Refugees: The Trek Home

The U.N. started its first organized return of refugees to Kosovo on Monday, when 335 ethnic Albanians were bused from Skopje, Macedonia, to Pristina, the provincial capital. More than 400,000 of the about 1 million refugees have returned on their own in the last few weeks, despite warnings about mines and booby traps. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is organizing the refugees’ return, providing food, building materials and tents. Most of them are returning to the larger Kosovo cities of Pristina, Prizren and Urosevac rather than remote villages, which haven’t been cleared of land mines. The U.N. refugee agency hopes that thousands of refugees will return in coming weeks, with the majority back in their homes--or in new dwellings--by winter.