings for the number of people that might "retreat" across the southern [Serbian] border in case of an escalation of violence is at least 10,000. Most of them are expected to be Serbs, with a sprinkling of Roma from the "Serb enclave of Strpce and the area around Mt Brezovica."

The rest of the Serb population that would be exposed to a new onslaught of Shiptar [Albanian] extremists is expected to gravitate towards central Serbia and it would not be realistic to expect them to "spill over" into Macedonia.

There are estimates also about the "most drastic contingency," where there might be a forced displacement also of Shiptar populations and according to which the total number of refugees would come up to as many as 150,000 people.

According to Vecernje Novosti's information, the reception of a possible "first wave of refugees" is being prepared in the facilities of what was once the Cicino Selo children's resort, on the right bank of the Treska River in Skopje's suburb of Saraj, which has a predominantly ethnic Albanian population. However, the capacities of this settlement are nowhere near large enough to receive the planned number of unfortunates from Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija].

Macedonian Government spokesman Ivica Bocevski told Vecernje Novosti's correspondent yesterday [20 March] first that he had "no comment" on possible plans for receiving refugees from Kosmet and then added that he had "no information about that."

Source: Vecernje novosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 21 Mar 07

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Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

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