[ALBSA-Info] NATO to step up Kosovo, Macedonia border patrols

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO to step up Kosovo, Macedonia border patrols

By Ian Geoghegan

  
BRUSSELS, March 21 (Reuters) - NATO said on Wednesday it would send more 
reinforcements to southern Kosovo to help cut off ethnic Albanian rebel 
supply routes across the border into Macedonia. 

The alliance had already announced on Monday that it was boosting its troops 
in the area. Now it will further increase its presence in the mountainous and 
forested border country as tensions continue to escalate. 

Alliance ambassadors, meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, approved a 
package of measures to try to stabilise the southern Balkans and give 
international backing to Macedonia's multi-ethnic government. 

Guerrilas have launched attacks against Macedonian forces to win more rights 
for the country's ethnic Albanians who they say are treated as second class 
citizens. 

Alliance Secretary-General George Robertson said in a statement that NATO-led 
KFOR peacekeepers had been reinforced since the attacks began and had 
increased patrolling to "improve our ability to detect, disrupt and deter any 
flow of men and material from Kosovo to...Macedonia." 

"A further review has shown such activities can be further increased and more 
troops will now be sent to the border area," he said. 

The rebels have used Kosovo as a rear supply base, but NATO has started 
making good on promises to cut that route off. 

Men and mules carrying weapons were stopped on Tuesday night, a U.S. military 
spokeswoman said. Peacekeepers seized two AK-47 rifles, three machineguns, 
three bolt-action rifles, a sniper rifle, four land mines, a rocket-propelled 
grenade, 12 mortar bombs and ammunition. 

In Brussels, NATO reiterated its condemnation of attacks by "extremist 
groups" and ruled out any prospect of redrawing the regional map to alter 
boundaries. 

KFOR SEVERELY STRETCHED 

NATO ambassadors meeting as the North Atlantic Council also endorsed the need 
for further troops for KFOR, whose 42,000 soldiers in Kosovo are "severely 
stretched." 

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that NATO members had 
failed to heed a call for additions to that number, effectively forcing NATO 
to redeploy its existing resources. 

NATO has declined to detail how many troops will be moved from elsewhere in 
the region. 

Other measures approved by the council were: 

-- strengthened NATO co-operation with Skopje government, 

-- improved military co-ordination and exchange of military information, 

-- NATO to send a senior representative, Ambassador Hans-Joerg Eiff, to 
Skopje to boost its existing Liaison Office, 

-- boost the military liaison team at the defence ministry in Skopje, to be 
run by a senior NATO military officer, and 

-- call for direct bilateral assistance by NATO allies to Macedonia, and 
co-ordinate efforts in Brussels and in Skopje. 

Robertson said he was confident these measures, backed by the European Union, 
the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United 
Nations, would have a significant impact on the security situation. 

"What is needed now is restraint and cool judgment," he said. 

"Ultimately, the solution to problems in the area can only be found through 
political means. We are determined that the men of violence will not 
succeed."