Friday, March 26, 1999 Published at 18:33 GMT
'20 killed in Kosovo massacre'
The Kosovan village of Jankovic under attack by the Serbs
The United Nations has expressed grave concern about the safety of civilians in Kosovo, from where there have been reports of a massacre of 20 men by Serb forces.
UN humanitarian agencies withdrew from the Serbian province before the Nato bombing campaign started and concern is growing for the safety of people left behind.
They said the forces had separated the men and women and rounded them up in front of the village school, before setting fire to it and the surrounding houses.
The refugees said their men were then executed, and they were ordered to leave.
A spokeswoman said the refugees had arrived in Albania with no personal belongings, and that some had fled barefoot.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, has appealed for all sides in the conflict to stop attacking civilians.
Albanian journalists have reported that the attacks against Kosovo Albanians intensified as the Nato air strikes continued into a second night on Thursday.
Kosovo Albanians say there has been heavy fighting west of Pristina and that 20,000 civilians were surrounded by tanks in the northern village of Qirez.
But Serbian reports say the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army has been using the cover of Nato strikes to launch attacks on Serbian positions.
"These two villages no longer exist, because they have been razed to the ground by artillery shells," he said on Albanian television.
There has been no independent confirmation of the attacks.
Brussels-based Albanian journalist Ekrem Krasnici told the BBC there had been numerous reports of fresh Serb offensives flooding from the province since the Nato air strikes began.
"(The attacks) are just like 12 months ago," he said. "There is clearly an uncontrolled situation in the majority of the villages and cities in Kosovo."