PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
14 April 1999
GENEVA

Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflicts, told correspondents this afternoon at the Palais des Nations that, after a four-day mission to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and to Albania, he wanted to send a three-pronged appeal to the international community. He called on countries to adopt concerted measures to meet the special needs of Kosovo refugees -- an "Agenda for Action for the Children of Kosovo". Secondly, he urged them to take immediate action to address the particularly intolerable conditions for refugees in the northern Albanian town of Kukes. Thirdly, he appealed for increased assistance to the host countries Albania included.

Mr. Otunnu visited several refugee centres in the vicinity of Skopje Macedonia including a transit camp in Brasda accommodating approximately 22,000 refugees, Blace, the notorious Ano man=s land@ on the border with Kosovo. He said he also visited host families in the town of Tetovo. While in Skopje he held discussions with local representatives, with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) special envoy Nicholas Morris, and with the representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,. Michel Moussali.

In Albania, Mr. Otunnu held discussions with the Albanian President, Professor Rajeb Meidani, Professor Rejeb Cosia, a signatory to the Rambouillet agreement on behalf of the Kosovo Albanians, and United Nations representatives.

"Children are the worst affected sector of the population in this crisis. They are the most traumatized by the violence, the most vulnerable to disease and malnutrition, and particularly affected by family separation and interruption of schooling. They constitute over 65 percent of those expelled from Kosovo", the Special Representative of the Secretary-General said.

Mr. Otunnu called today on the international community to adopt a special Agenda of Action for the Children of Kosovo, comprising the following measures in view of what he has witnessed in Macedonia and Albania.

"The following are immediate and basic needs of Kosovo refugee children: food, shelter, sanitary facilities, personal hygiene items, access to clean water and basic health services, especially immunization", Mr. Otunnu said. These needs were especially acute in Albania.

More than a half of the refugee population was estimated to be separated from family members. APresent capacities of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for tracing need to be greatly increased and government authorities should facilitate the movement of refugees between different localities, for purposes of reunification", Mr Otunnu said.

There were signs of severe trauma among refugee children, he said. It was necessary to mobilize and train quickly a significant number of trauma counselors, especially from within the refugee and host communities. AThis process has started@, Mr. Otunnu said.

Mr. Otunnu said there was also a need to ensure continuity of schooling for the refugee children; that was an issue often overlooked in the midst of an emergency response. AThis process must begin right away by recruiting and training teachers from among the refugee population, providing learning materials, organizing informal classes in the refugee camps and with host families. In addition to meeting their educational needs, this lends a measure of stability and routine to children=s lives".

Television and radio programmes devoted entirely to the needs of refugee children, focusing on entertainment, learning, peace education and serving as a source of basic information were necessary, he continued. Funds should be provided by donors to expand the capacities of local schools in host communities.

The Agenda for Action for the Children of Kosovo he was calling for went beyond the emergency of today, Mr. Otunnu said. Children expelled from Kosovo clearly had needs that would extend beyond the present emergency phase. Such needs included continuous schooling, psychosocial assessment and rehabilitation. Above all, there was need to anticipate the challenges of resettlement in Kosovo once the conditions for return were secured. ATo translate this Agenda into reality will require the long-term commitment, adequate planning and resources, and concerted action on the part of key donor governments, major international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and U.N. agencies@.

The Special Representative said he wished to draw particular attention to the appalling situation he had witnessed in and around the town of Kukes, in northern Albania. The town of 20,000 people had become the principal entry point for the 300,000 refugees who entered Albania from Kosovo. While a large number of the refugees had been relocated elsewhere in Albania, over 80,000 had remained in the Kukes area. About 40,000 of these refugees were neither with host families, nor in organized camps.

"I was very shocked by Kukes. Nothing had prepared me for what I saw there no shelter, no sanitary facilities, limited access to water, very little food", he said. "The only exception to this is the Italian camp, the only organized and functioning camp in the area, where some 3,000 persons are being cared for. More than two weeks into this tragedy I can not understand why other governments have not stepped forward to provide similar facilities in the Kukes area".

Mr. Otunnu addressed an urgent appeal to key donor governments to establish organized camps for these refugees. And he appealed to major international humanitarian NGOs to mobilize human and material resources for the refugees in Kukes. Such contributions would go a long way to reinforce ongoing actions of UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) on the ground.

Asked by a correspondent about the situation of children in the rest of Yugoslavia and what could to be done to help them, Mr. Otunnu said he had not gone to the rest of the country. The last time he had visited the country, in September 1998, he had gone to Belgrade and visited centres for Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia, as well as going to Kosovo. In the report issued after that visit, he had appealed to the international community to address the dramatic situation of displaced Kosovo-Albanians but not to forget the very important needs of half a million refugees in the rest of Yugoslavia. "My preoccupation is the protection and needs of children affected by armed conflict, regardless of which side of the conflict they may find themselves, regardless of the political, family, ethnic or other affiliations".

Responding to a question on conditions in Kukes, the Special Representative said an Italian-run camp was well-organized, providing hot food, tents and blankets. The rest of the refugee population was on its own. Those refugees were receiving some food, but it had shocked him to see the differences between the Italian camp and the rest.

Asked about information on reports of the violation of young girls by Serb forces, Mr. Otunnu said humanitarian workers had said they had heard of some cases of rape, but they had not directly witnessed any. People he asked had heard of massacres, but only a few persons had witnessed any.

Asked about the lack of information and the possibilities of knowing what was happening in Yugoslavia, Mr. Otunnu said that it was difficult to have information. That was the reason one had to insist on more systematic access to the population left behind, especially the children.

A correspondent asked Mr. Otunnu about the work of UNHCR and UNICEF in Kukes. Mr. Otunnu said he wished to pay particular tribute to UNHCR for the job its staff had been doing from the very beginning. "UNHCR and UNICEF are doing everything they possibly can".

Mr. Otunnu appealed for increased assistance to the host countries. "The neigbouring countries certainly had to assume an enormous burden on behalf of the international community" Mr. Otunnu said when asked about the international response to the crisis. The refugees constituted some 10 per cent of the population in Albania. The situation was especially acute in that country, the poorest in Europe.