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Yugoslav army enter buffer zone
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- Hundreds of Yugoslav army troops have entered the buffer zone in southern Serbia as part of a plan to end cross-border violence. Members of the elite 63rd Parachute Brigade travelled in armoured personnel carriers as they fanned out across the southernmost tip of the zone. They were banned from entering the strip of land along Kosovo's boundary with the rest of Serbia at the end of the 1999 Kosovo war. The deployment comes two days after Serbia agreed to a ceasefire with ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the buffer zone. The army, which are being deployed with NATO approval, will only be allowed into part of the zone where it meets the border with Macedonia, with the goal of curbing the guerrilla activity -- and an accompanying upsurge in violence -- in the area.
Yugoslav officials have agreed to stay out of towns and villages in the mostly ethnic Albanian region. But guerrillas warned they could not guarantee a halt to fighting despite a ceasefire arranged by NATO in an attempt to smooth the deployment. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said residents in the border zone with Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have nothing to fear and should stay calm. Yugoslav army members will not be allowed to carry heavy weapons and NATO-led KFOR will be monitoring their operations. The five-kilometer (three-mile) buffer zone was set up in June 1999 as part of peace terms for Kosovo after the NATO air campaign launched to force ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. Police units moved into the buffer zone on Tuesday ahead of the army deployment. Police officials said the advance teams were headed for the villages of Noraca and Trnava, at the southern end of a buffer zone between Kosovo province and the rest of Serbia that ends at the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Soldiers battled with ethnic Albanians in fierce fighting at the two villages Malinovo Malo and Brest in the north of the country, near the Kosovo border on Tuesday. Government forces were trying to "isolate" the guerrillas and "force them to retreat from the area," interior ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said. He said: "There was shooting, police returned fire. This operation is very risky and dangerous." U.S. KFOR peacekeepers in neighbouring Kosovo said they had met up with Macedonian troops on the border to Macedonia, near the village of Tanusevci, late on Monday. Although the ceasefire appeared to be holding, a rebel leader identified only as Commander Haxhia said many rebels in the southern region do not take orders from the guerrilla leaders who signed the deal. He said that the leadership cannot "take responsibility for any escalation of violence ... for that zone." His comments echoed those of commander Shefket Musliu of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, or UCPMB, who said: "If someone shoots at the Serbs, we will not take responsibility." Lieutenant-General Carlo Cabigiosu, the Italian commander of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, said he hoped the Serb troops agreement would help reduce the fighting in the area. He said: "I hope that Albanians in the area will understand that this is the time to move from armed conflict to peace." The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
NATO optimistic over Kosovo deal RELATED SITES:
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