[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: BBC/AFP: Kosovo rebels accept peace talks / Albanian Guerrillas Opt for Talks With Serbia (Feb 7/8, 2001

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1159000/1159097.stm

Wednesday, 7 February, 2001, 22:17 GMT 

Kosovo rebels accept peace talks

Rebel clashes with Serb forces have intensified

Ethnic Albanian militants in southern Serbia say they have accepted
Belgrade's offer of peace talks to end increasing violence near the
border with the Serbian province of Kosovo. 
    But the rebels, who want UN-administered Kosovo to secede from
Serbia, said the talks could only take place if an international
mediator were involved. 
    The ethnic Albanians have appointed a nine-member negotiating team
but no date has been set for talks with the Serbian Government. 
    Belgrade's peace plan was announced on Tuesday. It is aimed at
ending fighting in the Presevo Valley in southern Serbia - a buffer zone
between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. 
    The latest peace moves came as the Russian Defence Minister, Igor
Sergeyev, was visiting Belgrade. He gave his backing to the peace
efforts during talks with his Yugoslav counterpart Slobodan Krapovic and
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. 
    The ethnic Albanians are demanding that Albanian-inhabited areas of
southern Serbia become part of Kosovo. 

Sovereignty dispute 

The rebel movement grew out of ethnic Albanian opposition to Serbian
control in the buffer zone, which was created as part of the deal that
ended Nato's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999. 
    There are estimated to be up to 1,600 fighters in the rebel force,
known as the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB). 
    According to the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, the government peace
plan envisages a three-stage, internationally-monitored, process during
which the rights of the ethnic Albanians will be improved to match
international standards - but only once they give up their drive for
independence. 
    Marshal Sergeyev reiterated Russian support for keeping Kosovo as
part of the Yugoslav Federation, saying it was important for the sake of
long-term security in the Balkans. 

Shifting ties 

A BBC correspondent in Belgrade, Paul Anderson, says Marshal Sergeyev
has been trying to cement the traditionally close ties between Russia
and Yugoslavia. Relations between the two have drifted somewhat since
Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power in Belgrade. 
    The two sides signed a military agreement revitalising co-operation
between their armies, and they discussed the future of European
security. 
    Russia believes Nato's tendency to act unilaterally without the
approval of the United Nations Security Council, as demonstrated during
the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, is highly damaging to Europe's
collective security interests. 
    But Belgrade is not about to cosy up to Moscow, however much the
Russians might wish it, our correspondent says. 
    He says Yugoslavia now leans towards Western European political
organisations and is not about to spoil its chances of integration by
denouncing Europe's principal defence body.
_______________________________________________________________________
http://centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=285202

Albanian Guerrillas Opt for Talks With Serbia

MUHOVAC, Feb 8, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Ethnic Albanian rebel and
political groups have agreed to start talks with Belgrade on ending more
than a year of violence in southern Serbia but Wednesday appeared to
have differing views on how to achieve it.
    Rebel leader Muhamet Xhemali said his guerrillas were ready to halt
the fighting, but only after Serbian forces had quit the area and an
"intervention force", preferably American, was deployed.
    Xhemali insisted that the peace talks -- agreed to by the Serbian
government on Tuesday but for which no date has been fixed -- should
focus on a "reunification" of a disputed five-kilometer (three-mile)
security corridor in southern Serbia with the UN-run province of Kosovo.
    The rebels want Kosovo to eventually secede from Serbia.
    Xhemali, leader of a rebel group representing three
Albanian-majority towns in the security zone, said he wanted the area to
be run "under American control. That would be best."
    One of his field commanders known as Haxhiu said: "Even if we were
in war for 10 years, one day we would have to negotiate. Why not do it
now... with the mediation of the international community."
    "But we will not set down arms until the problem is solved," warned
Haxhiu, commander of the Konculj area near Bujanovac, one of three key
Albanian towns which gives its name to the Liberation army of Presevo,
Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).
    A member of its political wing, Tahir Dalipi, nevertheless expressed
hope that a temporary, transitional solution, which would end the
violence, could be found.
    "Respect of human rights are primary for the sovereignty of the
state," he said. Dalipi said an intervention force like that of the
NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR inside Kosovo would help to ensure
that.
    But a transitional accord would not be a good idea, insists Haxhiu.
    "If there is a transitional solution, the problems might appear
again, there is a need for a definitive conclusion, but it also depends
of the status of Kosovo," Haxhiu said.
    The rebel movement grew out of ethnic Albanian opposition to Serbian
control in the security corridor, or buffer-zone, in southern Serbia
imposed by NATO as part of the deal which ended the 1999 Kosovo war.
    Hadxiu insisted that the "basis for negotiations is the 1992
referendum." The referendum, conducted among Kosovo's Albanian majority,
was never recognized either by Belgrade or the international community.
    It advocated attachment to Kosovo in the event of a change or
borders in the former Yugoslavia.
    Based inside the buffer zone, which is off-limits to the Serbian
military, except for lightly-armed police, the UCPMB has an estimated
1,000-1,600 fighters.
    The ethnic Albanian political and guerrilla leaders joined ranks
after an accord reached on Monday in the town of Veliki Trnovac, aiming
to define a joint strategy.
    Represented will be the UCPMB, its political wing the KPPMB, the
United Democratic party of Albanians of Zeqirja Fazliu and the Party of
Democratic action of the Presevo mayor Riza Halimi.
    The main political platform has been almost finished, with only
minor details remaining to be defined, the UCPMB sources said.
    Belgrade on Tuesday agreed to peace talks after its forces were
embroiled in some of the worst fighting with guerrillas in more than a
year of conflict.
    "We should talk with those who can positively and negatively
influence the situation in southern Serbia," said Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Djindjic.
    "If the Albanian community considers terrorists their adequate
representatives, then the talks are possible," he added. 

((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)


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