ALBANIA: KOSOVO: DETAINEES ARRIVE AT THE BORDER

(22 May 1999) Albanian/Nat

Yugoslav forces have released an estimated two-thousand Kosovo men who had been rounded up and held in a prison for the past several weeks.

The refugees crossed into Albania on Saturday.

Looking tired and gaunt, they said they had been detained at the Smrekovnice prison near the northern town of Mitrovica after being plucked from refugee columns that had been heading to Albania two to four weeks ago.

Many women refugees arriving in Albania in recent weeks had told tales of Serb forces detaining men.

Nearly 500 men, the vast majority aged 20 to 50, walked across the Albanian border post on Saturday afternoon, all saying that they had been freed from the same prison.

In all, more than two-thousand Kosovar men held at the Smrekovnice prison were said to have been released on Saturday morning.

The men said Serb forces had placed them on buses and drove them to within several kilometers (miles) of the border, before telling them to get off and walk the remaining distance.

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
(Q: "On what pretext did they release you ?)
A: "We don't know. Today, in the morning they told us, you asked for NATO now go to Albania. I don't know where my wife and children are."
SUPER CAPTION: Hashim Jbishi, Detainee

There weren't enough buses to take all the men at the same time, and the remaining refugees were expected to arrive in a second wave, probably on Sunday.

The men said they were detained for no reason and that they had no knowledge of the well-being of their families.

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"We have been in the prison for 21 days"
(Q: Why did they put you there ?)
A: "Because they are stronger than us, there is no other reason and not all of us were released."
SUPERCAPTION: Beram Salihu, Detainee

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"We were crossing the Vusahtria District, they stopped us in the road and separated us from our families. All four thousand of us in the prison know nothing about our families."
SUPERCAPTION: Hashim Jbishi, Detainee

Many claimed they were beaten with wooden sticks on their arms, legs and back.

They were fed only bread and water twice a day, and many were clearly thin and hungry as they crossed the border.

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