Published Tuesday, November 28, 2000, in the Miami Herald

New crisis may erupt, Yugoslavia's leader warns West, U.N. From Herald Wire Services

VIENNA -- Warning that violence spilling over from Kosovo ``could easily set the entire region ablaze,'' President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia said on Monday that the United Nations and Western powers ``have failed to do their part of the job'' and stop armed Albanian attacks on Serbian police and citizens.

Kostunica spoke to foreign ministers at this annual gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

He pressed for stronger action by the NATO-led forces that control Kosovo against armed Albanian fighters operating in the predominantly Albanian towns near the border of the province of Kosovo within Serbia.

At the same time, Kostunica and his government lifted threats that Serbian forces might move on Monday night into a three-mile security zone and themselves deal with the armed Albanians. The area in question borders eastern Kosovo and is patrolled by U.S. troops.

Even though the Yugoslav government backed off the deadline, its forces continued to deploy near the three-mile demilitarized zone between Kosovo and southern Serbia.

Heavily armed Serbian forces -- including the special anti-terrorist unit SAJ -- were seen moving toward the area. Yugoslav army T55 battle tanks and armored personnel carriers were seen maneuvering there on Sunday.

The crisis flared again last week when ethnic Albanian militants of the ``Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac'' attacked Serbian positions in the Presevo Valley in order to unite the area with Kosovo.

Although the area has a substantial ethnic Albanian population, the valley was not considered part of Kosovo and therefore was not included in the agreement that sent NATO peacekeepers into the Serbian province.

Late Monday, Kostunica arrived in Bujanovac and was welcomed by hundreds of people gathered at the town's main square.

Asked if a new war was coming, he said, ``It is not going to come to a war because we are fighting for peace . . . we are showing that we are for peace because we respect all international documents on Kosovo.''

Nonetheless, Serbian police say they will use all available means, including heavy weapons, to regain territory lost to the militants, who killed four policemen Tuesday and seized police positions near the boundary between Kosovo and the rest of southern Serbia.

Under the agreement that ended the 1999 Kosovo war, the Serbs may only station police with light weapons in the security zone, not troops or heavy weapons.

Meanwhile, OSCE foreign ministers welcomed Kostunica and Yugoslavia back into the organization, which deals with everything from security, arms control and election monitoring to democratization and human rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a quick visit here, but she did not have the private meeting with Kostunica that she had wanted.

Both sides claimed that they had difficulties with scheduling.

http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/world/digdocs/105556.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 28, 2000

Answers

The NATO forces are incapable of stopping the
terrorist KLA. They spend their time taking
over factories that pollute and smashing down
whore houses. The CIA supports, arms and trains
the KLA and profits from their drug smuggling.

Since the arrival of KFOR and UNMIK to Kosovo,
there has been 4.839 terrorist attacks, 1028
killed and 946 kidnapped and missing persons.

Kostunica won't meet with Madeleine Albright
because she is seen as a representative of the
force that bombed their country. Kostunica would
lose a lot of credibility if he met with her.

U.N. Swoop on Kosovo Prostitution Rings

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 28, 2000.