[ALBSA-Info] NATO says Serbs can enter buffer zone, on a leash

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO says Serbs can enter buffer zone, on a leash

By Douglas Hamilton

  
BRUSSELS, March 8 (Reuters) - NATO said on Thursday it would let Yugoslav 
Army border guards and Interior Ministry police into a buffer zone on the 
Macedonian border as early as this weekend to oust ethnic Albanian gunmen. 

The move, signalled well in advance, was the toughest step yet ordered by the 
alliance to stem what Western, Yugoslav and Macedonian authorities view as an 
alarming upsurge of ethnic Albanian extremism on Kosovo's borders. 

It was likely to be criticised in Kosovo as a tilt of sympathies to Serbia 
just 21 months after NATO air power came to the rescue of 1.8 million 
Albanians facing murder and mass expulsion by the Yugoslav Army, Serb police 
and paramilitaries. 

In a statement, alliance Secretary-General George Robertson said NATO "has 
today agreed to certain measures including...the controlled return of 
(Yugoslav) forces into the Ground Safety Zone in a narrow sector next to the 
border with Macedonia." 

A NATO official said the Yugoslav Serb forces could enter the zone as early as
 this weekend, "ideally, hopefully, but not necessarily after the signing of 
a ceasefire." 

NO BLITZKRIEG 

"Do not expect an overnight blitz," a military source cautioned: NATO would 
oversee Serbian deployments into territory that has been off-limits since 
NATO fixed the buffer zone around Kosovo in June 1999, and it would be 
carefully regulated. 

The commander of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo (COMKFOR), 
General Carlo Cabigiosu of Italy, would keep a tight hold on the reins as 
Serbian forces moved in. 

They would be allowed to take machineguns of up to .50 calibre (12.7mm) and 
light mortars to an area where only police with pistols had been allowed. No 
heavy weapons, no regular army troops and no armour would be permitted, the 
official said. 

Detailed force proposals were expected from the Serbian authorities for KFOR 
approval. 

In theory, Cabigiosu could order the Serbs out again if they break the rules. 
Diplomats said Serbia, now under democratic government after the overthrow of 
leftist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in a popular uprising last October, was 
keen to make a success of its unprecedented cooperation with NATO, but agreed 
it might be difficult to enforce a departure order. 

The Serbian forces would be given the green light to move into "Charlie 
East," a five-km (three-mile) wide section of buffer zone where it adjoins 
Macedonia, which has provided an unguarded gateway exploited by ethnic 
Albanian gunmen. 

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas occupied a stretch of the zone to the north last 
year and began attacks on police in the Presevo Valley of southern Serbia. 
Recently, gunmen seized adjacent Macedonian land, apparently abusing the gap. 

The authorised depth of the Serbian deployment to plug the gateway will be 
between one to five km, officials said. 

NO SHOOTING IN THE DARK 

Military sources noted that a carefully coordinated operation would be 
required in the triangle. There would be KFOR troops to the west, Macedonian 
forces to the south, Serbs coming from the east and a possibly hostile force 
in the middle. 

"We don't want any mistaken firefights," said one, adding that the operation 
would require aerial surveillance, which has been hampered by recent bad 
weather. 

Military sources estimate the number of rebels operating via the pocket at no 
more than 200. They are armed with heavy machineguns and rocket-propelled 
grenade launchers. 

"This is a first step in a phased and conditioned reduction of the GSZ," 
Robertson's statement said. 

"Further controlled return to the GSZ should continue rapidly thereafter in 
defined sectors, subject to approval of the North Atlantic Council," it 
added. 

Officials said he was referring to 350 km (200 miles) of buffer zone where 
there has been no conflict in the past 21 months, and the Medvedja sector 
north of Presevo. 

"Access to the final sector which has seen the most conflict will be 
authorised by the Council at a later stage," Robertson said. Officials said 
this meant Zone B, the Presevo Valley region where the buffer zone is 
occupied by 600-800 guerrillas. 

NATO's decision follows many warnings to Albanian extremists that their 
attempts to provoke a conflict will not be tolerated. 

Robertson noted that three Serbian policemen were killed on Wednesday by a 
landmine planted in the Presevo Valley, taking the death toll closer to 40 in 
several months of attacks. 

Officials said that while links were suspected between the Presevo and 
Macedonia groups, NATO was treating the situations separately for the moment. 

Ethnic Albanian fighters in the Presevo area say their aim is to protect the 
local Albanian community from what they call Serbian persecution. Belgrade 
has denounced them as "terrorists" bent on expanding Kosovo's territory. 

The gunmen inside Macedonia have not stated their goals.