Venera Mustafa, an ethnic Albanian refugee from Kosovo, was crowned Miss Albania Saturday night
RELATED VIDEO
CNN's Jeff Flock reports on a woman's journey from refugee to beauty queen.
Windows Media	28K	80K

May 30, 1999
Web posted at: 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT)

TIRANA, Albania (CNN) -- Pushed out of her home in Kosovo two months ago, 19-year-old Venera Mustafa has become a queen of sorts in the country that has given her shelter.

Mustafa was crowned Miss Albania on Saturday night in Tirana, chosen from among 24 contestants in the first year that ethnic Albanians from Kosovo were allowed to compete in the pageant.

"It means very much, very much," Mustafa said. "I can't explain it. It's very big."

Mustafa competed as Miss Pristina, representing Kosovo's provincial capital. She read a poem about her homeland in the talent competition.

She will go on to compete in the Miss Europe competition in June, but says her greatest wish is to return home -- "very soon, I hope."

Pageant host Ardit Gjebrea said her win was a surprise, even though this year's event was dedicated to Kosovo and the event was peppered with appeals to Albanian unity.

"We must be one. We are one," he said. "Why? I don't understand why, why all this."

About 840,000 ethnic Albanians have fled their homes in the Serbian province since March. Albania has taken in about 440,000 Kosovars, including Mustafa's family.

Her mother, poet and painter Muradije Ramiqi, said she never thought her daughter would take part in a beauty pageant.

"But then, incredible things happen in difficult times," she said.

Before the war in Yugoslavia began, ethnic Albanians made up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of nearly 2 million.

Correspondent Jeff Flock contributed to this report.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.