The most influential figure in Macedonia's ethnic Albanian community said that 300,000 Kosovans were still unaccounted for in the province. He believed that many of them were being used to shield Serb forces and installations.
In an interview at his party's headquarters in Tetovo, northwest Macedonia, Mr Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, said: "It is known how many are abroad, how many are in Albania and Macedonia, and how many there ought to be in Kosovo. And the figures do not add up. There are always 300,000 missing."
Mr Xhaferi, whose party has close links with the Kosovo Liberation Army, said it was receiving regular updates on the situation in the province. His calculations took into account at least 250,000 people who were being protected by the guerrillas in the forests and mountains of the interior.
"We know there are 150,000 in the Shala area, who lack food supplies and are sleeping rough. Another 100,000 or so are in the Drenica area. Around Pristina there may be others. But we do not know, for example, what happened to the 70,000 people who were turned back from the Macedonian frontier last week."
Mr Xhaferi said he did not believe reports that concentration camps had been set up for ethnic Albanian men in Kosovo. "The Serbs do not have the time to build concentration camps," he said. "They keep them as human shields, living out in the open like animals."
Thousands of refugees from Kosovo yesterday began to cross the border into Macedonia, where aid agencies were braced for a huge influx of people, the UN refugee agency said.
About 3,000 ethnic Albanian refugees arrived near the north-western border village of Lojane, and were given permission to enter the country, officials told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Representatives of the Red Cross said they had been warned on Wednesday by Macedonian police to prepare for the imminent arrival at Blace of 10,000 refugees.