Rivals search for Kosovo solution

WEB EXCLUSIVE Chris Burns: Ethnic strife flares again in Balkans

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- New talks are planned between rival groups along Kosovo's borders after plans for a ceasefire agreement failed.

Both ethnic Albanians and Yugoslav forces have failed to reach agreement with a NATO mediator in the area.

NATO has agreed to allow Yugoslav forces back into the buffer zone on the Kosovo border - a step opposed by ethnic Albanian militants.

In recent weeks there has been an upsurge in violence along Kosovo's boundaries with both southern Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

As the ceasefire talks floundered on Saturday, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia promised to carry out social reform programmes to help improve the lives of its ethnic Albanian minority.

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A Macedonian policeman killed when his car was blown up near the Kosovo border was buried on Saturday.

Goran Stojanovski was the fourth Macedonian serviceman to be killed in a week. A Serb police officer was also killed on Friday.

Macedonia has sealed its borders with Kosovo - key routes for supplies into the province -- after a series of attacks on border villages.

The Macedonian Government has called for extra protection from NATO and a buffer zone similar to the one enforced in southern Serbia to be introduced along the Macedonian-Kosovo border.

But NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said: "I don't think another ground safety zone, frankly, is the answer.

"Robust patrolling" of the Macedonian border by KFOR was NATO's preferred solution to preventing infiltrations, he said.

In another apparent effort to ease tensions, Yugoslavia released 94 ethnic Albanian prisoners who were rounded them up during former President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown in Kosovo.

The release brought the number of ethnic Albanians freed last week to 150, but Yugoslavia still holds about 500 such prisoners.

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Gun battle on Kosovo border
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NATO considers Macedonia fears
March 6, 2001
Bulgaria offers troops to Macedonia
March 5, 2001
Macedonia: A Balkan time bomb?
March 1, 2001

Macedonian Government
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
KFOR
OSCE
United Nations
NATO

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