Jean Chretien heard a first-hand account of the terror in Kosovo Tuesday at Camp Borden in Ontario . The 65-year-old prime minister also played a few minutes of basketball with some newly-arrived refugees at an army base.

Chretien and Immigration Minister Lucienne Robillard received a warm welcome. Then, one of the refugees gave the prime minister an account of his expulsion from his homeland. Sami Ademi thanked Chretien and the Canadian people for giving him and his family a safe place to live.

Ademi and his family were forced from their home in Pristina March 3 and lived on the road and in refugee camps before coming to Canada.

Woman listens to PM

"Since you began to accept us and care about us and Macedonia, then first time we are treated like human beings," Ademi told Chretien in broken English.

After a swift game of basketball that included a couple of baskets by the prime minister, Chretien said he came to Camp Borden to hear for himself what the 650 refugees who now live there had been through.

"I imagine the large majority of them only dream of one thing: to return to their homes. But they seem to be happy here," Chretien said. He added that any who wished to make Canada their permanent home were welcome to stay.

Chretien added that he was impressed by the number of volunteers helping at Camp Borden. "There is no greater joy than to help people who have been through such a horrible time."

Meanwhile, at least one of the ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo will automatically become a Canadian citizen.

The first baby born to a Kosovar refugee in Canada arrived last night in Kentville, Nova Scotia. The boy's mother, father and two brothers arrived at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood on Sunday. The mother and child are both doing fine.

Anyone born on Canadian soil is automatically a citizen.