[Prishtina-E] Nato plans to patrol Kosovo with former foe

[Ramis Ahmetaj]

Nato plans to patrol Kosovo with former foe

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

NATO and the Yugoslav Army (VJ), which were at war 17 months ago, may begin 
joint patrols in the buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia to stop anti-Serb 
attacks by heavily armed ethnic Albanian “guerrillas”.
The idea of joint Kfor/VJ patrols inside the five-kilometre (three-mile) 
demilitarised zone around Kosovo is expected to be among a number of drastic 
measures to be studied by Nato ambassadors. They hope to prevent a breakdown 
in the June 1999 agreement with Belgrade, which ended the alliance’s bombing 
campaign and led to Kfor’s entry into the province as a peacekeeping force.

Any move towards a joint patrolling arrangement would underline Nato’s 
growing anxiety about the attacks launched from within the security zone 
across the border into southern Serbia. In addition, they would reflect the 
alliance’s determination to meet the concerns expressed by Yugoslavia’s 
President Kostunica.

Yesterday Mr Kostunica sent a second letter in a week to Lord Robertson of 
Port Ellen, the Nato SecretaryGeneral, complaining that Kfor troops were 
failing to prevent Albanian “gunmen” from launching attacks into Serbia in 
the Presevo Valley. He also wrote to Kofi Annan, the United Nations 
Secretary-General.

On a visit to Vienna, which he cut short to return home, Mr Kostunica gave 
warning of the risk of the whole region being “set ablaze”.

Addressing foreign ministers of the 55-member Organisation for Security and 
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Mr Kostunica said that Kosovo was Europe’s 
most critical issue. Later he said it was “crystal clear” that Nato and the 
UN, which is administering Kosovo, had “failed to do their job properly”.

Ethnic Albanian gunmen of the so-called Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja 
and Bujanovac agreed yesterday to extend a ceasefire until Friday, after 
pressure from American Kfor commanders responsible for the southeast of the 
province. However, the recent attacks in the Presevo Valley have cast doubt 
on Nato’s ability to control the area and have presented Mr Kostunica with 
his gravest problem since coming to power.

Serb police in the region said yesterday that they would use all available 
means, including heavy weapons, to regain territory seized by the militant 
group, which is fighting to annexe the Presevo Valley as part of Kosovo 
because it has a large ethnic Albanian population. The valley was not 
included in the Kosovo security agreement signed between Nato and the VJ.

British diplomatic sources said yesterday that Nato’s military committee had 
been asked to produce a range of options for tackling the crisis. It is felt 
that tough measures may be required to put an end to the attacks and to show 
Mr Kostunica that the alliance is prepared to act decisively to keep the 
region stable.

Geoff Hoon, the British Defence Secretary, said yesterday on a two-day visit 
to the Balkans that he sympathised with President Kostunica’s concern for 
the security of Serbs in the disputed zone. “I recognise that he has 
legitimate concerns about the Serbian population on both sides of that 
border,” he told reporters. “It is very important that we don’t allow anyone 
to disturb either the border or the sense of security that people feel on 
either side of it.”

The problem for Nato is that the 1999 “military technical agreement” signed 
with the VJ in June last year was drawn up to prohibit Yugoslav Army and 
armed Ministry of Interior police (MUP) from entering the buffer zone. Only 
lightly armed Serb police are allowed to patrol the zone. No one foresaw 
that Albanian separatists would exploit the security zone to their own ends.

Although the notion of joint Kfor/VJ patrols is expected to be given serious 
consideration, British sources said that there were other options that might 
be more practical. They could include even tougher border patrols by Kfor 
troops.

Under the military technical agreement, Kfor troops are allowed to enter the 
security zone only for specific purposes. However, the grave risks to 
stability in the region posed by the ethnic Albanian militant element may 
now force Nato to move troops east into the zone, if only to deter the VJ 
and MUP from taking unilateral action.

With reports of Serbian tanks hovering in the region, the sources also said 
it was vital that Mr Kostunica was kept informed of what was going on. “I 
would guess that Mr Kostunica is not getting the best advice from the VJ,” 
one source said.

However, Nato sources said it was encouraging that Mr Kostunica had not 
issued any form of ultimatum in his letter to Lord Robertson, or threatened 
unilateral action, but had merely urged Kfor to do more to stop the attacks.

A ten-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was killed and his sister and brother 
were seriously wounded yesterday when a tractor carrying civilians hit a 
landmine in southern Serbia in the security zone. The Serbs said the mine 
had been placed by Albanian “terrorists”.


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