From Correspondent Rick Lockridge

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Thousands of refugee families have been separated since fleeing Kosovo. CNN's Rick Lockridge shows how an Internet data bank could help reunite them. (May 27)
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May 27, 1999
Web posted at: 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT)

SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- First, many Kosovar refugees were forcibly separated from their loved ones during the flight from their homeland. Now, many ethnic Albanians are still being separated even after landing in the rough embrace of the refugee camps.

In a culture that prizes strong, extended families, this is a heart-wrenching tragedy. Aid officials hope that Internet technology can create speedy reunions that otherwise might take years.

One child escaped Kosovo in her mother's arms. But the woman's three other children are missing. The woman says she thinks of nothing else.

"My life doesn't mean anything without my children. They are there and I don't know anything about them, so it's very hard to live," she said through an interpreter.

In the refugee camps of Macedonia and Albania, the unraveling of the Kosovo drama continues. Those families not pulled apart in the flight from their homeland are often separated by resettlement efforts that send them off to well-meaning but distant countries.

Reconnecting thousands of displaced people will take an enormous amount of cross-checking and a huge, searchable database. It's a perfect job for the Internet.

The Refugee Internet Assistance Initiative is an effort to funnel information from all agencies, at all camps, into one Web site -- and to bring some order to the war's chaos.

Michael Barton of the International Organization for Migration says the database is proving very useful.

"There are actually many uses for the database. One of them is identifying vulnerable cases that need to be evacuated from the camps and reuniting families that might have lost family members in other camps," he said. "Another us is to make sure that assets such as ration cards and tents are properly allocated."

Other camps in the Balkans are compiling their own databases with a plan to funnel all the data into a central Web site, where a refugee like Fatima can find the mother, brother and sisters she left behind in Kosovo.

"We don't lose hope, ever. Man lives with hope. So we hope that someday we will be together," Fatima said.

That is the goal the Refugee Internet Assistance Initiative's backers are shooting for.

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