[ALBSA-Info] Troops Involved in Southern Balkans

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Troops Involved in Southern Balkans

.c The Associated Press

  
Armed struggles for more ethnic Albanian rights in southern Serbia and 
neighboring Macedonia threaten to draw U.S. and other peacekeepers into a new 
Balkans war. The main players: 

SOUTHERN SERBIA: The black-uniformed Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and 
Bujanovac is active in the three-mile wide buffer zone adjoining the Serbian 
province of Kosovo, which was set up to insulate NATO-led peacekeepers from 
the Yugoslav army. 

Because only lightly armed Serb police were allowed, the rebels had operated 
with relative impunity among the area's 60,000-member ethnic Albanian 
community. The guerrillas demand self-determination - which could include 
efforts to link up with Kosovo ahead of hoped-for independence for the ethnic 
Albanian-majority province. 

More heavily armed Yugoslav units moved into the southernmost tip of the zone 
Wednesday under a NATO-sanctioned accord meant to curb the rebel threat and 
the movement of fighters and supplies to guerillas in Macedonia. A cease-fire 
is in effect, and talks between Serbia and ethnic Albanian leaders are set 
for next week. 

MACEDONIA: Calling themselves the National Liberation Army, black-uniformed 
fighters have been clashing with Macedonian border troops since mid-February 
in a strip of land abutting Kosovo. 

As in the buffer zone, the fighters say they are struggling for greater 
rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, which make up about a quarter of the 
country's 2 million people. But there are fears that the goal is again to 
link predominantly ethnic Albanian border areas to Kosovo as part of an 
overall independence plan. 

KOSOVO: The Serbian province has been spared major fighting since NATO and 
the United Nations established control in mid-1999. But ethnic violence is 
common, and Kosovo supplies fighters and weapons for both the southern 
Serbian and Macedonian insurgencies, reflecting the common cause of militants 
in all three regions. 

Seeking to cut off supplies, NATO moved U.S. and other peacekeepers close to 
the border with Macedonia in early March.