Kosovo: UNHCR emergency rescue operation

UNHCR today is organizing an emergency rescue operation to pick up around 200 displaced people who have been trapped on a mountainside in makeshift plastic shelters for 3 nights in a row in sub-freezing temperatures. They are being taken to the nearby town of Kacanik where they will stay with relatives and friends. The Yugoslav army, which surrounds the group, has agreed to give them an unhindered passage from the mountains to the town. The rescue operation is complicated since the group is located in an area which is very difficult to access even in four wheel drive vehicles.

According to UNHCR's office in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia capital Skopje an estimated 1,500 people have crossed into Macedonia since fighting broke out near the Macedonian border on February 26th. The remaining 5,000 people displaced by that fighting are crammed into 3 towns on the Yugoslav side of the border: General Jankovic, Kacanik and Urosevac.