Tuesday, March 30, 1999 Published at 23:04 GMT 00:04 UK
Keep Yugoslav borders open - Annan
Families talk of leaving with only the clothes on their backs
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed to the international community to offer more humanitarian aid to assist with the Kosovo refugee crisis.
At one point on Tuesday the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia had in effect closed its frontier with Kosovo as thousands of ethnic Albanians lined up to cross the border.
"Once again, the civilian population is being made to pay the price for an unresolved political dispute," Mr Annan said.
He added: "I am profoundly outraged by reports of a vicious and systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing conducted by Serbian military and paramilitary forces in the province of Kosovo."
In Macedonia, official estimates suggested over 25,000 people were seeking refuge and the government appealed for more aid to help the refugees.
More than 3,000 people had been trapped there by the Yugoslav army on one side and Macedonian forces on the other.
Some refugees reported two infants, a young man and two elderly people died there.
By late Tuesday evening a line of cars three miles long was reported to have formed at the Blace border crossing, just north of the Macedonian capital.
But only one car was allowed to pass every 25 minutes.
One driver said thousands had left Pristina by car on Sunday and Monday, taking what they could in their cars.
Serb police 'helping'
"It's almost as if they organised this. Police are helping. Many times on the road they say faster, faster," said Valdan Haliti.
Macedonian officials said they were taking measures to cope with the influx.
Plans were reported to be under way to set up three refugee centres near the main border crossings, and meetings had been held with envoys from neighbouring countries to discuss ways to move on some of the refugees.
Reports say another 100,000 are still surging towards the borders of Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania.
"The picture drawn for us by refugees is very, very grim and very, very discouraging," he said.
Albania struggles to cope
The Albanian President, Rexhep Meidani, has also urged the international community to help his country cope with a massive influx of refugees.
In Montenegro, correspondents have described the stream of refugees as an exodus and officials there expect 40,000 more to arrive.
One truck in the hundreds of vehicles heading out of Kosovo contained the population of an entire village.