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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 13, 1999

Kosovo Index

SEATTLE -- Relief workers from World Vision, escorted by a German contingent of NATO peacekeeping forces, returned to Kosovo Sunday. The Christian aid agency reportedly is one of the first humanitarian organizations allowed back into the former Yugoslav province, following the withdrawal of Serbian forces.

"We’ve positioned staff, specially-equipped vehicles and water trucks, and, of course, food, clothing, blankets and other supplies at strategic locations in Albania, as well as in Macedonia and Montenegro," said Stuart Wilcuts, director of the aid agency’s operations in Albania. "We’re ready provide assistance to up to 100,000 displaced people in Kosovo."

World Vision will establish an operations center in Prizren, about 8 miles north of Albania-Kosovo border, as well as offices in the provincial capital Pristina, where its programs were based prior to the war.

Up to 800,000 people who remained in Kosovo during the NATO bombing are believed to be in critical need of food, medicines and other life-saving assistance. Their plight could far exceed that of refugees receiving assistance in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, Willcuts said.

"Initially, World Vision will concentrate its relief efforts on the displaced Kosovars, the people who hid in cellars and forests rather than flee the country," World Vision International President Dean R. Hirsch said in a statement. "We believe their needs are critical."

The extent of devastation and humanitarian needs inside Kosovo is still unknown. Published reports indicate the former Yugoslav province is a wasteland of destroyed and empty villages, some razed to the ground. Countless homes, shops and businesses reportedly have been looted and burned, and public utilities and medical facilities reportedly are nearly non-existent.

There likely will be two-part strategy for immediate relief assistance and subsequent repatriation of Kosovar refugees: first, a 30-day program to reach and assist those who stayed Kosovo, and repatriate the 250,000 refugees currently sheltered in Macedonia; followed by the phased repatriation of 500,000 refugees in Albania, 70,000 refugees in Montenegro, and others in various NATO countries.

World Vision has been assisting Kosovar refugees in Montenegro and Albania since the NATO bombing campaign began in late March.

"The bombing is over and the shooting has stopped," Hirsch said. "But the toll this war has exacted on the hearts and minds of Kosovars will last a lifetime. Their personal losses are huge and their psychological wounds are deep. Their homes, farms and businesses have been looted and destroyed. Their brothers have been killed, their fathers tortured, their sisters raped. Children have witnessed acts of extreme cruelty and violence. "