[ALBSA-Info] Violence flares on troubled Kosovo border

[Iris Pilika]

Violence flares on troubled Kosovo border


December 8, 2000
Web posted at: 2313 GMT


BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Ethnic-Albanian guerrillas have attacked a Serbian 
police patrol in a tense buffer zone between Kosovo and southern Serbia, a 
local police official said.

Novica Zdravkovic, police chief in the southern town of Vranje, said the 
attackers used automatic weapons and grenade launchers before they backed 
off under return fire.

The renewed troubles on Friday came as the United Nations (U.N.) announced 
the appointment of a new administrator for Kosovo.

Danish Defence Minister Hans Haekkerup will succeed Frenchman Bernard 
Kouchner in mid-January, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on 
Friday.

Kouchner has served as U.N. administrator and Annan's special representative 
since the United Nations and NATO took control of Kosovo in June 1999 after 
the Western alliance's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

During recent weeks troubles have flared in several parts of Kosovo but most 
concern has centred on the Presevo Valley -- the border area off limits to 
NATO and Serbian forces.

An upsurge in militia activity last month left four Serbian police dead in 
the valley.

"The terrorists carried out another of their actions today," Zdravkovic 
said. "The police responded to the attack and the terrorists withdrew after 
that."

The attack took place as the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade discussed the 
situation in southern Serbia.

"A group of around 20 terrorists opened fire from personal arms on a 12-man 
police patrol. Nobody was injured," Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran 
Zivkovic told the assembly.

The incident, which occurred about 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the 
town of Presevo, was the most serious in the boundary area since the 
outbreak of fighting two and a half weeks ago.

Getting Kosovo 'on the right track'
The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force negotiated a ceasefire between the 
ethnic-Albanian militia and the Yugoslav forces earlier this week but it has 
already been breached on a number of occasions.

The guerrillas say they are protecting local Albanians from harassment by 
Serbian police.

Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley 
area of Serbia to independence-minded Kosovo.

The new appointee to the top U.N. job in the troubled province said of his 
challenge: "I hope that I can get Kosovo on the right track."

"I hope I can contribute to solve the problems down there," Haekkerup told 
Denmark's TV2 channel.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the secretary-general is "very pleased to 
have recruited a man of Hans Haekkerup's stature and ability to take over 
the complex tasks of the U.N. mission in Kosovo."

Haekkerup, 55, who has had an extensive political career, was first elected 
to the Danish Parliament in 1979 and has been minister of defence since 
January 1993. Denmark is a NATO member.

Congratulating his successor and wishing him "a very productive time," 
Kouchner issued a statement in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, saying: "He 
will have many challenges ahead of him ... I hope it will be a fulfilling 
experience for him, here in Kosovo, as it remains for me."

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.



_____________________________________________________________________________________
Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com