YUGOSLAVIA: U.S. CONDEMNED ATTACKS ON SERBIAN SOLIDERS IN ETHNIC ALBANIAN PART OF SOUTHERN PART OF SERBIA
Record ID:
355612
YUGOSLAVIA: U.S. CONDEMNED ATTACKS ON SERBIAN SOLIDERS IN ETHNIC ALBANIAN PART OF SOUTHERN PART OF SERBIA
- Title: YUGOSLAVIA: U.S. CONDEMNED ATTACKS ON SERBIAN SOLIDERS IN ETHNIC ALBANIAN PART OF SOUTHERN PART OF SERBIA
- Date: 4th February 2001
- Summary: YUGOSLAV ARMY POSITIONS IN THE AREA OF BUJANOVAC , YUGOSLAVIA ( FEB. 1, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV YUGOSLAV ARMY SOLDIERS POSITIONING TANK; MV YUGOSLAV ARMY SOLDIERS ON TANK; SCU MACHINE GUN ROUND ON TOP OF TANK; SCU YUGOSLAV ARMY SOLDIER AIMING WITH TANK MACHINE GUN (4 SHOTS) 0.14 2. LV ALBANIAN VILLAGE NEARBY (ONE OF THE LIBERATION ARMY OF PRESEVO, M
- Embargoed: 19th February 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUJANOVAC, BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVA8E3HJKYITPHI6PO3Q77IQGK8H
- Story Text: The United States condemned attacks on Serbian soldiers
in an ethnic Albanian part of southern Serbia and commended
the Serbian authorities for responding to the attacks with
restraint.
The United Nations Security Council, in a statement to
the press drafted by the United States, condemned the attacks
by ethnic Albanians along Kosovo's border with the rest of
Serbia, particularly the killing of a Yugoslav soldier. It
stressed the need for an immediate and full investigation to
bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Yugoslav army reported one of its soldiers was killed
and four were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded
in front of a vehicle last Sunday.
The United Nations runs the administration in Kosovo and
an understaffed international police force. Peacekeepers are
led by NATO forces and include troops from other nations.
Under U.N. resolutions the three-mile (five-km) zone,
known as the Ground Safety Zone between Kosovo and Serbia, is
to be demilitarized. It was set up in June 1999 to prevent
Yugoslav forces from threatening the NATO-led peacekeeping
mission in Kosovo, a Serbian province.
The Council's statement, repeats earlier demands, which
called for the dissolution of ethnic Albanian extremist groups
and for their immediate withdrawal from the border zone area.
The attacks are blamed on the ethnic Albanian Liberation Army
of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac.
The ethnic Albanian group which operates in southern
Serbia, known as UCPMB, has been formed along the lines of the
disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army.
UCPMB operates in the Presevo valley of southern Serbia
just outside Kosovo and says it is protecting the local
Albanian minority from persecution by Serbian police. Belgrade
says they are separatists who seek the area's annexation by
Kosovo.
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, has demanded
the 15-nation council meet to discuss the border violence,
asking for a statement as well as measures to find the
perpetrators and bring them to justice without delay.
The guerrillas say they are fighting to protect local
Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists
they are separatists intending to bring Presevo Valley area of
Serbia under control of ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
Yugoslavia has suggested that the demilitarized zone be
narrowed so it would have more control over the population but
NATO and others have so far rejected this. The deterioration
of the situation in the Presevo Valley has made the
international community, in particular the KFOR political
counsellor Shawn Sullivan, step up efforts to make the parties
to the conflict sit at the negotiating table and solve the
problem through peaceful talks.
The United Nations and NATO took control of Kosovo in
June 1999 after the Western alliance conducted an 11- week
bombing campaign against Yugoslavia to stop a crackdown by
former President Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanians
in the province.
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