War in the Balkans:The Flight: Another 30,000 join the exodus

LARGE NUMBERS of homeless Kosovars - as many as 30,000 - were moving towards the border with Macedonia yesterday trying to escape the misery of Serbian ethnic cleansers, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Accounts by frightened refugees who have poured over the border in the past 24 hours suggested that many more Albanians are on the move and expected to arrive during the next few days, as the Yugoslav authorities crank up their programme of forced expulsions.

More than 500 people, some of whom said they were roughed up by Serbian police before being handed over to Macedonia at Blace border crossing, were taken on 11 buses to the Stankovic refugee camp which is already packed with 39,000 refugees.

Shooting could be heard yesterday from steep wooded hills just inside the area of Kosovo that overlooks Blace. Fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are thought to be active in the area against Serb forces.

The latest arrivals were bused away before reporters could speak to them, but UN relief officials who debriefed them said they had either been evicted from their homes or had fled through fear or lack of food.

"[For some] there was the knock on the door at 5am today; police, paramilitaries and soldiers told them to get out of their houses and loaded them on buses which took them to the train station at Urosevac," said Ron Redmond, a UN refugee agency spokesman, referring to the southern Kosovo town 30km from the border.

"The train brought them to Blace. En route, they said they passed destroyed or burning villages. They said they were not physically abused in Urosevac, but that when they got off the train some of the men were beaten by Serbian soldiers," Mr Redmond said.

Earlier, another UN refugee agency spokeswoman, Paula Ghedini, said there were indications that about 20,000 or more ethnic Albanians were adrift or hiding around the town of Urosevac and expected to head for Blace in coming days.

A further 300 refugees entered the country near the remote highland town of Jazince, many more were trapped in no man's land awaiting registration by Macedonian authorities, and 3,000 to 5,000 were believed to be waiting to enter.

Another 1,000 refugees were held up in Lojane in the northeast of the country.

"We are expecting significant movement in the coming days," said Ms Ghedini. "Some people aren't even asked to leave. They just heard there was an opportunity to cross a border [and left]."

Bracing for the coming wave of refugees, British troops hastily erected 350 tents capable of sheltering 1,750 people at Brazde refugee camp which already houses more than 25,000 ethnic Albanians.

The strategy of the Yugoslav authorities remains puzzling, however. A number of refugees at the Blace crossing reported that a train containing as many as a dozen carriages full of refugees arrived at the border town of Deneral Jankovic, only to return north, back into Kosovo, without discharging its passengers.

Rumours of another huge refugee influx have galvanised government and humanitarian agencies in Macedonia, which has barely been able to cope with the 120,000 refugees presently in the country, the majority of them living with Macedonian families. On Wednesday, 4,000 people came through, and at present capacity no more than 1,300 people can be flown out of Macedonia to the half dozen or so countries which are accepting refugees.

"When the Nato bombs started, we were forced to leave for the villages," said Elfide Rexhepi, who arrived in Brazde on Wednesday from Urosevac. "When we went back all the shops in the neighbourhood had been burned. The people next door were told to leave, so we got out too. Many people were waiting at the station.

"Even if it only keeps up at this rate, we will be facing a huge number," a senior Macedonian official said yesterday. "I am not very optimistic that the situation will get better."