How big is the refugee crisis?
More than 850,000 Kosovars have been displaced by the Serbs (as of April 6), and about half of those have fled since the NATO air strikes began on March 24. Q: What is NATO doing in Yugoslavia? A: In an effort to avoid a humanitarian disaster, the United States and its European allies forced the Serbs and Kosovars to the negotiating table. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, put together an agreement that would have made Kosovo an autonomous province within Serbia. Though the Kosovars eventually agreed to the pact, the Serbs refused to sign it. NATO then acted on its threat to launch air strikes against Serbia in an effort to halt the ethnic cleansing and force the Serbs into a settlement. Q: What role do Macedonia and Albania play in the crisis? A: Both countries are on Kosovo’s border. The refugees displaced by Serbia’s ethnic cleansing campaign have been flooding into Albania and Macedonia at a catastrophic rate, and officials in those countries say they don’t have the cap
