[ALBSA-Info] Yugoslav forces set to enter Kosovo buffer zone

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Yugoslav forces set to enter Kosovo buffer zone

By Fredrik Dahl

  
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, March 14 (Reuters) - Yugoslav forces are set to deploy 
in a buffer zone around Kosovo on Wednesday, two days after ethnic Albanian 
guerrillas operating in the zone agreed to a ceasefire. 

The deployment was agreed with NATO as part of measures to stop the flow of 
supplies and reinforcements to a guerrilla group that has emerged in 
adjoining Macedonia in the past two months, sparking fears of yet another 
Balkan conflagration. 

It also has great political resonance among both Serbs and ethnic Albanians, 
since it marks the first approach of Yugoslav troops to mainly-Albanian 
Kosovo since NATO air strikes forced them to withdraw in 1999. 

"The commander of Yugoslav united forces, General Krstic, has taken the 
decision that the return will start tomorrow in the morning hours," Serbian 
Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic told a news conference in the town of 
Bujanovac late on Tuesday. 

"We're asking citizens to be calm and not in any way disturb the return of 
the united forces in Sector C East in the Ground Safety Zone," said Covic, 
flanked by Colonel General Ninoslav Krstic, commander of army and police in 
the volatile area. 

"Citizens have no reason to be worried." 

The buffer zone was set up as part of the Yugoslav pullout, to separate the 
army from the NATO-led peacekeepers who deployed in Kosovo, now a de-facto 
international protectorate. 

The leader of the guerrilla group in the area, known as the Presevo Valley, 
has warned he cannot guarantee the safety of Yugoslav forces against 
"spontaneous actions by local Albanian elements," according to a source close 
to the group. 

MEMORIES OF REPRESSION 

Memories are still fresh of years of repression of the ethnic Albanians, who 
are in the majority in the area, under former Yugoslav leader Slobodan 
Milosevic. 

"We don't trust the Serbs," one guerrilla said. 

But Covic, part of a new, reformist government, said the forces, which could 
include soldiers and police, would not go into villages or take any measures 
against locals. 

"We expect that extremist groups will respect the statement about the 
ceasefire which NATO is guaranteeing and that they will not take any 
provocative and aggressive measures," he said, calling another news 
conference for 6 a.m. (0500 GMT). 

The deployment is to be observed by European Union monitors and the commander 
of NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo has said the Yugoslav forces will 
not be allowed to have armoured cars, rocket launchers or anti-tank weapons. 

Some officials in the new government in Belgrade, which has promised to 
improve life for ethnic Albanians in Serbia, have said NATO has placed so 
many restrictions on the returning forces that they may be unable to defend 
themselves from attack. 

Both the Presevo Valley rebels and those who have recently launched 
incursions into neighbouring Macedonia say they are fighting for more rights 
for local ethnic Albanian minorities. 

The governments of Serbia and Macedonia say they are terrorists whose only 
aim is to merge border areas with the ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo 
province. 

An official in Macedonia said its forces had fought ethnic Albanian gunmen on 
Tuesday to try to drive them out of what he said were their last strongholds 
near the border with Kosovo.