[ALBSA-Info] Kosovo Albanian leaders against buffer zone cut

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Kosovo Albanian leaders against buffer zone cut
  
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanian political leaders 
said on Wednesday they opposed NATO's proposal to reduce the buffer zone with 
Serbia in which ethnic Albanian guerrillas operate. 

Kosovo Albanian political parties signed a declaration demanding a widening 
of the five km (three mile) strip, Hashim Thaci, head of the Democratic Party 
of Kosovo and former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, said. 

In comments broadcast on television he said narrowing the zone could increase 
tension in Kosovo if it let the Yugoslav army come closer. His views were 
echoed by Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo. 

"We agreed that the safety ground should not to be reduced because it can 
endanger the safety of Kosovo and also NATO soldiers' lives," Rugova said, 
referring to the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo. 

NATO imposed the sanitary belt around Kosovo in June 1999 as a no-go area for 
almost all Serbian forces, but unintentionally created a safe haven for 
guerrillas in Serbia's Presevo Valley just east of Kosovo. 

NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels earlier this week said they were 
accelerating efforts to help Serbia peacefully regain control of the Presevo 
Valley, scene of repeated clashes between guerrillas and police. 

The allies were "prepared to implement a phased and conditioned reduction of 
the Ground Safety Zone" but they were "still working on the details of how 
this will be done," NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said on Tuesday. 

He said on Wednesday that Serbia must pull back troops before NATO starts 
ceding control of the buffer zone. 

"We will move as quickly as we possibly can but we will also do it with 
prudence and with care because this is a dangerous situation and we don't 
intend to make it worse," Robertson said in Brussels.