[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} PRESS: Albanians flee as Serb deadline nears (Guardian, November 27, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,403311,00.html

Albanians flee as Serb deadline nears 

Refugees fear new offensive as tanks arrive at buffer zone. 

Nicholas Wood in Konculj 
Monday November 27, 2000 

Hundreds of Albanian refugees were fleeing from south-eastern Serbia to
Kosovo yesterday fearing an offensive by Yugoslav forces. A ceasefire
between Serbian interior ministry police and a rebel Albanian group is
due to end tonight. 
     Dozens of cars and tractors carrying mainly women and children were
queuing at the Kosovan border late last night. The UNHCR office in
Kosovo said that at least 1,200 people had crossed into the province
during the day. 
     Tension has increased in the region since fierce fighting occurred
last week between the Serb authorities and the Preshevo, Medvedja and
Bujanovac Liberation Army, an offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army 
     The guerrilla group, which receives arms and men from Kosovo, wants
three Albanian-speaking towns in south-eastern Serbia to become part of
an independent Kosovo. Last week's clashes were the most intense that
the area has seen since the fighting began in February. 
     There are consistent claims that the Yugoslav army has deployed
tanks and troops in the region and local people are afraid that the
Serbs are preparing for a new offensive. 
     "There are lots of army, tanks and people digging trenches. We are
all surrounded," said Burim Sylejman, 17, from the village of Oslare,
who was taking 18 members of his extended family by tractor and trailer
to Kosovo. 
     He said that Yugoslav interior police and regular army troops were
being sent to Bujanovac and the surrounding villages. Some families were
unable to leave. 
     "They've put sandbags in the streets and they have blocked the
roads out of Ternovac, and they are turning people back." 
     Behind him in the trailer his sister Amire Sylejman, 22, tried to
comfort a boy. Both were crying. "Everyone has left their houses, we
were forced to leave ours, too," she said. 
     Near Konculj, the key village captured by the guerrillas last week,
another man driving a tractor said he had seen seven tanks near by. 
     Using tanks to retake ground lost to the Albanians would breach
Serbia's agreement with K-for, the peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. The
Yugoslav army is banned from entering a three-mile zone on the Serb side
of the provincial border. 
     A spokesman for K-For said it was unable to confirm or deny whether
there had been any troop movements, because it was too far away. 
     The refugee influx comes at an awkward time for the UN chief
administrator in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner. He was due to meet the new
Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, in Vienna today. They are both
attending a summit held by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe. 
     Belgrade has been putting more pressure on the UN in Kosovo to
clamp down on the guerrillas. On Friday afternoon it announced its own
three-day deadline - due to end today - for attacks to cease. 
     Earlier last week Zoran Djindjic, one of Yugoslavia's most senior
politicians, warned that if the international community continued to
tolerate the situation it would lead to "full-scale war". 
     K-For's spokesman, Flight Lieutenant Mark Whitty, said that the
guerrillas and the Serbian authorities held talks at the weekend. K-For
officials helped to broker the ceasefire signed on Friday. 
     The guerrillas showed no sign of relinquishing any territory as the
deadline approached on Sunday. 
     Groups of soldiers carrying an assortment of machine guns and
mortars manned the hilltops around Konculj. 
     A local commander, Vullnet Ibishi, said nine tanks and 10 armoured
personnel carriers, plus two trucks carrying paramilitaries, were seen
on Saturday afternoon near Lucane, the next village down the valley. 
     "We'll have to see what will happen. We are not going to do
anything but we don't trust them," he said. 
     On a hillside track dozens of men and boys equipped with spades
were filling the potholes. 
     "We have to improve it in case of casualties," one of the men said.
The track led to guerrilla headquarters in the village of Dobrosin. 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000


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