[ALBSA-Info] NATO to press ahead with Kosovo buffer-zone cut

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO to press ahead with Kosovo buffer-zone cut

By Douglas Hamilton

BRUSSELS, March 1 (Reuters) - NATO will go ahead with plans to gradually 
reduce a buffer zone around Kosovo despite the united resistance of Kosovo 
Albanian leaders, a NATO official said on Thursday. 

"Standing still is no longer an option for us," he said. 

The Ground Safety Zone, set up in June 1999 after NATO's 78-day air war 
against Yugoslavia, was meant to separate Serb forces from NATO peacekeepers, 
not as a safe haven for Albanian rebels. "It is being abused," the NATO 
official said. 

At a briefing for reporters at alliance headquarters, he stressed that NATO 
was moving very carefully. "That's why we've done nothing yet," he said. 

The five km (three mile) wide belt around Kosovo's provincial boundary was 
not going to be abolished overnight, "but we cannot leave things as they 
are," he said. 

In a unique display of unity, Kosovo Albanian political parties on Wednesday 
signed a declaration opposing NATO's intentions and actually demanding a 
wider buffer zone. 

Even arch-rivals Ibrahim Rugova, the longtime moderate voice of Kosovo 
Albanians, and Hashim Thaci, former guerrilla, said narrowing or removing the 
buffer strip would allow Serb forces to get closer and would heighten 
tensions in Kosovo. 

Close to the zone itself, and the armed Albanian separatist strongholds that 
have been set up inside it, the Albanian mayor of Presevo, Riza Halimi, said 
the guerrillas should stay on to protect Albanians from Serbs. 

The statements amounted to a blunt rebuff of repeated NATO appeals to ethnic 
Albanians to reject military solutions, accept that Serbia under its new 
democratic leadership was no longer a threat, and cooperate in seeking a 
lasting peace. 

DEAD-END IDEA 

Kosovo Albanians who regained their homes in 1999 courtesy of NATO's 78-day 
air war against Yugoslavia must realise that its commitment to Kosovo has not 
changed, the official said. 

He said nobody could seriously claim there was the same risk today for Kosovo 
and its NATO peacekeeping force as the time when Serbian hawk Slobodan 
Milosevic was still in power. 

NATO and Serbian authorities are working out a detailed plan to defuse the 
tensions in the Presevo Valley and demilitarise the region, which NATO on 
Tuesday announced would include the "phased and conditioned reduction" of the 
safety zone. 

Movement could begin in the next few days. 

But NATO is concerned that Serbia has not yet implemented the 
confidence-building measures the allies have urged to "win the hearts and 
minds" of local ethnic Albanians. These include switching to a far less 
intimidating military presence. 

The official said Halimi's idea of relying on the guerrillas as a form of 
security was "a dead end" and a "false hope." There was no military solution 
available, he repeated. 

The issue of where NATO redraws the line is crucial. It vows to make no 
changes that could give rise to further violence through what NATO 
secretary-general George Robertson referred to as "so-called 
counter-insurgency operations." 

Asked if NATO recognises Serbia's right to counter insurgency, the official 
said: "It is their territory. In that sense they have the right, outside the 
GSZ, to act." 

The official played down the risk of NATO peacekeepers becoming the targets 
of angry ethnic Albanians or being caught in a crossfire between them and 
Serb forces. 

But if the troops did come under fire, everyone should know that they were 
operating under "robust rules of engagement for self defence" and were very 
well armed.