[ALBSA-Info] NATO Chief Backs Belgrade Plan for South Serbia

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO Chief Backs Belgrade Plan for South Serbia

BRUSSELS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Friday 
praised a Serbian leader's plan to end the conflict between Belgrade's forces 
and ethnic Albanian separatists in southern Serbia. 

The plan, devised by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebosja Covic, envisages 
demilitarisation of the Presevo Valley region and measures to improve the 
local economy and minority rights. 

"The Covic plan is an important signal of the Belgrade authorities' desire 
for a balanced and peaceful settlement of the problems in southern Serbia," 
Robertson said in a statement. 

"I welcome the initiative and the desire that it represents of developing 
southern Serbia into a prosperous, multi-ethnic community based on principles 
of democracy and human rights." 

Robertson said NATO-led peacekeeping forces in neighbouring Kosovo would 
study the plan carefully. The ethnic Albanians of the Presevo Valley want to 
join their territory to Kosovo, but the Western powers oppose any changes in 
Serbia's borders. 

Guerrillas in Presevo say they are battling Serb police persecution of the 
estimated 70,000 to 100,000 local ethnic Albanians. Serb authorities see the 
group as a collection of separatist terrorists. 

NATO has been negotiating with Belgrade on possible changes to a five km 
(three-mile) Kosovo-Serbia buffer zone being used as a safe haven by ethnic 
Albanian guerrillas. 

In his statement, Robertson urged the ethnic Albanian groups to renounce 
violence. He also appealed to the Serbian security forces to continue to show 
restraint. 

On Thursday, a high-level European Union delegation which included 
Robertson's predecessor, Javier Solana, discussed the Covic plan with the new 
democratic administration in Belgrade. The EU also strongly backs the plan.