[ALBSA-Info] NATO's stretched peacekeepers face new problem

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO's stretched peacekeepers face new problem

By Douglas Hamilton
  
BRUSSELS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - NATO said on Thursday its Kosovo peace mission 
was facing a new problem with ethnic Albanian guerrillas crossing the 
Macedonian border, but gave no immediate details of how it intends to stop 
them. 

Groups of gunmen were reported in strength this week at a mountain village in 
northern Macedonia close to where it borders the province of Kosovo and 
adjacent southern Serbia. 

"This is a relatively new problem," a NATO official said. 

The KFOR peace force could hardly place troops "shoulder to shoulder along 
the Macedonian border," he pointed out. But patrols were going to be 
strengthened. 

NATO also said it had received no answer so far from Yugoslavia on its 
proposal that the Yugoslav Army's Pristina Corps, which NATO said had 
previously engaged in "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, should be removed from 
southern Serbia. 

Yugoslav Defence Minister Slobodan Krapovic was quoted on Thursday as saying 
the Corps was the "last line of defence" against ethnic Albanian separatist 
guerrillas in southern Serbia and would not be withdrawn under any 
circumstances. 

The NATO official said the alliance was not suggesting that the army pull out 
completely, simply that this particular corps be "rotated out" because of its 
past record. 

The alliance did not expect that to be done overnight, he added at a regular 
background briefing for reporters. But removing the Corps was a key to 
winning the "hearts and minds" of suspicious and fearful ethnic Albanian 
civilians. 

BORDER TOO POROUS 

Several hundred guerrillas have seized control of ethnic Albanian villages 
and roads in the Presevo Valley region of southern Serbia in the past year, 
using a NATO-defined buffer zone where Serbian forces are prohibited as a 
safe haven. 

Over a dozen Serbian police have been killed in attacks, three of them in a 
landmine blast this week. 

The official said NATO considered the situation "alarming" and was giving it 
closest attention. 

KFOR has reinforced its patrols of the Kosovo-Serbia internal boundary in a 
bid to stop men and arms flowing across from Kosovo to the rebels. 

Russians guard the boundary line in the north and U.S. troops in the south 
have erected fortifications on the few highway crossing points, where strict 
security is in effect. 

But the southerly border with Macedonia, which has scant means of its own for 
such operations, has evidently received a lot less attention. 

The KFOR commander visited Macedonian leaders on Wednesday to assure them 
that would change, after the government in Skopje wrote to NATO Secretary 
General George Robertson to express its deep concern that the border was too 
easy to violate. 

A fact-finding mission from NATO, the European Union, the United Nations and 
the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was visiting the 
region this week and was due to report to NATO on Friday. 

Serbia has proposed a comprehensive peace plan for the area but rules out any 
special status or autonomy. It is also urging NATO to eliminate or at least 
narrow the five-km (three-mile) wide buffer zone. 

Serbian efforts to recruit ethnic Albanians into the local police have 
apparently met very little success so far, diplomats say. 

Belgrade had to "demonstrate why they should trust the Serbian government," 
the NATO official said. 

"It's not us that has to be persuaded," he added. NATO "accepts totally that 
they (the Serbian authorities) want a peaceful solution."