wfn.org | Relief official says Kosovar refugee situation will not end soon

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 11, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{328}

By United Methodist News Service 

The agreement ending the war between NATO and Yugoslavia does not mean an
immediate resolution to the refugee situation, according to a United
Methodist relief expert. 

The logistics involved in returning more than a million refugees to their
homes are "enormously difficult," said the Rev. Ray Buchanan, who visited
Albanian camps and host families housing Kosovar refugees at the end of May.

That fact has been demonstrated in places like Bosnia, the Congo and Sierra
Leone, he told United Methodist News Service in a June 11 interview.
Buchanan is director of Stop Hunger Now, a food relief organization based in
Bedford, Va.

"I don't think it (the agreement) is going to empty the camps out as fast as
some people might think," he said. "It's going to take months to get this
set up and flowing."

Complicating the resettlement is the number of landmines and booby traps set
by Serb forces in Kosovo and the fact that much of the infrastructure has
been destroyed.

In Albania, Stop Hunger Now has been working with Food for the Hungry
International, which is assisting the Albanian families hosting refugees. Of
the more than 400,000 Kosovar refugees living in Albania, nearly a quarter
of a million are housed with local families, Buchanan said.

This provides an enormous hardship "on somebody who is least able to sustain
it." By providing food and other items to 2,500 host families in several
villages, the two organizations can make a "measurable" difference to an
estimated 25,000 people, he added.

Stop Hunger Now also provided money to help Food for the Hungry buy a
defunct bakery in the capital city of Tirana. Now in operation, overseen by
a Dutch master baker and owned by Albanians, the bakery is producing a
thousand loaves of bread a day. Food for the Hungry buys the bread to
distribute to refugees.

Plenty of commodities are available in Albania, and three or four dozen
nongovernmental relief organizations have operations there, Buchanan noted.
While this is an indication of the tremendous concern for Kosovar refugees,
it also has presented problems because of a lack of coordination among the
groups, he said.

His main worry is that long-term needs will be forgotten as people are drawn
away by the next world crisis. "I foresee a food security need in Albania,
Macedonia and especially Kosovo for the next year or 18 months," Buchanan
predicted.

Stop Hunger Now is working with the newly formed Foods Resource Bank to ship
seeds into Albania in an attempt to improve food security. Buchanan also
expects future collaborative efforts in the Balkans with the United
Methodist Committee on Relief.

More information on the work of Stop Hunger Now is available by calling,
toll free, (888) 501-8440.

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