Around 1,500 ethnic Albaniansfrom the northern Macedonian village of Lojane, under fire from theMacedonian army yesterday, fled overnight to southern Serbia, the UNrefugee agency UNHCR said today.
Spokeswoman Ms Astrid van Genderen Stort said therefugees, mostly women and children, had arrived in the ethnicAlbanian village of Miratovce on the Macedonian border.
Macedonian forces went on the offensive yesterday to force ethnicAlbanian guerrillas out of the Kumanovo region in the north of thecountry. The UNHCR spokeswoman said Lojane was still being bombardedafter midnight.
Since the start of the army's campaign against ethnic Albanianvillages held by the guerrillas on May 3rd, some 10,000 people havefled the region, most of them going to Kosovo.
AFP