War In The Balkans: Fresh wave of deportees

YUGOSLAVIA continues to expel a new human tidal wave of starving and exhausted Kosovo Albanians.

The last day has been one of the very worst for refugees. The UN refugee agency says Serb forces are "working overtime" to drive out the Albanian population.

It is not only the sheer numbers of deportees - rising again towards the level of the masses seen in the first weeks of the crisis - but their shocking condition. There are signs of starvation among the latest arrivals, the aid agencies say.

Three trainloads of refugees were dumped on the border of Macedonia on Monday. They came mainly from the areas of Podujevo in the north and from Prizren, an ancient city in southern Kosovo now said by the deportees to be virtually empty.

Independent readers have so far generously donated more than pounds 765,000 to our appeal to help the refugees of Kosovo, but more is desperately and urgently needed.