The planes will drop food rations daily to displaced ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
RELATED VIDEO CNN's David Ensor reports on relief air drops (May 28) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K  ALSO: Refugees dodge shellfire, snipers U.S. balances refugee needs, war goals Chernomyrdin: Road warrior for Kosovo peace talks Cohen makes quiet trip to Germany to meet NATO defense ministers

May 29, 1999
Web posted at: 6:40 a.m. EDT (1040 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Many weary Kosovars may get some relief in coming days, in the form of arlifted food rations.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a U.S. based private relief organization, has said it will begin sustained air drops of food over Kosovo early Monday.

Sources told CNN that the drops, funded by the U.S. government, could last up to 30 days and will involve initially two flights a day from Pescara, Italy.

Each plane will carry at least 4,000 food rations, to be parachuted to the ground on large pallets. Each ration has enough nutrition for one person for one day.

Organizers admit the airdrops will supply only a "very small portion" of what is needed. Refugees who have left Kosovo in the last few weeks paint a dire picture of the food situation inside the province, and humanitarian officials fear food supplies are dwindling for those ethnic Albanians displaced within the province.

Officials said the Yugoslav government has been notified of the effort, and that the IRC delivered a letter to the Yugoslav mission at the United Nations.

One official involved in the effort said the organizers hope the Yugoslav government will respect the humanitarian nature of the mission.

However, Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Wald told reporters that he did not think the food drops were a good idea.

"The reason I say that is that I have zero trust for what (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic or his army might try to do," Wald said at a Pentagon briefing. "So I think they're putting themselves, from an operational perspective, at great risk in doing this."

The IRC is using chartered planes from the former Russian republic of Moldovia.

In Morina, Albania, a few hundred Kosovars crossed into Albania on Friday, dodging occasional sniper fire and shelling as aid workers worried about the safety of refugees on both sides of the border.

Albania's military conducted maneuvers along the border with Yugoslavia on Friday in a show of strength that included tanks, artillery and rocket fire. Fighting between the Serb-led Yugoslav troops and the ethnic Albanian rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army has occasionally spilled across the frontier.

About 100,000 of the estimated 441,000 Kosovo refugees in Albania are huddled in camps near the border, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees worried that the exercises would only increase the level of tension in the area.

"The UNHCR in general could do without the loud bangs, but the government has the right to do what it wants on its border," one U.N. official told CNN.

The U.N. relief agency has been moving refugees away from the border for security reasons. About 2,000 left for the interior on Thursday.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.