[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Yugoslav Army Bolsters Boundary (AP, Nov. 27, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001127/aponline011424_000.htm

Yugoslav Army Bolsters Boundary 

By Aleksandar Vasovic
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Nov. 27, 2000; 1:14 a.m. EST

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslavia has bolstered its forces near the
U.S.-patrolled boundary with Kosovo ahead of a deadline for NATO to
crack down on ethnic Albanian militants who killed four Serb police. 
     The new democratic government of Vojislav Kostunica believes the
attacks in southern Serbia were launched by ethnic Albanian extremists
operating from Kosovo. Belgrade is threatening to launch counterattacks
on its side of the border if NATO cannot curb the infiltration's by
Monday afternoon. 
     "Police and the army are coordinating activities," said Vladan
Batic, a leading Kostunica ally who visited the area Sunday. "... It is
obvious that they are confronting sheer terrorism, undisguised
separatism. They are terrorists and bandits and will be treated as
such." 
     Kosovo is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic, but it
has been under international control since last year and many residents
want full independence. The crisis erupted last week when ethnic
Albanian militants of the "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and
Bujanovac" attacked Serb positions in the Presevo Valley to unite the
area with Kosovo. 
     Although the area has a substantial ethnic Albanian population, the
valley was not considered part of Kosovo and therefore was not included
in the June 1999 agreement that sent NATO peacekeepers into Kosovo. 
     The incidents cast doubt on NATO's ability to control Kosovo and
also present a major crisis to the Kostunica government, which must
defend the area without provoking the same international condemnation
that erupted after Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on Kosovo rebels in
1998. 
     That provoked the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year,
which ended with Belgrade handing over the province to the United
Nations and NATO. 
     On Sunday, Yugoslav army T55 battle tanks and armored personnel
carriers could be seen maneuvering near the three-mile buffer zone
separating Kosovo from the rest of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic. 
     The reinforcements were kept away from the zone, under terms of the
agreement which bars heavy weapons from the buffer area. American troops
patrol the Kosovo side. 
     Nevertheless, the presence of additional tanks, armored personnel
carriers and infantry was seen as a demonstration of Belgrade's resolve
to prevent ethnic Albanian rebels from seizing and holding Serbian
territory. 
     Kosovo television reported one rebel fighter was wounded Sunday but
gave no further details. 
     The Yugoslav interior ministry estimates that about 1,000 ethnic
Albanians were involved in the recent attacks and were receiving support
from ethnic Albanian sympathizers in nine villages on Serb-controlled
territory. 
     Yugoslav officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
militants had smuggled small artillery pieces and more than 100 small
mortars across the U.S.-patrolled boundary into positions on the
Yugoslav side. 
     According to an interior ministry report obtained by The Associated
Press, ethnic Albanian militants were sending out nighttime patrols from
sympathetic villages to gather intelligence information about Serb
positions. 
     The interior ministry report said Serb police "cannot hold out long
unless they receive reinforcements from Serbia proper." The report
recommended mobilizing Serb men of military age and using them to
augment police units in the area. 
     In Bujanovac, one of the towns in the contested area, Mayor
Stojanca Arsic blamed the attacks on the Kosovo Liberation Army, the
ethnic Albanian rebel group that fought Yugoslav forces in Kosovo last
year but which NATO gave assurances had been disbanded. 
     He urged NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo to "really disarm the
supposedly demilitarized Kosovo Liberation Army" and prevent more
weapons from reaching the buffer zone between Kosovo's boundary and
Serbia proper. 

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press


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