Up to 60 people are said to have been killed in the Kacanik area of Kosovo last Sunday, according to unconfirmed reports. Mr Ron Redmond, a UNHCR official, said the report came from a former OSCE worker, a Kosovan who crossed into Macedonia yesterday. For security reasons he was not being named, Mr Redmond said.
He was speaking at the Blace border crossing between Macedonia and Serbia yesterday evening as 3,000 newly-arrived refugees were boarding buses to the Stenkovec and Brazda camps. Most of them were from the Urosevac (or Ferizaj) area of Kosovo.
One refugee, Mr Peckliep Btquiri (27), an electronics student from near Ferizaj, said all Albanians had to leave his village two weeks ago as it was taken over as a Serb base. According to reports from surrounding villages, he said, five men were killed by Serbs in Gazka 10 days ago, four had been killed and one wounded by Serbs in Posatishta four days ago, and two were killed and two wounded by Serbs in Terstenik three or four days ago.
He also said two men had been knifed by Serbs - one a member of Dr Ibrahim Rugova's party and the other in front of his family - in the village of Varosh. Both survived. In all cases the victims were civilians and not involved with the Kosovo Liberation Army. Another village, Greme, had been 70 per cent burned, he said.
Another refugee, Mr Urim Veselaj (21), also an electronics student, said he and his family had been staying with their grandfather in Ferizaj after being cleared out of their city-centre building by Serb forces the night before NATO bombing began.
Their extended family there had spoken of people they knew who were killed, and one relative said a man and wife in his village had been killed by Serbs because they were not getting out fast enough. It was "too scary" to stay any longer, he said.
Mr Veselaj said many people, like them, had hesitated about coming to Macedonia last week following BBC reports that Kosovans were being turned back at the border by Serbs.
There are three border crossings between Macedonia and Serbia. Macedonia has no border with Montenegro, and two of its border crossings with Serbia are with Kosovo. The most westerly is Jazince, about 15 km from Tetovo, a city that is about 80 per cent Albanian.
Western Macedonia is where most of the country's 22 per cent Albanian population resides. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 refugees have come through Jazince, but it was from Blace that the UNHCR reported 20,000 Kosovans were turned back by Serb forces last week. No refugees came through there yesterday.
Macedonian police played chess as two OSCE monitors slept in their jeep. Macedonian soldiers patrolled nearby fields under the high snow-capped Shara mountain range which extends along the Kosovo border west into Albania.
Dr Skender Syla was on his first day of duty at Jazince with the International Medical Corps. He is from Pristina and was forced to leave with his wife, Bedria, two boys and his parents 12 days ago. Serbs exploded a bomb at his home and he had to move in with his uncle. One afternoon they were all given 15 minutes to get out.
Macedonia's other border crossing with Serbia, and its only non-Kosovo border, is at Tabanovce to the east, about 40 km east of Skopje. The flow of refugees through Tabanovce is now reduced to a trickle. Altogether, the UNHCR said, about 2,000 refugees had come through there.
It was quiet at Tabanovce on Sunday. Mr Almir Hefemi and Mr Drustemi Ilmi, both Albanian, both cousins, both 22, were going back to Serbia after three weeks in Macedonia. They had been sent to nearby Kumanovo in Macedonia by their parents three weeks before for safety.
They were returning to Presevo, about 12 km inside Serbia, as they had only been able to speak to their parents once since they left. Presevo has a population of about 10,000 and is half Albanian. They were afraid, they said, but they wanted to go home. They got through without difficulty.
A family, husband, wife, and child, came through to Macedonia. The man, prevented again from seeing his wife and children, said: "Yes, yes, NATO good."
Last night the UNHCR said there were reports that up to 1,000 refugees were waiting at Tabanovce to get into Macedonia.