March 25, 1999
Web posted at: 7:20 p.m. EST (0020 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Thousands of ethnic Albanians continued to flee the fighting in Kosovo, the day after NATO bombings began on Yugoslav targets in the province.

"We estimate that 10 to 15 percent of the population of Kosovo right now are on the move," CARE's Bob MacPherson told CNN Thursday. "That's about 300,000 people. And they are in the open. They're moving, and their homes have been destroyed, or they are fleeing."

CARE is an international relief agency that was working in the province before the NATO-Serb conflict began.

Many Kosovars have fled to neighboring countries with varying degrees of success. Macedonia had closed its border with Yugoslavia to refugees who didn't have passports. But reporters said refugees with no papers were continuing to enter Macedonia at "unofficial" crossing points. Another report indicated Macedonia reopened its borders Wednesday.

Authorities in Macedonia estimate they can handle up to 20,000, but the small country, about the size of Belgium, is straining under the weight of the influx. One of the biggest problems the country faces at the moment is the stream of refugees from Kosovo, said Prime Minister Llubco Georgievski.

Many Kosovar refugees poured into Albania after Serbian forces set fire to a village in Kosovo and shelled several others in northeastern Albania, international monitors told Reuters.

Serbs shot and wounded an Albanian border post commander in an escalation of border incidents, Albanian officials told Reuters.

Albania also fears an influx of refugees. Last summer 20,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo fled to Albania to escape a Serbian military crackdown on separatists.

Refugees also fled into Turkey, government officials there told The Associated Press; and into Bosnia, where hundreds of Muslims arrived in overloaded buses, according to The Associated Press.

In Kosovo, the leading international agency assisting refugees in the province announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from the area. Local staff members with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees were given the choice of staying or evacuating with the international employees.

Fighting has displaced more than 450,000 people since the conflict between Serbs and separatist ethnic Albanians began a year ago, a U.N. spokesman said.

The figure includes 250,000 who fled their homes but remained in Kosovo; another 55,000 refugees in Yugoslavia including 25,000 in Montenegro and 30,000 in Serbia; 10,000 in Bosnia; 16,000 in Macedonia; 18,500 in Albania; and 100,000 in other European countries.

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