[ALBSA-Info] Belgrade says NATO too soft on Kosovo "terrorists"

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Belgrade says NATO too soft on Kosovo "terrorists"

By Beti Bilandzic


BELGRADE, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic 
accused NATO-led peacekeepers on Monday of being too soft on ethnic Albanian 
extremists during a surge of violence in and around Kosovo. 

The government has said it believes last Friday's bomb attack on a bus in 
ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo and violence on Sunday in the nearby Presevo 
Valley area of Serbia are part of an organised terror campaign. 

The killings underscored the continuing volatility of the Balkans, 
particularly in the Kosovo area, despite Western hopes for a new era of 
stability in the region after the downfall of former Yugoslav president 
Slobodan Milosevic in October. 

Zivkovic said the KFOR peacekeeping force and U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) 
could take a far tougher line with armed Albanians but were shying away from 
confrontation. 

"They're afraid that the Albanian terrorists will perceive them as their 
adversaries," he said. 

"KFOR and UNMIK must be enemies to the Albanian terrorists, not because they 
want to but because it is their mandate. If someone has a mandate to protect 
civilians from terrorists then he is an adversary to these terrorists," 
Zivkovic said. 

At least seven Serbs, including a two-year-old child, were killed and dozens 
wounded in the bus attack. 

Two days later, three Serb policemen were killed when their vehicle ran over 
two anti-tank mines on the edge of a buffer zone which runs along the Serbian 
side of the boundary. 

A member of an Albanian guerrilla group operating in the zone was killed in 
fighting with Serb police later in the day. Police said they had exchanged 
small arms and mortar fire with the guerrillas on Monday morning but there 
were no casualties. 

RESPONSE TO PEACE EFFORTS 

Zivkovic said the upsurge in violence was an extremist response to the 
efforts of Yugoslavia's new reformist leaders to bring peace to the Presevo 
Valley through dialogue. 

"We have had a maximum of tolerance, patience and desire to resolve the 
problem to prevent deaths of anyone, including the terrorists, but it is 
obvious by their reactions they are not interested in peace in this area," 
Zivkovic said. 

The fact that armed ethnic Albanians had infiltrated the zone from Kosovo was 
proof that KFOR had failed to do its job properly. He said there were also 
Albanian terrorist groups and training camps in neighbouring Macedonia. 

NATO has defended its peacekeeping in Kosovo, saying it has made major 
efforts to improve boundary security and protect minorities. Its commanders 
say they can only do so much and only local leaders and citizens can put an 
end to the violence. 

While the alliance does not yet know if there is any link between the bus 
bomb and the landmine, KFOR believes there is a coordinated campaign of 
violence in Kosovo against Serbs, NATO sources said. 

"It's too broad, too steady, too consistent to be thought of as coincidental. 
There's a definite perception that there has been a substantial increase in 
attacks on Kosovo Serbs in response to the new government in Belgrade," one 
source said. 

"The Presevo and Kosovo extremists have overlapping agendas but not 
necessarily the same." 

Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic said on Monday a Bosnian Serb 
government delegation would visit Kosovo to show support for their ethnic kin 
in the volatile province,. 

Ivanic said the visit in the next 10 days would aim to demonstrate support 
for the Kosovo Serbs, "who live there under extremely difficult, nearly 
impossible conditions." 

"As they helped us during the (1992-95 Bosnian) war, now the time has come 
that we, in accordance with our abilities, if not financially then by our 
presence at least, show that we stand behind our people living in Kosovo," 
Ivanic told a news conference.