With no end in sight to NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, the refugees continue leaving Kosovo for camps in Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia, from where many have been evacuated to other countries. Washington Post Foreign Service correspondent
R. Jeffrey Smith joined us Tuesday, April 27, from the Macedonian capital of Skopje to discuss the Kosovo crisis.

Read the transcript below.

Brattleboro, VT: I'm wondering about how realistic it is for refugees to be able to return even if NATO does "win" the war. I was in Bosnia following Dayton, so I saw the devastation there. I am also aware that promised development aid to Bosnia has not materialized at the levels anticipated or needed, and that many Bosnians remain outside of their country. How can we believe it will be any different in Kosovo.

R. Jeffrey Smith: Kosovo is more compact than bosnia; it has vast natural resources, including minerals and fertile farmland; and the residents are more industrious and hard working than i have seen in many other parts of southern europe. So there is reason for optimism that it can eventually be reconstructed.

Macon, Georgia: The White House has said that it will bring a number of refugees into the United States to stay with Albanian families here. Has the White House illustrated a plan for such yet, and how do they expect to return the refugees, as stated, once the war is over?

R. Jeffrey Smith: since I am in Macedonia, I have only a loose grasp of plans being made in Washington for settling the refugees. but my understanding is that some will be housed at abandoned military bases -- not unlike the refugee accommodations in germany and other european nations. Some will undoubtedly seek to stay in the united states, but the pull of ethnicity and homeland is far greater among kosovo albanians than any other ethnic group than I have encountered, and many say they will want to join in the rebuilding.

Alexandria, VA: R. Jeffrey,

The media coverage of Kosovo's refugees certainly seemed to bolster NATO and the U.S. in their efforts to convince others of the need for strikes against Yugoslavia. Do you see the same effect continuing as the war effort keeps going on?

R. Jeffrey Smith: the washington post plans to staff the region intensively for as long as this crisis continues, with at least one person in Albania, one in Macedonia, and one in Belgrade, not to mention those in washington and other key capitals who will contribute. It's probably the most important security crisis of the latter half of the century and how the alliance deals with it will have enormous consequences for international relations in the next century.

arlington, va.: Can you give us a sense of how Albanian residents in Macedonia feel about their government's handling of the refugee crisis? Are you getting a sense that the Kosovo crisis will destabilize the country?

R. Jeffrey Smith: many albanians here are fuming over the macedonian government's occasionally brutal handling of the refugees. during many moments when individuals had an opportunity to display their humanity, they did not. watching this has been the most disturbing part of my stay here. if things stay as they are now, i think there is little danger of destabilization. but it's hard to predict what might happen when another 100,000 refugees wash up here in the next month or so, as many are predicting. tensions could easily escalate.

Boston, MA: It sounds from your stories that the refugees are very diverse. Some are professionals, some are not well educated farmers. How are the refugee camps organized? Do the camps tap into the skills the refugees bring so that they can make contributions to life there? Or is everyone so traumatized that this is difficult?

R. Jeffrey Smith: these are great questions, but the concerns you raise are far from being addressed by anyone here. the task of providing adequate food and shelter for 160,000 or so people who arrived here unexpectedly within the last 30 days has been so complicated that it has eclipsed virtually any other aims. the refugees have a right, i think, to more than this, but seem unlikely to get it soon. perhaps someone could donate soccer balls and nets, or basketball hoops, or arrange to set up recreation centers -- because none of these things exist now and the refugees are likely to remain in place for months.

Los Angeles, California: Can you give a detailed account of the number of refugees in Macedonia vs the number offered to be accepted by other countries and the number of those actually transferred. Why is the west so hart broken of the refugee situation and so critical of the Macedonian government, but at the same time so slow in transporting the refugees out of Macedonia? The end of the conflict cannot be seen yet, and they can return to Kosovo from any other country, as they can from Macedonia.
Mary

R. Jeffrey Smith: about 35,000 have been escorted out, including 2,000 removed against their will by the macedonian government, and 15,000 or so bused to albania, which has less money and resources to help them than macedonia. this compares with an influx of around 160,000. each day the number who leave is roughly half the number that arrive, so the burden is rapidly growing in macedonia. it indeed seems amazing that western countries involved in the air war cannot move faster to accept some of the refugees who have been expelled since the bombing began.

Temecula, CA: The United States usually looks for opponent's signals of "ready-to-talk" and then tries to negotiate peace settlements. It appears in the case of Kosovo that not a single signal is being viewed as a possibility of further negotiations. Why is this?

R. Jeffrey Smith: the reason is simple: there haven't been any meaningful signals sent by belgrade. i don't know anyone -- either there or here -- that believes the government is ready to accept what NATO asked for before the airstrikes began.

rosslyn, va.: Macedonian officials have expelled refugees from the border area of Blace, Macedonia, the open field where many refugees wait to be registered, to countries that have agreed to accept them. Will the government continue this practice as long as refugees cross the border? Will they ever say 'enough is enough' and shut down the border?

R. Jeffrey Smith: i doubt they would shut down the border, and if they do, it won't last long. the government is under enormous international pressure not to repeat what happened at blace, which probably substantially set back its aim of joining nato and becoming more closely tied to the west.

Washington, D.C.: Jeff:

You always seem to find yourself in the hot spots.

We are constantly told by Pentagon briefers that the Serb military is demoralized and desertions are increasing. The U.S. and NATO Generals offer NO concrete proof that this is the case. What is your take on the ground. Is the military splitting or are the Generals blowing smoke?

Mike Mitchell

PS-Stay safe and Michelle Bohanna says hello.

R. Jeffrey Smith: i don't know, because i'm not there and i don't know all that NATO knows. but my intuition tells me NATO is blowing smoke. the generals we hear at briefings cannot pronounce a single serb name, and i doubt they know any serbs personally. the serbs i know are not acting demoralized, and we hear lately of paramilitary units roaming through the province to undertake particularly brutal actions. hi to michelle!

Los Gatos, Calif.: Mr. Smith:

Why haven't any American reporters covertly crossed into Kosovo to give readers first-hand accounts of the heinous savagery transpiring there as opposed to filing stories sourced as "refugee accounts?"

There doesn't seem to be any spectacular risk-taking that vividly captures the carnage and heartbreak. Mostly reporters are milling about refugee camps and those in Belgrade are on the Serb's press leash.

Thanks,

Richard Byrne Reilly

R. Jeffrey Smith: this is the question that causes me the most anguish every day. inside kosovo is where i want to be. suffice it to say that the challenge of getting there -- past a five to fifteen mile wide minefield watched by snipers -- is large, even for KLA soldiers, not to mention Western reporters.

Annandale, VA: Have you heard anything about the few Christian Albanians in Kosovo? Our missionary friends have said that there's been no word from them since March.

R. Jeffrey Smith: nothing concrete. but there are few albanians of any religion who remain, and fewer still who remain in their homes. those in the camps are in desperate need of additional aid.

Washingtonpost.com: We're roughly half-way through this live discussion with Post reporter R. Jeffrey Smith. Use the hyperlink below to submit your questions.

Bethesda, Md.: Hi Jeff. What have you heard about fellow Muslim nations assisting the Kosovar refugees?

R. Jeffrey Smith: red crescent is here, kuwait red cross, and a host of other muslim-based organizations. but the vast bulk of the aid has not been organized by religious groups. kosovar albanians are predominantly muslim, but far from fundamentalist, and do not look to muslim states as their prospective close allies. the vast majority want to bind to the west, not to the middle east. it's surprising to me how few westerners seem to understand this. kosovo shows no sign at present of becoming an "islamist" state.

Alexandria, VA: Simply put, why doesn't the media present a balanced and objective picture of the refugee crisis in relation to the present social situation in Macedonia? For those of us who are familiar with the country and the most urgent issues that confront it today, it is obvious that the media has been painting a negative picture of the Macedonians in respect to their treatment of & attitude towards the refugee crisis, without flushing out their side of the story.

Thank you,

Tome Tanevski

R. Jeffrey Smith: come with me to the border and watch while a border guard tells an ethnic albanian woman with a barely breathing child that he doesn't care if the child lives or dies. come with me and watch as another policeman tells a man he cannot accompany his son to a medical tent, and then tells a protesting onlooker that "i don't care" and that most ethnic albanians are faking their ailments. come with me and let's see what you think.

Belgrade Yugoslavia: When NATO reduces Serbia into rubble, Kosovo already is and NATO troops move in, everybody is going to be a refugee one way or another. At the end of the day who won the war??

R. Jeffrey Smith: those fighting the war seem to think that whoever controls the soil at the last moment is the victor. there's no doubt that little of what the residents have created will remain when the fighting stops. this is the first time i've covered a hot war. but i suspect that civilians routinely suffer more than soldiers do.

Arlington, VA: Mr. Smith,

Already it seems that the media has slowed the number of stories its doing about refugees out of Kosovo. In a situation like this, when do you, as a reporter, conclude that you've done all the 'refugee' stories that you can do? Don't get me wrong, I think the situation seems very grave. But does this seem like a broken-record kind of situation to you?

R. Jeffrey Smith: the fact is that these are not just refugees, they are each individuals who have undergone a wrenching experience that seems unimaginable to anyone living in a peaceful, prosperous western country. it's our job as reporters to find those stories that best illuminate what they have experienced in all its facets.

toronto, canada: If Nato ever expects to launch a a ground war does it need the permission of the Macedonian government?

R. Jeffrey Smith: yep. and that's a serious problem for nato right now. i'd keep an eye on the amount of economic aid flowing in here; it may have to climb a lot higher before this switch gets turned on.

Glendale, CA: Is KLA active in Macedonia? What is your impression.

R. Jeffrey Smith: in the camps, in the villages, in the cities. among the ethnic albanian populace -- both resident and refugee -- they have enormous support. that means they can make mischief if they choose, although i think the fighting in kosovo will be an overwhelming preoccupation for a long time to come.

Arlington, VA: I thought all foreign journalists had been expelled from Yugoslavia...but you said in a previous response that the Post planned to have a correspondent in Belgrade. And, of course, I'm seeing televised dispatches from inside Yugoslavia. When were the journalists allowed back in, and what are the restrictions?

R. Jeffrey Smith: just some of us were expelled. we've got an excellent reporter, dan williams, there now, and he replaced another great reporter, michael dobbs. but it took the post weeks to get dobbs in after i was booted. the thing is, the policy seems to change day to day, depending on the mood of those in charge. in recent days, it's toughened. i know of four reporters booted this week, and a new code of conduct imposed yesterday imposed restrictions on all transmissions outside the country.

Washington DC: How safe do you feel now that the US has begun targeting media stations?
What do you think of the strikes on civilian institutions? Before you say that they serve a dual "military" purpose, please tell me of some sites that DON'T potentially serve military purposes.

R. Jeffrey Smith: this one is easy. i'm amazed that anyone thinks those working at radio television serbia were reporters. they were state propagandists. milosevic approved the scripts of the evening news shows. this is not to say whether the strike was appropriate -- i have no opinion on it. but the facts are facts -- there were no journalists present in that building.

Arlington, Va. : Mr. Smith,

I imagine covering a crisis like this must be physically and mentally draining, albeit not as difficult as that of a refugee--how do you keep the motivation up? Is it difficult or do you find that these kind of stories are the reason you like journalism?

R. Jeffrey Smith: i love doing what i'm doing, and i like to think we're giving a voice to those who otherwise wouldn't have one. that makes it easy to get up, even after a few hours sleep. but it can be emotionally draining sometimes, and it has been very hard to see and hear the accounts of extraordinary hardships endured by close friends. some were lucky to get out alive, and i've been helping when i can.

Boston, MA: Hey Jeff:

What can you tell us about Muslim nations covertly supplying arms and weapons to the KLA from Macedonia, Bosnia, and Albania? Is the West turning a blind eye to the supplies?

Also, have you noticed a discernible presence of Western intelligence operatives in the areas your covering?

Good luck.

R. Jeffrey Smith: anywhere there's a hot war you can find lots of snooping going on. it's obviously interesting to know who's supplying arms, but so far at least, credible accounts are hard to come by.

Boston, M: I would like to volunteer in Albania or Macedonia this summer or fall. I am a social worker, but I do not speak Albanian or Serbo-Croatian -at least not much beyond "Dobar dan," "Where is...? and counting-. What role, if any, would there be for someone like me; and which organizations would welcome my application? Is there a clearinghouse for international volunteers?

R. Jeffrey Smith: call UNHCR, or the "american red cross", or "mercy corps international", or "action against hunger" or other such groups. many here don't speak the language; it's not a barrier, because there are so many locals who speak english and have nothing but time on their hands to translate in the camps. there's plenty of work to do.

Albuquerque, NM: Considering the number of bombs being dropped on Belgrade and the general area by NATO - do you feel the Serbs will hold Milosevic or the west responsible for their condition after the war?

R. Jeffrey Smith: this is the million dollar question, it seems to me. but yugoslavia is such an odd place it's impossible to predict what will happen. it's clear for now at least that serbs have rallied around Milosevic, exulting in his defiance. what will happen after months of economic deprivation is anyone's guess. the key will be, as it has been, whether he can control the media -- the most essential element of his power, according to virtually every reasonable analyst. it'll be fascinating to watch.

Washington, D.C.: We keep hearing that the Kosovo refugees will not return to Kosovo without an armed international force in place. Has anyone polled the refugees to see if this is in fact true?

R. Jeffrey Smith: there's simply no question at all -- on the part of anyone -- that the residents of kosovo will never again place themselves in the same kind of jeopardy they've been in for the past month. that's why thousands are clamoring to get aboard the train the leaves from pristina each afternoon and dumps people off at the border. as bad as life is here, being at the mercy of paramilitaries is far worse.

Washingtonpost.com: That's all the time we have. Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to R. Jeffrey Smith.

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