[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} PRESS: (New York Times, January 29, 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/world/29YUGO.html

January 29, 2001 

Flare-Up on Kosovo Border Leaves Serb Dead and 4 Hurt

By CARLOTTA GALL

BELGRADE, Serbia, Jan. 28 - Fighting between the Yugoslav military and
ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the tense buffer zone just east of Kosovo
in southern Serbia has risen sharply, with four Serbian soldiers
reported wounded today and one killed Friday night, government officials
said. 
    The casualties, the first for the military since they were deployed
along the edge of the buffer zone two months ago, led the Yugoslav
government to demand that the United Nations Security Council take
urgent measures to halt the guerrilla activity.
    The violence has worried the new authorities in Serbia, which have
vowed to be more democratic than Slobodan Milosevic, the former leader.
The government has said it wants to find a political solution but has
also requested that the international treaty ending the 1999 war between
NATO and Yugoslavia over Kosovo be changed to permit Yugoslav military
into the area to deal with the armed militants.
    The rebels operate virtually unimpeded in the three-mile-wide buffer
zone that separates international peacekeepers in Kosovo from the
Yugoslav Army and police troops in Serbia proper. Only lightly armed
local Serb police officers are allowed in the area and in November they
lost ground to the well-armed Albanian fighters, who call themselves the
Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac. 
    The Yugoslav Army and Serbian police forces have dug in along the
edge of the mountainous buffer zone and occasionally come into contact
with the rebels, exchanging sniper fire. A Yugoslav soldier died of
gunshot wounds on Friday night. Another was wounded today and three were
slightly injured when their armored vehicle hit a mine, according to
Yugoslav officials. It is not known if the rebels suffered any
casualties.
    State television showed Nebojsa Covic, the Serbian deputy prime
minister given the task of solving the crisis, touring the front line
and peering through binoculars at guerrilla positions. A shot rang out,
setting off a burst of retaliatory fire from the distance.
    The position is a difficult one for the government, which is anxious
not to appear weak, yet is under pressure from the international
community not to use force.
    The Yugoslav interior minister, Zoran Zivkovic, said in an interview
last week that the police retreat from the buffer zone in November was
ordered by people still loyal to Mr. Milosevic in order to cause
problems for the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, and his alliance,
which had not yet consolidated power in the country.
    A new Serbian government took power only last week after the
alliance won Serbian elections in December, and it will be the first
task of the new police minister to investigate who gave the order, Mr.
Zivkovic said.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
eGroups is now Yahoo! Groups
Click here for more details
http://click.egroups.com/1/11231/1/_/920292/_/980814129/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

Na dërgoni vërejtjet dhe sugjerimet tuaja, që QIKSH Albeuropa të jetë më e pëlqyeshme, më efikase dhe më e dobishme - në shërbim të Mërgatës, të mbarë kombit dhe të atdheut tonë - Shqipërisë Etnike.

Nëse e sheh të arsyeshme dhe të dobishme, dërgo shkrimet e ALBEUROPËS në E-mail-et e miqve tuaj dhe i regjistro ata në:

albeuropa-subscribe at egroups.com

Nëse don të çregjistrohesh nga ALBEUROPA, dërgo një Email në:

albeuropa-unsubscribe at egroups.com