Væpnede albanere i den såkalte "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedje
and Bujanovac", som er en gruppe av tidligere KLA-medlemmer,
okkuperer nå enkelte grenseområder sør i Serbia (se artikkel vedlagt
nederst). De ønsker seg et utvidet Kosovo, som inkluderer deler av
dagens Sør-Serbia. Spenningen i området øker. En etterretnings-
offiser i KFOR har tidligere uttalt seg om denne gruppen til AFP:
"The NATO-led peacekeepers offically deny any knowlegde
of organised ethnic Albanian fighters crossing the
border and attacking Serb security forces around the
Presevo valley, the heartland of 'East Kosovo.'
But a KFOR intelligence officer, who asked to remain
anonymous, told AFP of the appearance of a new "East
Kosovo Liberation Army."
He said US troops had met members of the organisation
"in uniforms bearing insignia resembling those of the
KLA but with the letters PMB added -- for the towns
of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac."
Fighters of the organisation "want to create a sort
of Greater Kosovo encompassing this zone of southern
Serbia," the officer said.
The group's tactics would include cross-border
"harassment operations" launched from the Yugoslav
province's eastern sector, which is under the control
of US forces."
Se også:
http://www.vny.com/cf/news/upidetail.cfm?QID=67897
http://www.albaniannews.com/privateadn/2000/03/02/page2.htm
Øistein Holen
----------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac1752762656589&rtmo=quKRJeR9&atmo=YYYYYYYp&pg=/et/00/3/3/wserb03.html
War fears as Albanian fighters seize Serb land
By Gillian Sandford in Dobrosin
ARMED ethnic Albanians are occupying border regions in the south
of Serbia and terrorising their inhabitants, raising fears that
Nato will be dragged into another Balkan conflict.
The men are believed to be members of a radical offshoot of the
Kosovo Liberation Army which fought Serbs in the province last
year. At least one "liberated" area of southern Yugoslavia is just
yards away from Nato outposts in Kosovo. Although the Serbs have
so far refrained from major operations against armed Albanians,
there is a rising tide of killings, bombings and terror. Diplomats
in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, said the situation was
extremely dangerous. Nato has accused the regime of President
Slobodan Milosevic of building up troop levels on the border with
Kosovo, in breach of the peace deal signed last June to end the
Kosovo war, although there is little sign of this on the ground.
All the same, there remains a risk that troops or heavily armed
police may launch hot-pursuit raids into the Nato-imposed three-
mile demilitarised zone in southern Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia's
southern border districts are 80 per cent Albanian. Local men have
armed themselves in Kosovo and slipped back over the border to
create what some call eastern Kosovo.
In the "liberated" village of Dobrosin, there is a strange
silence. The village is empty of children and almost empty of
women. Sitting on the Serbian side of the border between Kosovo
and Serbia proper, Dobrosin used to have a population of 1,200.
Now more than 80 per cent have fled. Most Albanians from the
village claim they were driven out by Serbs, but it is a month
since any Serb policemen dared to enter Dobrosin.
The truth, although Albanians dare not say it, is that the
villagers are not fleeing Serbs, they are leaving their homes
because of fellow Albanians. Dobrosin is now controlled by a
radical offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army - the so-called
Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedje and Bujanovac, the three
predominantly Albanian municipalities of southern Serbia that
border Kosovo.
The guerrillas drive through the muddy tracks in expensive cars at
breakneck speed brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles. The agenda
of the fighters is, they boast, to "liberate" the territory that
belongs to Serbia, even though it is peopled by Albanians who have
lived peacefully alongside Serbs for years.
The mayor of Dobrosin has fled, like most of his people. Six miles
away, the Serb town of Bujanovac houses the local government and
hospitals for the municipality covering Dobrosin. The direct route
from Bujanovac to Dobrosin is no longer safe, even for Albanians.
Foreigners are even less welcome. Earlier this week a United
Nations official was shot in both legs while driving towards
Dobrosin.
Virtually all communication between the village and the nearest
town has now ceased. Meanwhile, the violence in the Bujanovac
municipality is fuelling suspicion and enmity. A Serb policeman
and a guerrilla were killed in a gun battle at another border
village at the weekend when the heating plant in Bujanovac was
blown up.
The Serbian mayor of the town, Stojanca Arsic, blames Nato for the
situation, saying that KFOR has failed to disarm the rebels and
stop their border violations. Dobrosin poses a serious dilemma for
the Serb authorities. Although the Serbian deputy Information
Minister, Mijodrag Popovic, says Serbia will stick to the terms of
its agreement with KFOR and not send troops into the the buffer
zone, the fact is that, in the words of Serbia's Blic newspaper
"terrorists are operating on Serbian soil".
Nato's response shows it, too, is worried. American peacekeeping
troops are rapidly building a base on the other side of the border
near Dobrosin and gun turrets now face towards the village.
Nato knows that Dobrosin has the potential to drag it into further
war.
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