PRISHTINA, Jan 19 (KIC) - Serbian army and paramilitary police forces resumed today (Tuesday) morning the shelling of the villages of Petrovë and Mollopolc, as well as other Albanian villages in the Gryka e Devetakut and Gryka e Carralevës (Carraleva gorge) in Shtime area, some 30 km south of capital Prishtina.

Today is the third day in a row of continued Serb shelling in the area, where more than 50 Albanians were massacred by Serbian forces last Friday. Their bodies were removed by Serb forces yesterday, and taken to the Prishtina town morgue, despite a universal condemnation of the Serb regime operation.

Today, the Albanian villages were being pounded by Serb forces positioned in Kodra e Gështenjave and Kryqi i Belincit, local LDK activist in Shtime told the KIC.

Eye-witness accounts said the echo of the Serb army and police artillery was being heard as far as in the town of Ferizaj ('Urosevac'), in southeast Kosova.

The Albanian population of the area, fearful of fresh Serbian massacres, has been fleeing the area, sources said.

More than a thousand displaced Albanians spent the last night rough in the open in the Mollopolc valley.

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Albanian Teacher Killed in Unsolved Circumstances over the Weekend

PRISHTINA, Jan 19 (KIC) - On Sunday, members of the OSCE verification mission in Peja ('Pec') found the body of Muharrem Bytyçi (43), a schoolteacher from the village of Ramun, municipality of Peja.

The Serb press said the Albanian had been shot dead from point-blank range in a back village road, some 30 metres away from the Peja-Prishtina highway.

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U.S. ``not encouraged'' by talks on Kosovo (Reuters)

07:30 p.m Jan 19, 1999 Eastern

By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was disappointed with initial reports on talks between two NATO generals and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on the Kosovo conflict.

``We are not encouraged. Initial reports are not encouraging,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin said.

The generals, NATO military commander Wesley Clark and Klaus Naumann, head of the alliance's military committee, had tried to persuade Milosevic to reverse a decision to expel William Walker, the U.S. head of a Kosovo monitoring mission.

Rubin said: ``We continue to believe that it is unacceptable for the Serbian authorities to seek to expel the international community's chosen head of mission.''

``It's hard to see how an independent verification mission can operate when the chief of mission is expelled for reporting the truth. The independence of the verification mission was a central component of the agreement last fall,'' he added.

The generals also wanted the Belgrade government to let U.N. war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour investigate the killing of 45 ethnic Albanian villagers at the weekend, blamed by Walker on Yugoslav security forces. Belgrade said the victims were armed guerrillas killed in the heat of battle.

President Bill Clinton, on trial in the Senate and preparing for his State of the Union address later on Tuesday, will hold a meeting on Kosovo at the White House early on Tuesday evening, officials said.

But the United States does not expect to make a substantial public response to Milosevic before Wednesday, they added.

Earlier on Tuesday the United States said the threat of force by NATO was still a very strong option in response to the way the Serbs are handling the massacre.

The United States, along with other Western governments, has blamed Yugoslav forces for killing the villagers, whose bodies were found in the village of Racak on Saturday.

Berger told CNN the generals would make it very clear to Milosevic he had to comply with a ceasefire made last October, when he also agreed to draw down his forces.

``If he is prepared to abrogate those agreements, NATO's plans are still very much on the table and the threat of force is very much an option,'' Berger told CNN.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, after briefing a group of U.S. senators, made similar demands.

``I'm most concerned ... to make absolutely clear to President Milosevic that it is essential that Ambassador Walker be allowed to carry on his work,'' Albright said.

``The main point here is for President Milosevic to get the message that the actions that have been taken in Kosovo must be investigated by a war crimes tribunal or an independent way of trying to investigate it,'' she added.

Rubin said Washington also wanted Milosevic to identify and hold accountable those responsible for the massacre.

Serbian forces should pull back to the positions they agreed to hold under the October agreement, he added.

``We consider the current situation to be one of utmost seriousness,'' Rubin said. ``We have been deeply outraged both by the massacres at Racak and by Belgrade's confrontational and destructive response to the justifiable international anger.''

He said that by trying to expel Walker, the Serbs had dug themselves deeper into a hole, antagonizing even the Russians, their traditional allies. ``To blame the messenger for Serb atrocities is simply unacceptable,'' he added.

Last October, at the height of the previous crisis over the ethnic Albanian province, NATO authorised the use of air strikes if necessary. At a meeting on Sunday, the 16-nation alliance said this authorisation remained in force.

Hours before leaving NATO headquarters, Clark said that his forces were poised for action and that Milosevic should not doubt NATO's resolve on Kosovo.

The Yugoslav government said on Monday that Ambassador Walker, whose Kosovo Verification Mission monitors the three-month ceasefire, was ``persona non grata.'' It has ordered him to leave the country by the end of Thursday.

Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population, is part of Serbia, the largest component of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Rubin said senior officials of the Contact Group members would meet in Europe in the middle of this week and might recommend a meeting by their ministers.

Albright is due to leave Washington for Moscow on Sunday but the State Department said it could not rule out last-minute changes to her schedule in response to the Kosovo crisis.

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U.S. Says Kosovo Air Strikes Could Be Imminent (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to NATO on Tuesday indicated that Western warplanes could start bombing Yugoslav forces almost immediately unless President Slobodan Milosevic ended his latest crackdown in Kosovo.

Two top NATO generals were due to warn Milosevic later on Tuesday that he had to start complying immediately with the terms of a peace deal brokered last October between Belgrade and guerrillas in the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.

Asked by BBC radio whether Milosevic would have ``a few days'' to consider what to do after the meeting, ambassador Alexander Vershbow replied:

``I wouldn't guarantee that he has even that long. If his posture today in his meeting with our generals is one of total defiance then we will be forced to make decisions even more quickly.''

Last October, at the height of a previous crisis over the province, NATO took decisions authorizing the use of air strikes if necessary. At a meeting on Sunday the alliance said this authorization remained in force.

``If there is no tangible change in Serb behavior there's a very good chance we may have to go back to those decisions,'' said Vershbow.

Under the terms of the last-minute October deal brokered by U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, both Belgrade and Kosovo Albanian partisans agreed to withdraw forces and start talks.

But fighting has erupted again and at least 45 Kosovo Albanian civilians were massacred last Friday. Yugoslav officials deny their forces were responsible.

``This is clearly a very critical situation. Milosevic -- with his actions of the last few days, the massacre itself and the way the Serbs have defiantly refused to admit their crimes -- brings us really to the brink of a very serious crisis,'' said Vershbow.

``If he doesn't come back into compliance with the agreements reached in October, which means pulling back his forces, cooperating with the war crimes tribunal and restoring the cease-fire and supporting a political solution, NATO will have to draw the appropriate conclusions....

``We will be meeting today and tomorrow to hear the report of the generals and I think the allies are quite resolved not to allow this to stand,'' Vershbow said.

The ambassador said Milosevic had a history of going back on previous signed agreements and said it was unlikely NATO's patience with the Yugoslav leader would last too long.

``It's up to him. Is he going to comply with the will of the international community -- as reflected in U.N. resolutions and NATO decisions -- or isn't he? So far the signs are pointing unfortunately toward non-compliance but he still could change his stance. But really, we're on the brink,'' Vershbow said.

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No Progress In Kosovo As Heavy Gunfire Reported (Reuters)

By Colin McIntyre

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The United States warned Tuesday that force was a strong option in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, where heavy gunfire was heard near the site of the killing of 45 ethnic Albanians last weekend.

NATO Commander Wesley Clark took ``a very blunt message'' into talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, the Yugoslavian capital, but made no progress in getting Serbia to soften its policy on Kosovo.

``We made no headway,'' a senior diplomat said after Clark held nearly seven hours of talks with Milosevic.

In Washington, National Security Adviser Samuel Berger said Milosevic was trying to deprive the Albanian people of their right to self-government.

``If he is going to do that by virtue of gross repression with these kinds of atrocious acts, then I cannot see the international committee standing by,'' he said.

The sound of heavy guns were heard from near Petrovo, a Kosovo village near the site of the weekend killing of 45 ethnic Albanians.

A policeman was shot and killed and two others were wounded as they guarded the site of the alleged massacre, Kosovo's Serb-run media center reported.

Renewed fighting broke out in the area Sunday after international monitors failed to persuade Serbian investigating magistrate Danica Marinkovic to conduct her investigation into the killings without a police escort.

The media center also reported that Yugoslav border guards had thwarted an attempt by dozens of gunmen to cross into Kosovo from Albania Monday night.

In New York, U.N. Security Council members strongly condemned the massacre of the ethnic Albanians and demanded Belgrade urgently reconsider its decision to expel William Walker, the American head of international monitors.

``We cannot accept this,'' German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said. U.N. Council President Celso Amorim said the expulsion of Walker was ``deplorable.''

Clark warned air strikes could be imminent and Milosevic should not doubt NATO's commitment.

``Trust me, this is going to be a very clear and a very blunt message,'' Clark told CNN before he met with Milosevic.

The Yugoslav government Monday declared Walker, who heads the Kosovo Verification Mission monitoring a 3-month-old cease-fire, ``persona non grata'' and ordered him to leave within 48 hours.

Tuesday, it said it had extended the expulsion order by 24 hours.

Walker, along with other Western officials, blamed Yugoslav security forces for slaughtering the 45 ethnic Albanians whose bodies were found in the village of Racak.

Yugoslav and Belarussian forensic experts started examining the bodies Tuesday in the provincial capital, Pristina, and the head of the Yugoslav team said they bore no signs of having been executed.

``The bodies were not massacred,'' Sasa Dobricanin told Reuters. ``Walker was wrong when he said these people were massacred.''

But a source at the institute where the examination was being performed said the forensic experts began the exams before the arrival of outside observers from Finland, who were to watch over the procedure for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In Oslo, the head of the OSCE, which operates the verification mission, said security surrounding the monitors was being tightened because of the increase in fighting.

Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic of Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav Federation, Tuesday condemned Belgrade's ``rash'' decision to expel Walker. Belgrade's policies were dragging the country into isolation, he was reported as saying by Belgrade-based independent Radio B92.

France's Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said there were fresh risks of war in the Serbian province.

Russia, traditionally an ally of fellow-Orthodox Christian Serbia, is sending First Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Avdeyev to Yugoslavia for urgent talks.

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NATO on Alert for Kosovo Strikes (AP)

By JEFFREY ULBRICH Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - NATO planes and missiles have been on alert for strikes against Yugoslavia since October, ready to spring into action after an order from political authorities.

Last fall, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic halted his offensive against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who make up most of the province's 2 million inhabitants, only under the threat of attacks by more than 400 allied aircraft and missile-carrying navy vessels in the Mediterranean.

After an emergency meeting Sunday, the North Atlantic Council, NATO's highest decision-making body, reaffirmed that the ``activation order'' remained in effect.

Gens. Wesley Clark, the American who serves as NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, and Klaus Naumann, the German who chairs the NATO Military Committee, went to Belgrade on Tuesday to warn Milosevic that if he didn't end his latest offensive in Kosovo the consequences could be severe.

NATO's Council plans to meet again Wednesday morning to discuss the next step.

Last fall, NATO gave itself four options, ranging from a full-scale ground invasion of Kosovo, seen as the least likely, to selective air raids, the most probable of any military action.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Tuesday that NATO warplanes could go on attack within four days of any decision.

The main question is whether the allies have the political will to carry out airstrikes if Milosevic fails to comply with NATO demands. There are dangers, not least of which is the security of several hundred monitors in Kosovo from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The message from NATO to Milosevic was that his government must:

-Comply with all commitments to the 16-nation NATO and the 54-member OSCE, based on U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for an end to the fighting.

-Bring Yugoslav army and special police force levels and positioning into compliance with agreements reached in October.

-Cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, including giving unrestricted access to Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour and international investigators, and ensuring their security.

-Ensure that those responsible for the massacre of ethnic Albanian civilians are brought to justice.

-Ensure the safety of OSCE monitors in Kosovo.

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Milosevic defies Nato pressure (BBC)

Serbian police have been in action again in Racak

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has vowed to continue fighting "terrorists" in Kosovo.

A strongly worded statement from the president's office said "pressure from abroad" would not alter his Kosovo policy.

The statement was issued shortly after a meeting with two senior Nato generals who delivered a strong message calling for Yugoslav restraint.

Initially, the meeting appeared to have brought immediate results.

Yugoslav state and independent media reported that William Walker, head of the international observer mission in Kosovo, would be allowed to remain in the country for a further 24 hours.

The Yugoslav authorities had originally ordered that he leave the country by Wednesday evening.

Mr Walker had blamed Serbian security forces for a massacre at Racak village, in Kosovo, in which 40 ethnic Albanians were killed.

Generals Wesley Clark and Klaus Naumann flew to Belgrade after Yugoslavia ordered the expulsion of Mr Walker.

But as they returned to Brussels, where they will brief Nato ambassadors on Wednesday about the talks, Mr Milosevic's office issued its statement. It defended Yugoslavia's "legitimate right to fight terrorism".

The statement added that "this right cannot be taken away from our country by any kind of outside pressure".

Generals' demands

The two generals had warned Mr Milosevic he was risking Nato air strikes over his actions in Kosovo.

Nato spokesman Jamie Shea said: "President Milosevic has been told in no uncertain way that he has to stop the policy of repression in Kosovo, reduce his police force in Kosovo back to reasonable limits and concede to the demands of the international community.

"The two generals will tell us about Mr Milosevic's intentions - whether he is prepared to back down or whether he is hell bent on a course of confrontation."

US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said that if Mr Milosevic continued with "atrocious acts" then he could not see the international community standing by.

The two Nato generals also called on Mr Milosevic to grant access to international investigators and reverse his decision to expel Ambassador Walker.

International condemnation

Mr Walker's expulsion - and the killings that preceded it - have been internationally condemned.

US State Department Spokesman James Rubin said the move appeared to be a "transparent attempt to divert attention from the tragic massacre in Racak".

OSCE Chairman Knut Vollebaek told the BBC that the expulsion was totally unacceptable and threatened the whole mission.

Both Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the threat to use military force against Yugoslavia was still active and they were prepared to exercise it.

Nato poised

Nato has been ready to launch punitive raids against Serbia since last October, when President Milosevic escaped military action by agreeing to a moratorium on the use of force in Kosovo.

The UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, said: "The planes remain on 96 hours' notice."

General Clark said his forces were poised for action if the order was given by Nato governments.

He said he would not want to speculate on the likelihood of action, but added "the plans that were made in October are very much alive".

The US, UK and Italy have said they are ready to contemplate air strikes and France has said military action cannot be ruled out.

But Russia and a number of Nato countries have voiced varying degrees of opposition.

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EU plans meeting of rival Kosovar forces (AFP)

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 19 (AFP) - The European Union (EU) plans to forge an alliance of rival Kosovo Albanian political factions to stage possible talks with Belgrade, an EU special ennvoy said here Tuesday. Wolfgang Petritsch, Austrian ambassador in Belgrade, told reporters that Kosovo Albanian moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova had agreed to the move during a meeting in Pristina Tuesday.

"I got a clear message from Rugova that, in spite of the ongoing incidents and aggravation of the situation, he is nevertheless ready to join such a unified Kosovo Albanian platform... to come up with a unified and joint negotiating team," he said.

"I believe it is absolutely important now, precisely because of the deterioration of the security situation in Kosovo, to start as soon as possible the negotiating process," Petritsch said.

He said he had been in touch with all political forces in Kosovo, and that the message from the pro-independence rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who do not recognise Rugova's authority, "is also encouraging".

"I am confident that we will be successful in the end," Petritsch added.

He did not say when or where such a meeting would be held, although one report has suggested Vienna as the site of the talks for later this month.

Petritsch described the situation in Kosovo as "extremely dangerous" and condemned Belgrade's decision to expel William Walker, the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Verification Mission in Kosovo (KVM).

Walker "has to stay and this decision has to be reversed. It is not acceptable to us," Petritsch said.

Efforts to end the bloodshed in Kosovo were given a boost last October when a US-brokered truce between Belgrade's forces and the KLA took effect.

The ceasefire has since been shaken by repeated attacks, including a massacre in southern Kosovo last Friday that left 45 villagers dead.