A local appeal to aid thousands of refugees of the Yugoslavian conflict has resulted in a "mountain of clothing'', a spokesperson said yesterday.

Celia Curtis of the Medjugorje Peace Plan group said 200 people from around the Island came out on Saturday to donate clothing and other goods.

Corporate donations also poured in with Butterfield and Vallis contributing a truck full of sugar, flour, juice, canned goods, can openers, and even chocolate Easter eggs.

And the Bermuda General Agency delivered a carload of Pampers, while Supermart gave boxes of cereal.

The group now has enough supplies to fill a container, but Ms Curtis said although more than $1,000 had been donated, there was still a need for further financial contributions.

The estimated cost of shipping the container is between $3,000 and $4,000.

Medjugorje has already sent 14 care containers around the world to war torn and devastated countries such as Montserrat, Honduras, and Jamaica.

Last week thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo swamped the neighbouring countries of Albania and Macedonia in an attempt to flee from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's purging of the province.

US military officials estimated their numbers totaled almost 300,000 and the US has committed roughly $150 million in humanitarian aid.

Last October Medjugorje sent shoe boxes full of Christmas gifts to the children of Bosnia.

Now the group is appealing for care shoe boxes with such items as toothpaste, tooth brushes, shampoo and "something fun from one kid to another'' to help children through the Kosovo crisis.

However, Ms Curtis pointed out the problems would take a more than a container of gifts -- no matter how generously it was given -- to heal the country.

"People should be made aware that this problem of hundreds of thousands of refugees isn't going to be solved overnight,'' said Ms Curtis.

Interested persons can contact founder Lucy Willetts at 292-6185, or Ms Curtis at 292-6958.

Cheques should be made payable to the Medjugorje Peace Plan Group and sent to HM 1968, Hamilton, HM HX.

In other news relating to aid for those affected by the catastrophe in Kosovo, British Airways reported yesterday that it was making a Boeing 757 available to fly emergency aid to the victims in conjunction with work done by the Red Cross, UNICEF and UNHCR.

BA is a corporate patron of the Red Cross and works closely with UNICEF through its Change for Good programme which raises millions of dollars from passenger and staff who donate their unwanted foreign coins to the charity in flight.

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