A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross says that everyone cannot be helped at once RELATED VIDEO Albania is shoring up defenses at its border with Yugoslavia -- no longer satisfied with letting individual villages be responsible for their own safety. CNN's Rusty Dornin is there. (May 19) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K NATO is preparing for peacekeeping by conducting live fire exercises in Macedonia. CNN's Kasra Naji takes a look. (May 18) 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 IMAGE GALLERY A cracked window to a war To the corners of the world: The flight of Kosovo's refugees  ALSO: NATO pounds Belgrade following Russian diplomatic mission May 19, 1999 Kosovo refugee dies en route to U.S.  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Where are they going?  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS: NATO officials describe the air campaign  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: NATO at 50 Strike on Yugoslavia

May 19, 1999
Web posted at: 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 GMT)

In this story: Joint aid effort to extend reach Annan visits refugee camps RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross hopes to re-establish a permanent presence in the Kosovo capital of Pristina within "a matter of days," spokesman Andre Pasquier said Wednesday.

After resolving security concerns with NATO and the Yugoslav government, the ICRC on Sunday dispatched two trucks carrying food and other aid to Pristina, in an effort to reach an estimated hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians who have been driven from their homes by fighting but remain in the province.

Officials traveling with the convoy assessed the food and medical needs of displaced ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, as well as the potential hazard to aid workers.

The ICRC would like to organize food and medical convoys to the war-ravished province on a regular basis, distributing aid to the areas that need it.

"We will try our best ... (but) we won't be able to do it all at once," Pasquier said.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of a combined aid effort by the governments of Russia, Greece and Switzerland promised Wednesday to organize bi-weekly convoys into Kosovo.

Alex Rondos, a Greek Foreign Ministry official, said each convoy into Kosovo will carry about 20 tons of aid, mostly food.

To date, all aid shipments have gone to Pristina. But Rondos announced plans Wednesday to use smaller trucks to deliver aid to other hard-hit areas such as Pec, in western Kosovo, and Prizren, in the south.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited refugee camps in Macedonia Wednesday, getting a firsthand look at the people who have fled Kosovo and their living conditions.

Annan came to Macedonia "in solidarity with the people of Kosovo whose lives have been brutally uprooted and who are now living this nightmare we are all trying to make a little bit easier for them," he said.

Annan's visit came the same day that the human rights group Amnesty International accused the Macedonian government of breaking international law in its treatment of refugees who have fled across its border from Yugoslavia.

"Macedonia is using refugees as a bargaining chip... as political pawns and is breaking international law," said Saul Takahashi, the group's spokesman on refugees.

"Armed Macedonian police officers are harassing and intimidating refugees in the camps and that is completely unacceptable," Takahashi said. "Macedonia does not want the refugees. That message is clear."

Macedonia has pressed hard to reduce the number of refugees it is sheltering, citing fears of economic and political turmoil.

Annan travels to Macedonia and Albania to meet senior government officials and visit refugees of the conflict in Kosovo

Annan, who met with Macedonian government officials before traveling to the refugee camps along the border, praised the former Yugoslav republic for its efforts to shelter ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo.

"The international community should be extremely grateful to the government and people of Macedonia," he said. "We tend to underestimate the contributions of asylum countries."

He said the United Nations was working with the government of Macedonia to provide assistance in supporting the ever-increasing refugee population.

Aid agencies believe that as many as 40,000 refugees are trapped just across the border in Kosovo. Some refugees have reported that they paid Serb police to be allowed to escape.

More than 50,000 refugees have been evacuated from Macedonia to third countries. An elderly ethnic Albanian woman died en route from Europe to a refugee center in New Jersey, a U.S. Army spokesman said. The woman, believed to be in her 80s, died on a flight full of refugees.

The secretary-general is scheduled to visit refugee camps in Kukes, Albania, on Thursday -- where town officials have threatened to shut off water if aid groups do not start moving out 100,000 refugees.

Kukes officials are "basically saying that our water system is being overwhelmed and this can't go on," said Ray Wilkinson, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Aid groups and Albanian authorities want to move refugees farther away from Albania's unstable border with Yugoslavia, as well as reduce the burden on Kukes' resources. Kukes, only 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border, had a population of only 30,000 before NATO began bombing Yugoslavia on March 24.

But many of the refugees have stayed at the Kukes camps to be closer to home and to watch the border for family and friends who arrive.

Correspondent David Ensor, Tom Mintier andReuters contributed to this report.

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