[ALBSA-Info] NATO Mulling Macedonian Border

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO Mulling Macedonian Border

By NICOLE WINFIELD

  
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - NATO may allow Yugoslav forces to help keep ethnic 
Albanian rebels out of Macedonia, where violence has threatened new 
instability in the region, the alliance's secretary-general says. 

Lord Robertson said Tuesday NATO would decide this week whether to let 
Yugoslav troops return to a narrow strip of land along the joint border of 
Yugoslavia, Macedonia and the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, which is under 
NATO and U.N. control. 

The area is within a three-mile buffer zone set up in 1999 around Kosovo to 
prevent Belgrade's troops from launching surprise attacks against NATO-led 
peacekeepers who entered the province after the 78-day NATO bombing campaign, 
launched to stop then President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on Kosovo 
Albanians. 

However, ethnic Albanian militants have used the corridor to smuggle weapons 
and fighters into southern areas of Yugoslavia's main republic Serbia, which 
has large ethnic Albanian populations. 

The militants want to unite parts of Serbia and Macedonia where ethnic 
Albanians live. Although NATO entered Kosovo to protect ethnic Albanians, it 
now fears the aspirations by ethnic Albanian militants in southern Serbia and 
Macedonia could trigger a new Balkan conflict. 

Three Macedonian soldiers were killed this week in clashes with ethnic 
Albanian gunmen, prompting Macedonia to close its border with Kosovo. 
Macedonian police said about 170 ethnic Albanians fled their homes Monday. 

Yugoslav forces would not be allowed to return to Kosovo under the plan being 
considered by NATO. However, Robertson said NATO-led peacekeepers were 
stepping up controls along the Kosovo-Macedonian border ``to restrict the use 
of Kosovo as a reinforcement area.'' 

``We're looking very closely now at the decision, a possible decision to 
allow Yugoslav forces into the ground safety zone along the border with the 
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and I hope a decision on that will be 
taken this week,'' he said. 

Macedonia has a restive ethnic Albanian community, which makes up about 
one-fourth of its 2 million people. 

In Belgrade, Yugoslavia's interior minister, Zoran Zivkovic, said allowing 
the Yugoslav Army into the border area would provide the ``best protection'' 
for Macedonia and for southern Serbia. 

``We hope that by isolating the area concerned, cutting off supply lines, we 
will make it much more difficult for these people to continue operating and 
to continue with their provocative action,'' Robertson said.