MAIN PAGE  WORLD  ASIANOW  U.S.  LOCAL  POLITICS  WEATHER  BUSINESS  SPORTS  TECHNOLOGY  NATURE  ENTERTAINMENT  BOOKS  TRAVEL  FOOD  HEALTH  STYLE  IN-DEPTH  Headline News brief  daily almanac  CNN networks  CNN programs  on-air transcripts  news quiz   CNN WEB SITES:  TIME INC. SITES: Go To ... Time.com People Money Fortune EW  MORE SERVICES:  video on demand  video archive  audio on demand  news email services  free email accounts  desktop headlines  pointcast  pagenet  DISCUSSION:  message boards  chat  feedback  SITE GUIDES:  help  contents  search  FASTER ACCESS:  europe  japan  WEB SERVICES:		U.S. steps up humanitarian aid to Balkans  ALSO NATO getting more 'all-weather' fighter jets Yugoslavia reopens border, expels Kosovars into Albania Cypriot envoy: Talks on freeing U.S. soldiers fail Clinton: Yugo peace claim is 'illusion' Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo

Cuba may be scrapped as camp for Kosovars

April 9, 1999
Web posted at: 9:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT)

In this story: U.S. navy ship to help refugees Critics: Efforts best in Balkans, not Cuba RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Friday stepped up its humanitarian assistance program to Kosovo refugees in the Balkans, as the likelihood of its hosting thousands of them on a military base in Cuba diminished.

The Pentagon announced Friday it will increase the humanitarian daily ration packages (HDRs) it plans to distribute in the region from 500,000 to as many as 1.4 million.

Already, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware has sent about 300,000 HDRs to Albania, which should receive another 200,000 soon. In addition, 600,000 more HDRs will leave Travis Air Force Base in California for Macedonia within days.

The United States plans to manufacture another 300,000 HDRs to alleviate the growing food crises in the Balkans, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have fled from Kosovo into border states to escape turmoil in the province.

Pentagon officials say the United States can produce 100,000 units every two weeks once the HDR production line operates at full capacity.

U.S. navy ship to help refugees

Besides food rations, the United States will provide some medical assistance to refugees in the Balkans. The USS Inchon will remain in the Mediterranean to support NATO humanitarian efforts, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Friday.

In addition to its hospital, the ship has helicopters that can ferry supplies to refugees, the Navy said.

U.S. officials downplayed Friday the possibility of a plan announced earlier this week to temporarily shelter 20,000 refugees on a naval base in southeastern Cuba.

"It's possible it won't happen," said J. Brian Atwood, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and chairman of the President's Council of Humanitarian Relief for Kosovo.

The United States is prepared to take people into the base, but only if they volunteer, Atwood said.

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer told CNN the United States has not yet determined how many refugees would willingly go to Guantanamo.

Regardless, the base is "ready, willing and able" to welcome the refugees, State Department spokesman James Rubin said.

Critics: Efforts best in Balkans, not Cuba

Some humanitarian experts in Washington criticized the proposal to house Kosovars in Cuba.

"Put your money where it counts," said Bill Frelick, a senior policy analyst with the U.S. Committee for Refugees. "Build camps, roads, sewage lines and infrastructure in Albania."

U.S. officials have conceded the location is less than ideal. The heat at Guantanamo and its long distance from the Balkans have made it a refugee site of last resort, U.S. officials said.

Returning refugees to Kosovo "will be a lot easier to undertake ... if they are in the region," Atwood said.

The Cuban government, while condemning NATO military action against Yugoslavia, said it did not object to the use of Guantanamo as a refugee haven, and offered to provide assistance.

Since the United States proposed the use of the Cuban site, the situation has changed, Atwood said; tens of thousands of desperate refugees have left a no man's land along the Kosovo-Albanian border. Living conditions in the border camps also have improved due to international relief efforts, he said.

But serious problems remain, Atwood cautioned. About 140,000 refugees now in northern Albania are "in bad condition (with) respiratory diseases and diarrheal diseases," he said.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.