The President of the United States of America Bill Clinton, accompanied by his wife Hillary, and his doughter Chelsea and by a lot of administrative presenters, yesterday were in one day visit in Macedonia. He had a meeting with the president of Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov. He expressed thanks to the Macedonian authorities and Macedonian people for the assistance that they gave for solving the Kosovo crises. He also visited the Stenkovec camp and met with the President of Albania Rexhep Mejdani. Hillary Clinton had meeting with Macedonian businessmen.

According to the official information given by Operative Staff of the Ministry of Interior (MVR), until yesterday 13 o’clock from the borderland of Blace, 4.363 persons left Macedonia and went to Kosovo, while at the same time 433 persons entered Macedonia. From Jazince 5.045 went to Kosovo, while 519 persons entered Macedonia. In Tabanovce were registered 196 refugees that left Macedonia and went to Kosovo. All these refugees left Macedonia spontaneously, so UNHCR still haven't started with organized return of refugees. But they are waiting for a sign from KFOR forces that are settled in Kosovo, to tell them that the necessary conditions are provided.

According to the daily newspaper Utrinski Vesnik, Remzi Gashi (31) and Mustafa Potoku (25) both refugees from Kosovo, have been declared guilty for their attempt to gave money to the employees in the Skopje Airport "Petrovec". Because they were not allowed to entered Macedonia in the booking office of airport they left 200 German marks, and then have been called in the office where they have been arrested. They said that they wanted to take their families from the Cegarne camp and transfer them to third countries.

During the visit in the camp of Stenkovec, his wife and his doughtier also had accompanied the President of the USA. First, Miss Hillary Clinton said to refugees, that she is very happy that she had a chance to meet them again. Then the President Clinton stressed that America and the Alliance will make Kosovo a safe place for living. The president also said that he knows that most of refugees want to go to their homes but they need to wait for few weeks, until the life conditions in the province are provided.

SUPPORT

The program of High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) that is prepared for information of refugees began to be transmitted in nine local Albanian radio stations from 19 o’clock and will extend 30 minutes. This was said in yesterday’s press conference of UNHCR by the spokesman of this organization Mahiko Shinohara.