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CNN's Chris Burns talks to exhausted ethnic Albanian refugees entering Albania from Yugoslavia on April 1 Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery. Real Windows Media   28 K 80 K    ALSO: Captured U.S. soldiers face Serb military trial Milosevic meeting with ethnic Albanian leader draws rebel outrage  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo INTERACTIVE: Image Galleries: Kosovo Refugees The refugee children of Kosovo

April 2, 1999
Web posted at: 5:33 a.m. EST (1033 GMT)

SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- The flood of refugees out of Kosovo appeared to have peaked Friday with the flow across the borders into neighboring countries slowing to a trickle.

But with the United Nations refugee agency estimating 170,000 people had abandoned Kosovo, aid agencies and governments of the region now face the onerous task of housing and feeding Europe's largest refugee population.

The Kosovo capital of Pristina was reportedly all but abandoned amid claims Serb forces had implemented systematic expulsions at gunpoint of thousands of Kosovars.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia had been squeezed onto trains in scenes reminiscent of World War II when Jews were forced into trains and taken to concentration camps.

"Witnesses described Pristina as being a ghost town now. Soldiers told the departing civilians they were getting 'a free ride to Macedonia' as a 'gift from the government' in exchange for the houses and cars," according to a statement on the UNHCR Web site.

Some refugees said they were bused toward the borders of neighboring countries, then told to walk the rest of the way.

Serb authorities claim people are fleeing to escape the expanding bombardment of Yugoslavia by NATO aircraft.

But ethnic Albanians arriving in Macedonia Thursday said it was Serb security forces that drove them from their homes, not NATO bombs.

William Harper, Head of Delegation for the International Federation of the Red Cross, told CNN from the Macedonian capital, Skopje, of delays in processing people into Macedonia and he urged the government to hasten the registration procedures.

"Some of these people have been out there for a day or two, standing in the rain, and the weather and stuff," Harper said.

"Our working figure is 30 to 35,000 attempting to enter at this point. And we're hearing that there are thousands of people on the other side waiting. We can't go over there and look, but we hear that there's a lot of people on the other side of the border, trying to get into Macedonia."

Faces of the refugee crisis

Paul Anticoni of the British Red Cross told CNN the impact of the crisis was made worse by the poor economic conditions in Albania and other countries the refugees had fled to.

He said many of the refugees were being accommodated by local Albanians in Albania "who themselves aren't particularly well off.

"We're talking about a particularly poor part of Europe. So we're not talking just about needs for refugees. We're also going to have to be looking at some form of assistance for those families that are generously accommodating refugees coming in."

Anticoni said many of those fleeing Kosovo had left with only the clothes they were wearing and were ill-equipped for the cold weather currently in the region.

The next step is expected to be the establishment of refugee camps. Calls on the international community to offer asylum are also likely to be made by governments currently hosting many of the refugees.

The United States and Israeli governments have both sent aid shipments to the region.

European Union Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino, who has just returned from a tour of Albania and Macedonia, said Friday Milosevic was forcing the Kosovars out of Albania by the trainload.

She said the images of people being forced onto trains were "straight out of Schindler's List."

"No one has left to flee the bombings, all I have spoken to have been expelled by force...we are faced with mass deportation," Bonino said.

She also said reports had been received that Pristina was "nearly abandoned" due to the exodus.

She said the situation in Albania was stable with locals uniting to welcome their ethnic brothers from across the border who had arrived in the thousands.

However, she said Macedonia was "more complicated and tense". Bonino said Macedonia had a large Serb minority and the arrival of tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians heightened tensions because it "changed the ethnic balance in the region".

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