Missing Kosovars At Border

At the Albanian border, Monday was expected to be a busy day, after nearly 1,500 ethnic Albanian men from Kosovo, many presumed dead, arrived over the weekend, looking for their families and telling stories of abuse and torture.

The mens' whereabouts had been a mystery for weeks. When they crossed the border at last, they describedhow they were kept in an old schoolhouse used as a prison, reports CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell.

"They beat us like animals," one man said, as others gathered around him, many tearful at the memory.

He said that the group of men would stand for up to 48 hours without food or water, without help for the sick among them. When they were called forward by their captors, they were beaten by Yugoslav Army soldiers.

Relief workers said the group was in the worst condition of any refugees they had seen.

"Some had broken bones in their hands and feet," said Rupert Colville of the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees. "One man actually had to be carried across, in a very bad state. Most of them could walk but I think they're very spaced out."

Some of the women of the northern Albania camps came to the border to search for their husbands, fathers and sons. A few were lucky, but most left disappointed.

NATO believes as many as 3,000 more ethnic Albanian men are in jails right across the border in Kosovo. Based on what the refugees here are telling them, it is hoped that they will be released in the coming days.

It has been difficult for relief agencies to accommodate the influx of refugees coming into Albania. Many refugees are coming to the town of Kukes, already overrun with refugees. There are already 100,000 there. Later this week, NATO may take 30,000 to 40,000 refugees south to ease the burden at Kukes and make room for the refugees who are expected to arrive later this week.

There are several relief agencies in Albania. One getting very high marks from refugees employs two doctors who are Kosovar refugees themselves. Elfete Kutlusa and Muhammad Kupsingi go from camp to camp dispensing medicine.

"I'm really happy I can help, but I'm really sad that they need help," Dr. Kupsingi says.

The doctors are part of the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps, an agency that, through volunteers and donations from American medical companies, offers help in world trouble spots.

Elfete and Muhammad are two of the program's 15 Kosovar refugee doctors in Albania. They say the pressure of treating 80 or more patients each a day is nothing compared to what they've been through.

Elfete says Yugoslav police gave her five minutes to leave her house, then demanded money.

Both doctors say they will stay to help as long as it's needed, but they dream of an end to the conflict and getting home.

"I'm very optimistic, and I hope as soon as possible," Muhammad says.

Meanwhile, at the Macedonia border, thousands of refugees arrived on Mondy in what U.N. officials believed may be a last effort by Serb forces to expel them.

But the impoverished country, which has repeatedly expressed fears that letting in more refugees will throw off the "ethnic balance" of its country and further debilitate its economy, was reluctant to let more people cross its borders.

Ethnic Albanians comprise roughly a third of the population in the Balkan country of 2.1 million.

Many refugees were forced to spend the night at the border, sleeping under plastic sheeting, while the U.N. refugee agency persuaded Macedonian officials to allow them in.

Monday's arrivals were expected to push the refugee total since Friday to more than 20,000. One U.N. official said the increase was clear evidence of efforts to clear out the last ethnic Albanian residents, especially around Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

"You could call it the last push," said Astrid Van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the U.N.High Command on Refugees. "We don't know for certain how many people are left in Kosovo, but we've seen a massive influx."

About a quarter-million refugees, almost all of them ethnic Albanians, have fled into Macedonia since NATO air strikes began March 24.

Faced with the largest influx of refugees in weeks, Macedonian officials were only letting in the ethnic Albanians if they signed an agreement to go to Albania, some refugees said.

"We object strenuously to this procedure," said Van Genderen Stort.

Late Sunday, the Macedonians tried to transfer some Kosovo Albanians to refugee camps in Albania.

Macedonian officials had loaded at least three buses with about 200 refugees each for the trip to Albania, 50 miles to the southwest, when workers with the U.N. refugee agency blocked one bus with a U.N. sedan. The other two buses then also halted.

Another 3,000 to 4,000 refugees stood or sat in driving rain in the area between the border crossings of Macedonia and Yugoslavia, where they were forced to spend the night.

U.N. envoy Dennis McNamara, speaking with Macedonian officials at the border, arranged an end to the standoff. By 3 a.m., the buses had entered the country and driven to a refugee camp near the border.

There was no official comment from the Macedonian government.