refugee crisis

Bajram Curri, AL -- When a free moment, Mushkeli Kuhala, Suriyete's father gets out of the small apartment to stare out in the distance where the Dinars stretch. "Beyond those mountains is my village in Kosovo, Morina" he says, "on light foot I can get there same day." To where his house used to be, although now only the foundations stand.

Bajram Curri, Albania, December 3, '98 --
Suriyete is barely a year old. But for her condition her first birthday is no celebration. If she doesn't get an operation soon on her fingers, she will be disabled fro life. Suriyete was on schedule fro an operation before the family had to leave Kosovo. After their villages were razed with bulldozers and all their belongings looted, Mushkele Kuhele had to take her newborn daughter and took refuge in the mountains with the rest of his family. They later found shelter as refugees in Bajram Curri. Now with no means to get Suriyete an operation they can only tell her story.

"The Hotel" Kukes, Albania, December '98 --Drita is an aggressive supporter of the KLA. She also likes being the center of attention. Her parents say she was always headstrong. But following the days-long track over the mountains, and the immadiate transfer of the family to a refugee shelter in Kukes, her attitude towards strangers became a lot more open and insistent. Her hero is a KLA soldier, unnamed, one of the "coyotes" who guided them through Kosovo.

"The Kindergarten" Collective Refugee Center, Kukes, AL -- Ferdiye and Dasori tell the tale of their escape from Rahovec, Kosovo at gun point. Later the conversation weers towards politics and the future of Kosovo -- an inevitable topic.

"The children make any strange place home," says Hayriye Hanim as she sits with her neighbors at the "kindergarten", a 2 story building that was converted into a refugee shelter a few months ago by aid agencies in Kukes, Albania. All 12 members of this family share the same space as they wait for the day when they can return to their villages in Kosovo.