ALBANIA: KOSOVO: 20 THOUSAND REFUGEES CROSS BORDER IN 36HRS

(17 Apr 1999) Eng/Albanian/Nat Almost 20-thousand refugees have poured across the border into northern Albania in the past 36 hours, stretching the resources on the ground to breaking point. The refugees are arriving in poor condition - exhausted from covering great distances and drenched from heavy rainfalls. As the refugees continue to flood across the border, the camps are beginning to overflow and the International Red Cross says it is unable to deal with the massive influx. Rain pelted down as refugees travelled on tractors and by foot to the border. Thousands had travelled through the night and finally crossed the border checkpoint in a rainstorm. Drenched and exhausted, they had travelled more than 150 kilometres (90 miles). A further 13-thousand refugees poured into Albania early on Saturday and thousands more were on the move in Yugoslavia, as Serb forces appeared to be making a final push to clear Kosovo of its ethnic Albanian population. Tales of violence continue to emerge with the refugees. One woman says her life was threatened by the Serbs. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "Four days ago armed police came out to the village, threatened to kill us, robbed us of all our valuables and forced us to leave. We traveled over 100 kilometers to escape and all we saw along the way was destruction". SUPERCAPTION: Refugee NATO spokesman Jamie Shea says it's clear the Serbs have stepped up their ethnic cleansing campaign. As the displaced people stream into Albania the camps are beginning to overflow. There just isn't enough space. SOUNDBITE: (English) "No, I don't think we have room for many more at least, of course we have the streets but during the last day it has been raining a lot and a lot of the refugees have been laying directly on the street. There is no space here anymore for more refugees therefore these refugees are continuing into Tirana to get better shelter than up here in the mountains. It is very cold during the night and it is raining almost every day here." SUPERCAPTION: Christopher Vick, Finnish representative of the International Red Cross With Albania and Macedonia expecting a further 100-thousand refugees each, in the next 24 hours, the already over-stretched resources here are going to strained even further. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...