Nearly 20,000 ethnic Albanians who spent several weeks in the mountains hiding from Serb forces were found safe yesterday but many were in poor health.
A UN convoy rushed to aid them after they were discovered in the mountains west of Pristina. A small advance team found them living in the open at Glogovac, about 20km west of the capital.
Relief workers radioed back for swift help as a number of the ethnic Albanians were malnourished after living in the open for much of the time since NATO bombing began in mid-March.
A spokesman for the UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) said the mission was the first aid convoy to venture into the countryside since NATO troops entered the province.
Until the small UN team reached them, there had been no word of their whereabouts for more than two weeks.
Serb police stopped journalists, including a reporter from The Irish Times, who tried to accompany the four-truck aid convoy, at a checkpoint near Pristina airport about three miles into the journey. The police said that for their own safety reporters could not go any further.