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By Gordon Delaney / Valley Bureau
Halifax Chronicle Herald
8 April, 1999

Greenwood - Military officials are preparing for a sudden influx of ethnic Albanian refugees who could begin arriving at this Annapolis Valley air force base as early as this weekend.

CFB Greenwood will be one of two Canadian entry points for 5,000 refugees fleeing their war-torn homeland of Kosovo, the federal government announced Wednesday. They will also be processed at Trenton, Ont., and transported to other military bases in Quebec and Ontario.

The Canadian government has said it will provide temporary shelter for the homeless Kosovars to help alleviate a growing humanitarian catastrophe along the Macedonian and Albanian borders. As many as 400,000 ethnic Albanians have been driven from Kosovo by Serbian soldiers and paramilitary police.

"We still have to confirm a lot of things, because we found out that we were tasked the same time Wednesday that you guys in the media found out," Greenwood spokeswoman Lieut. Isabelle Robitaille said Wednesday night.

"But we were expecting this ... because we have the facilities and we have the runways that can handle any wide-bodied aircraft," she said. Lieut. Robitaille said the exact day when refugees will begin arriving by aircraft in Greenwood - and how long they will be staying - is not yet known. What is known is that 2,500 war-weary, cold and hungry refugees - men, women and children - may pass through the base over the next several days.

"Our job is to make sure they are received properly," Lieut. Robitaille said. "We're going to make sure they have decent accommodations, beds, a place to take a shower, and good food."

It is expected the refugees will arrive 300 at a time, be processed by Canadian health and immigration officials and moved as quickly as possible to more permanent housing arrangements at Ontario and Quebec bases.

Greenwood will provide 500 beds in the summer air cadet complex, which contains numerous relatively new prefabricated houses. Military personnel will be setting up the necessary beds over the next couple of days, and food services people are gearing up for the large influx, Lieut. Robitaille said.

"We're getting everything ready so that when they show up they will not be put through any more stress than they have already," she said. "That's our No.1 concern, to make sure they are made as comfortable as possible under the circumstances."

Lieut. Robitaille said most of the refugees will probably not be at Greenwood for more than 48 hours. But any individuals or families deemed to need a longer stay will be accommodated. While the base will provide the infrastructure, health and immigration officials will be running the show, she added.

In the legislature Wednesday, Premier Russell MacLellan said the province will offer support where it can, but he stressed the humanitarian effort is a federal matter and Ottawa will pay the costs of housing and feeding the refugees. "Clearly we're prepared to meet the challenge," said Community Services Minister Francene Cosman, whose department is responsible for emergency community services. Meanwhile, a spokesman for CFB Gagetown said reports that the New Brunswick base will host some of the Kosovar refugees is "still at the rumour stage."

Capt. Dan Madryga said base officials told Ottawa on the weekend that they could house between 1,200 and 1,400 refugees in married quarters, barracks and the base cadet camp. "I'm hoping we get the order tonight, because we need a certain amount of time to gear up," he said.

Halifax-based military spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Mike Considine said the plan to transfer refugees to bases is still in the preliminary stages. He said local officials had not yet been told to prepare to host any of the refugees. Canada will spend about $100 million during the next six months to give the exiled Kosovars temporary safe haven, Immigration Minister Lucienne Robillard said Wednesday.

Since the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of victims of international upheaval have made new lives here. In November 1946, the Canadian government ushered in a new era of refugee settlement with plans to bring in some of those displaced people. Between 1947 and 1952, about 170,000 men, women and children traded the camps of Europe for sanctuary in Canada.

There were Hungarians who fled after their failed uprising in 1956, Czechs driven out by the 1968 Soviet invasion and Ugandan Asians exiled in 1972 by mad dictator Idi Amin. Chileans fled the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, Vietnamese boat people and Poles in the early 1980s came here.

With Barry Dorey and Amy Smith, staff reporters, and The Canadian Press

Following is a list of Canadian aid agencies that have launched appeals to assist Kosovo refugees:

- Anglican Church of Canada: Donations to Kosovo Relief/Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, c/o Bern Jagunos, 600 Jarvis St., Toronto, Ont., M4Y 2J6; telephone 416-924-9199, ext. 321; Web site www.anglican.ca

- B'nai Brith Canada: Donations to Humanitarian Relief Fund of B'nai Brith for Refugees, 15 Hove St., Toronto, Ont., M3R 4Y8; telephone 1-800-892-2664; Web site www.bnaibrith.ca

- Canadian Baptist Ministries: Donations to Albanian Refugees/The Sharing Way, 7185 Millcreek Dr., Mississauga, Ont., L5N 5R4; telephone 905-821-3533; Web site www.cbmin.org

- Canadian Red Cross: Donations to Canadian Red Cross/Balkan Conflict, c/o local branch; Web site www.redcross.ca

- Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace: Donations to Development and Peace - Kosovo. 10 St. Mary St., Suite 420, Toronto, Ont., M4Y 1P9; telephone 1-800-494-1401. 5633 Sherbrooke St. E., Montreal, Que., H1N 1A3; telephone 1-888-234-8533.

- CARE Canada: Donations to CARE Canada Kosovo Relief Fund, P.O. Box 9000, Ottawa, Ont., K1G 4X6; telephone 1-800-267-5232; Web site www.care.ca

- Doctors Without Borders: Donations to Doctors Without Borders, 355 Adelaide St. W., Suite 5B, Toronto, Ont., M5V 1S2; telephone 1-800-982-7903; Web site www.msf.ca

- Oxfam Canada: Donations to Oxfam Canada, 1011 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ont., M6H 1M1; telephone 1-800-466-9326; Web site www.oxfam.ca

- Presbyterian Church in Canada: Donations to Presbyterian World Service and Development, 50 Wynford Dr., North York, Ont., M3C 1J7; telephone 1-800-619-7301; Web site www.presbyterian.ca or www.presbycan.ca

- United Church of Canada: Donations to Kosovo Relief/World Outreach, c/o Pat Elson, 3250 Bloor St. W., Suite 300, Etobicoke, Ont., M8X 2Y4; telephone 416-231-5931; Web site www.uccan.org.

- UNICEF Canada: Donations to UNICEF/Kosovo Relief Appeal, 443 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto, Ont., M4S 2L8; telephone 1-800-567-4483; Web site www.unicef.ca

- World Vision: Donations to World Vision, 6630 Turner Valley Rd., Mississauga, Ont., L5N 2S4; telephone 1-800-268-1650; Web site www.worldvision.ca.

- Yugoslav Children Aid: Donations to Yugoslav Children Aid, 212 Delaware Ave., Toronto, Ont., M6H 2T5; telephone 416-332-9569.