PLEMENTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 31 (AFP) - Accused by embittered Kosovo Albanians of collaboration with the Serb enemy last spring, the Rom gypsies of Kosovo have little to celebrate as the new millennium dawns.

They are outcasts, their houses burned down, living in fear, isolation, cold and malnutrition, under canvas and in wooden huts on the fringes of a vengeful society.

Gypsies at a camp at Zitkovac are observing three days of mourning for three of their comrades who died in the space a month from cold, malnutrition and poor health conditions.

RED CROSS & RED CRESCENT INFORMATION - October-November 1999
This report is published as a general update on Red Cross/Red Crescent activities in response to the Balkans crisis, primarily for the Movement's components and supporters. This text is also found on the Internet at www.ifrc.org and www.icrc.org

LATEST EVENTS

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

"The majority of Council members are firmly in support of what UNMIK and KFOR are doing in trying to bring

Prague, 30 December 1999 (RFE/RL) -- The arrival of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo in mid-June meant that for the first time in living memory, Kosovar Albanians became masters

As the new millennium approaches, there are almost 2.5 million people "of concern" to the UNHCR in the Balkans, including refugees and displaced people. Now the conflict in the northern Caucasus on the continent's most easterly front is also grabbing headlines, and causing problems for humanitarian groups.

The UN refugee agency said recently that

GNJLANE, YUGOSLAVIA - For 5-and-1/2 months, Lt. Col. Timothy Reese, the commander of a 44-tank armored battalion, stood ready to repulse a new invasion of Kosovo by the Yugoslav Army.

That turned out to be the easy part. More recently, he's been trying to persuade local Serbs and ethnic Albanians to work together again at a limestone quarry.

"It's surprising to me," says Colonel Reese, who at 6-foot-4 looks every inch a tank commander. "We're

Never have the challenges been so great for primary-school teachers in Kosovo. Since schools reopened in September, thousands of teachers have been striving to help children work through the trauma and pain they've endured this past year.

"The children have suffered so much, and seen so many terrible things," explains Nebahate Ibrahimi, who has 42 students between the ages of 7 and 11. "One of my students

Murder, abductions, violent attacks, intimidation, and house burning are being perpetrated on a daily basis at a rate which is almost as high as it was in June when the international