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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ With concern rising over the lack of adequate shelter, the U.N. refugee agency flew tons of warm clothing into Kosovo on Sunday to help hundreds of thousands of people cope with the coming Balkan winter.
Elsewhere, Yugoslavia's independent Beta news agency reported two weekend grenade attacks on Kosovo's dwindling Serb community.
An Antonov 124, the world's largest transport plane, landed at Pristina's airport with 60 tons of clothing for women and children, according to Peter Kessler, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The clothing includes winter underwear for children and women, children coats, and 65,000 pairs of children's boots.
Last week, European Union officials said about 300,000 of the province's 1.4 million people lack adequate shelter because so many homes were destroyed during the 18-month Yugoslav crackdown on ethnic Albanians, which triggered the 78-day NATO bombing.
NATO-led peacekeepers entered the province June 12 after the Yugoslavs withdrew. But delays in committing funds and other bureaucratic hurdles have prevented a major reconstruction effort. Nighttime temperatures in mountainous parts of Kosovo are already approaching freezing.
Another UNHCR official, Lars Sommmerlund, told The Associated Press his agency has prepared a distribution plan for winter supplies and will start deliveries this week. UNHCR trucks were standing by at Pristina airport when the plane arrived Sunday.
The advent of winter adds a new dimension to a NATO and U.N. mission that has spent months struggling to restore order and curb revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians angry over the brutality of the Serb-led Yugoslav crackdown.
Ethnic rage has also spread to other Slavic minorities _ such as Croats, Montenegrins and Bosnian Muslims _ who share a common language with the Serbs.
On Sunday, Zagreb newspapers reported that about 300 ethnic Croats arrived in the Croatian capital from Kosovo. They were evacuated after they complained to the Croatian government that they were not allowed to speak Croatian, that their houses had been burned and their fruit trees cut down.
In Belgrade, Beta said three Serb youths were injured Saturday night when someone in a passing car hurled a grenade at them in the village of Lipljan, six miles south of Pristina. The NATO-led command confirmed three people were injured but did not identify their ethnicity.
Beta also said a grenade was hurled into the home of a Serb couple Sunday in the northern town of Zubin Potok, injuring them. There was no immediate comment from NATO.
Gen. Klaus Reinhardt, NATO's commander in Kosovo, has vowed to crack down on ethnic attacks and said Friday that he is accelerating efforts to protect Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province.