FRANCE: ARRIVAL OF KOSOVAR REFUGEES

Описание: (23 Apr 1999) French/Nat

More than 300 ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees arrived in Paris from Macedonia on chartered French military planes on Thursday.

The first plane, a C-160 Transall, landed at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport at around 1800 local time (1700 GMT).

Another four planes followed in ten minute intervals.

A second wave of ethnic Albanian refugees arrived in Paris, France on Thursday, after the French government reluctantly decided it was prepared to host a number of Kosovar refugees.

Amongst them was a newborn baby girl, Dajran, transported by the French Army to Villacoublay military airport.

Dajran, who is suffering from heart disease, was accompanied by another seriously ill refugee, 16-year-old Kosovar teenager, Spaheas, who was injured by a Serb bullet in an attack that killed his parents.

Some of those who arrived at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport looked dazed.

Others relieved to be away from the conditions in the refugee camps hastily established in Albania and Macedonia.

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Sanya Ezekiray, ethnic Albanian refugee
"We suffered a lot and I could never have imagined that we would live through such barbarism in the 20th century."
SUPER CAPTION: Sanya Ezekiray, ethnic Albanian refugee

Last Sunday, 346 ethnic Albanian families arrived in Lyon, in the south of France, after French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin gave the go-ahead for French families to shelter Kosovar refugees.

But Thursday's arrivals are not the last.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"Today we received 326 refugees. Other convoys are scheduled for the days to come. We have prepared 2000 available places and if it is necessary, we will find more. We are now ready to receive them whenever they come."
SUPER CAPTION: Martine Aubry, Minister of Solidarity and Employment

The refugees are expected to stay in France for the duration of the Kosovo conflict.

It will never be a place they can call home. For now, their homes are a thing of the past.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"You know, how can you be happy when you have left behind part of your memories, your land, a love, a friend, and you arrive with nothing in a country you are not familiar with?"
SUPER CAPTION: Pierre Henry, head of "France, Asylum Soil"

But, they are the lucky ones. They have survived the brutal ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Slobodan Milosevic's Serb forces. And, for now at least, they will be housed and cared for.

Thousands more are not so fortunate.

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