[ALBSA-Info] Rebels say Kosovo ceasefire agreed

[Iris Pilika]

Rebels say Kosovo ceasefire agreed


March 12, 2001
Web posted at: 1555 GMT


MERDARE, Yugoslavia -- Ethnic Albanian rebels say they have agreed a 
ceasefire in a tense area on the Kosovo border.

The Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja said the temporary 
agreement was signed on Monday afternoon.

Sejdullah Kadriu, political representative of the group, said it would last 
until March 19 and was signed in the presence of NATO representative Peter 
Feith, Reuters news agency said.

The ceasefire came as a plan which will see Serb forces take control of the 
Presevo Valley area at the centre of the negotiations was agreed between 
NATO and Yugoslavia.

There was no immediate word on any ceasefire by representatives of the 
Serbian government, which says the rebels are "terrorists."

Feith has been shuttling between the two sides for the past few days.

NATO says Yugoslav troops in the Presevo Valley buffer zone would not be 
allowed to use armoured personnel carriers in the area, in which ethnic 
Albanian rebels have launched attacks.

Yugoslavia said the condition made it risky to deploy its army and police, 
who have lost 17 men killed in the past year. It said NATO-led KFOR troops 
regularly travel in bullet-and-grenade proof vehicles.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has announced that he will 
visit Yugoslavia and Macedonia from March 18-20 to try to help defuse 
tensions in the region.

Violence in the area has spread out of Kosovo into Serbia proper and the 
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Ivanov will visit Yugoslavia's capital Belgrade, Kosovo and Macedonia during 
his visit which Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency says is being made at the 
request of President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has criticised ethnic Albanian rebels over recent violence on the 
border with Macedonia, which had previously avoided the bloodshed of its 
neighbours.

The Presevo Valley rebels, numbering several hundreds, are armed with 
automatic weapons, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and 
mortars.

In the first stage of a "phased and conditioned" return to a no-go border 
zone imposed by NATO in 1999, a number of Yugoslav Army frontier guards and 
Serbian Interior Ministry police will enter a square of Serbian land five km 
(three miles) long by five km wide where the valley meets the Macedonian 
border.

NATO has said a ceasefire would be an important but not imperative condition 
for the operation.

General Carlo Cabigiosu, commander of KFOR, announced an accord with 
Yugoslav officials in the border village of Merdare on Monday to let Serb 
forces back into the 25 square km area "in the next few days."

Cabigiosu told the Corriere della Sera newspaper: "There are both military 
and ethical limits.

"However, we have demanded that they do not occupy houses, do not enter 
villages, do not receive backing from armoured cars or use rocket launchers 
and anti-tank weapons.

"On the other hand, we have allowed them to use mortars and they will also 
be allowed to intervene, in coordination with our command, with artillery 
from behind their lines. Finally, there will be no helicopters and above all 
no mines."

But former Yugoslav Army commander Momcilo Perisic, now Serbian deputy 
premier, said: "The Yugoslav Army will be in great danger since it is not 
allowed to enter the area with heavy arms and armoured cars.

"I do not understand why the international community has not allowed this 
since its own troops in Kosovo are all in armoured cars."

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.


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