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May 22, 1999
Web posted at: 8:57 p.m. EDT (0057 GMT)

In this story: Men report beatings, torture Heaviest exodus in 10 days OSCE logs 1,400 refugee interviews U.N. team tours deserted Kosovo village RELATED STORIES, SITES

MORINA, Albania (CNN) -- Hundreds of missing ethnic Albanian men crossed into Albania from Kosovo on Saturday, amid thousands of refugees who made up the heaviest exodus from the province in nearly two weeks.

The men, missing for more than a month and feared dead by their families, looked tired and malnourished as they entered Albania at the border post of Morina. Ranging in age from their 20s to 60s, many appeared dazed and openly wept.

Serb forces arrested them in the Mitrovica region in north Kosovo and accused them of being terrorists or members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, according to the ethnic Albanian men.

Their families were driven from their homes by the Serbs and forced to flee the province, others said.

"On the one hand, it's nasty to see it because you see what's going on," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.

"On the other hand, there are going to be a lot of happy women and children tonight because this is the first time we've had some men come out (in a while)."

Men report beatings, tortures

The men said they were held in a prison in Smrekolica. They spoke of beatings, tortures and robberies, and being fed only bread or nothing at all.

Then Saturday morning they were suddenly set free and put on buses heading to the border.

Women and children anxiously scan faces to see if they recognize any of the men

When they entered Albania, they passed several refugee camps on the way to Kukes, where women and children strained to see if they recognized anyone. In the town square, the men met a throng of people. Some found familiar faces.

"I thought they were all dead," said one old man, after he found his two sons. Upon seeing them, he said it was as if they had been born once more.

A CNN translator pushed through the crowd, moving toward one of the arrivals, his missing uncle. They embraced and shed tears.

But few had such joyful reunions. Most of the men did not find their families. Once the missing, they have now become the searchers.

Heaviest exodus in 10 days

Almost 9,000 refugees streamed into Albania and Macedonia on Saturday. About 3,600 went to Albania. The 5,000 who entered Macedonia made up the largest single daily influx since that nation reopened its border 10 days ago.

Most of those who left Saturday were from the Suva Reka region, northeast of Prizren, NATO officials said.

Some said they had hidden in the hills for two months when the Serb forces found them, said alliance spokesman Jamie Shea. The refugees reported that more than half their homes had burned down, he added.

About 750,000 people have fled Kosovo since the March 24 start of NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia.

OSCE logs 1,400 refugee interviews

A member of the OSCE, right, interviews a refugee who crossed the border into Albania

A team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe has interviewed refugees in Albania and Macedonia, taking about 1,400 accounts, Shea said.

The OSCE's special envoy to Kosovo, William Walker, said that stories of atrocities are frequently heard in the refugee camps.

"They talk of massacres. They talk of brutality. They talk of all sorts of crimes that have been committed against them," Walker said.

"I don't know anyone who has talked to the refugees in these camps who doesn't go away saying they have heard the truth. They have heard real stories from real people about real brutality," he said.

U.N. team tours deserted Kosovo village

A U.N. humanitarian delegation has been in Kosovo since last week, but Shea said he has been told the Serb government has limited its access.

He said the delegation's leader, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Viera de Mello, painted a dim picture of the few places the group had seen.

One place the group was allowed to visit was the village of Masada Balbuc.

"That village was found to be completely deserted. Inside the houses, the bedding the household material were strewn all over the floors, signs of looting and hasty departures," Shea said.

Shea called the conditions "silent confirmation" that people were forced to leave.

Correspondent Martin Savidge contributed to this report.

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