Monitor: All the News of the World - International comment on the situation of the ethnic Albanian refugees

THOUSANDS OF ethnic Albanians and quite a few Turks are being pushed out of their homes by Serbian hordes, and those who survive atrocities find their way to the borders and save their skin by crossing into neighboring countries. Macedonia has already announced that it is overwhelmed by the refugee exodus and is unable to cope with more refugees. Germany and Greece have announced that they will accept Kosovar refugees. We feel Turkey too has to make a similar announcement. And we feel the Western countries who tried to bury their heads in the sand for so long and hoped the Kosovo issue would simply disappear now have an obligation to help out the refugees.

TDN Turkey

HUNGER AND disease are costing lives each day and there is a potential for the deaths to soar exponentially. Another fear is that this huge movement of refugees across the border of Kosovo into Albania and Macedonia will have a destabilising effect throughout the region. The world may be witnessing only the beginning of this crisis. Kosovo is on the other side of the world, but distance does not diminish our responsibilities towards them.

Sydney Morning Herald

THE NATION'S attention is slowly coming round to the massive human suffering occurring in Kosovo. Clinton has emphatically resisted the use of ground forces. Now Kosovo Albanians are being forced to flee their homes. The air campaign has not had any influence on this "ethnic-cleansing" policy. NATO should have planned for the worst and should do everything it can now to stop the ethnic cleansing.

Goshen News, US

INSTALLING REFUGEES on the boarders of Kosovo risks a destabilisation of the host country and a prolongation of the conflict. Given the pace of the current expulsions, Nato estimates that Kosovo will be emptied of its ethnic Albanians within 10 to 20 days. It is time to admit that our defence of the refugees' right to return is meaningless if we continue to exclude the possibility of sending in groundtroops.

Le Monde, France