Sunday, June 10 5:51 AM SGT Almost 7,000 Macedonian Albanians Flee to Kosovo in Two Days
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 9 (AFP) -

Almost 7,000 ethnic Albanians have fled Macedonia for Kosovo in the last two days to escape fighting between rebels and government troops, the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said Saturday.

Most of the refugees came from Aracinovo on the outskirts of the Macedonian capital Skopje, where Albanian rebels from the National Liberation Army entered on Friday, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.

Earlier Saturday, the UNHCR said that the conflict in Macedonia has displaced around 40,000 people since it began in February.

Around 18,000 of the displaced ethnic Albanians and Macedonian Slavs are in Macedonia, while an estimated 20,000 ethnic Albanians are sheltering in the UN-run Yugoslav province of Kosovo to the north, said spokeswoman Brita Helleland.

She said 2,700 had registered with aid agencies on Friday alone after the NLA pushed into Aracinovo, the first time they had reached the outer suburbs of the capital in force.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001