YUGOSLAVIA/MACEDONIA: YUGOSLAV SOLDIERS MOVE INTO A BUFFER ZONE NEXT TO THE KOSOVO BOUNDARY IN A NATO-BACKED EFFORT TO CLAMP DOWN ON ETHNIC ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS
Record ID:
648267
YUGOSLAVIA/MACEDONIA: YUGOSLAV SOLDIERS MOVE INTO A BUFFER ZONE NEXT TO THE KOSOVO BOUNDARY IN A NATO-BACKED EFFORT TO CLAMP DOWN ON ETHNIC ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS
- Title: YUGOSLAVIA/MACEDONIA: YUGOSLAV SOLDIERS MOVE INTO A BUFFER ZONE NEXT TO THE KOSOVO BOUNDARY IN A NATO-BACKED EFFORT TO CLAMP DOWN ON ETHNIC ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS
- Date: 14th March 2001
- Summary: MIRATOVAC, BUFFER ZONE, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 14, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV ANTI-MINE UNITS SEARCHING FOR MINES ALONG THE ROAD 0.06 2. SLV SERBIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NEBOJSA COVIC WITH YUGOSLAV ARMY SOLDIERS ENTERING THE BUFFER ZONE 0.11 3. SV COVIC GREETS LOCAL ETHNIC ALBANIANS 0.23 4. SV YUGOSLAV DE-MINING UNIT SEARCHING FOR MINES 0.35 5. SV ROAD AND BULLDOZER CLEARING THE ROAD 0.44 6. SV YUGOSLAV SOLDIER ON GUARD 0.49 MIRATOVAC, BUFFER ZONE, SOUTHERN SERBIA; YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 14, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. SV/MCU/CU YUGOSLAV ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF NEBOJSE PAVKOVIC INSIDE THE BUFFER ZONE LOOKING AT THE MAP WHILE TALKING ON THE FIELD TELEPHONE TO YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA (3 SHOTS) 1.07 8. TV OF YUGOSLAV SOLDIERS GATHERED AROUND VEHICLE 1.11 MIRATOVAC, BUFFER ZONE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 14, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. SV BRITISH LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICHARD BARRON OF KFOR TALKING TO THE YUGOSLAV ARMY OFFICERS 1.16 10. PAN SHOT FROM THE YUGOSLAV ARMY SYMBOL TO THE BRITISH FLAG ON UNIFORMS OF MEN 1.22 11. SV BRITISH LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICHARD BARRONS SHAKING HANDS WITH THE YUGOSLAV ARMY OFFICERS 1.28 12. MCU (English) BARRONS SAYING: "The operation today has been governed by terms set up commander KFOR and so far the operation is proceeding very effectively . It is fully compliant. I have seen nothing at all that leads me to suggest that the Serb army and police units engaged in the operation are in any way breaching the regulations set by commander KFOR." 1.51 13. SLV/SV KFOR CARS LEAVING THE AREA (2 SHOTS) 2.02 TRNOVAC, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 14, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. SV ETHNIC ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS, ARMED WITH KALASHNIKOV ASSAULT RIFLES, WALKING TOWARDS OBSERVATION BUILDING 2.10 15. SV GUERRILLA SETTING UP TO OBSERVE SERBIAN TANKS DUG IN ABOUT FOUR HUNDRED METRES AWAY (THE REBELS SAY THE TANKS SHOULD HAVE BEEN WITHDRAWN AS PART OF THE CEASEFIRE DEAL NEGOTIATED WITH THE SERBS) 2.17 16. LV SERBIAN TANK 2.24 17. MCU GUERRILLA WATCHING SERB POSITION FROM OBSERVATION BUILDING 2.25 18. LV MILITARY TRUCK 2.30 19. SV/MCU (Albanian) LOCAL ETHNIC ALBANIAN LIBERATION ARMY FOR PRESEVO, MEDVEDJA AND BUJANOVAC (UCPMB) COMMANDER, 'CAPTAIN LESHI' IN HIS OFFICE AND SAYING: "The army which is being deployed in Zone C is one which carried out genocide. It is also stated that we do not guarantee the security of soldiers in sector C. Bad things could happen. The situation could escalate and fighting could start again." (2 SHOTS) 3.04 TETOVO, NORTHWESTERN MACEDONIA (MARCH 14, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 20. GV CROWDS AT RALLY 3.09 21. MCU YOUNG MEN WITH BANNERS CHANTING "UCK" 3.21 22. LV PEOPLE WITH BANNERS 3.27 23. LV PEOPLE RUNNING IN STREET AS AUDIO OF GUNFIRE IS HEARD (2 SHOTS) 3.37 24. GV (AUDIO OF GUNFIRE) TRACER FIRE OVER HILLS AND ISOLATED HOUSES (4 SHOTS) 4.26 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 29th March 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION IN BUFFER ZONE AND MIRATOVAC IN BUFFER ZONE IN SOUTHERN SERBIA: TRNOVAC, SERBIA, YUGOSLAVIA / TETOVO, NORTH WESTERN MACEDONIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVA5MPWHI7Q075UNPIHUREER9WXZ
- Story Text: Hundreds of Yugoslav soldiers and police officers have
swept into a buffer zone next to the Kosovo boundary in a
NATO-backed effort to clamp down on ethnic Albanian
guerrillas.
People attending an ethnic Albanian rally in a village in
Macedonia scattered when gunfire was heard in nearby hills.
Ethnic Albanian rebels along the border of Kosovo have
warned that they would not be able to guarantee the safety of
Serb troops with whom they have a ceasefire.
Yugoslav soldiers, armed with automatic rifles and
checking for landmines as they moved along dirt roads,
deployed into a pocket of Serbian land on the southernmost tip
of the buffer zone where it also touches on the border with
Macedonia on Wednesday (March 14).
The deployment is part of a drive to cut any links between
ethnic Albanian armed rebels who have been operating in
Serbia's Presevo Valley for more than a year and a similar
group which has emerged in Macedonia in the past few weeks.
Western governments have been alarmed by the spread of
guerrilla activity, fearing serious violence could erupt again
in the volatile Balkans just as they were hoping for a new era
of peace after the downfall of Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic.
European Union (EU) monitors and officers from Kosovo's
NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force were on hand in the remote
mountainous area to observe the deployment which began in the
early morning.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic accompanied
Yugoslav troops into the area and met local ethnic Albanians.
Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic was
also one of the first to go into the zone, entering shortly
after 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) in a white jeep escorted by
soldiers from the 63rd paratroop unit armed with automatic
rifles.
Pavkovic briefed Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on
the deployment by mobile phone and examined maps with military
officials before leaving the scene.
British Lieutenant Colonel Richard Barrons told reporters
in the village of Miratovac, where Yugoslav forces entered the
five km (three mile) wide zone that the Yugoslav army was
complying with KFOR terms of the operation.
He said: "The operation today has been governed by terms
set up commander KFOR and so far the operation is proceeding
very effectively. It is fully compliant. I have seen nothing
at all that leads me to suggest that the Serb army and police
units engaged in the operation are in any way breaching the
regulations set by commander KFOR."
NATO worked closely with Yugoslav officers, their enemies
in the Kosovo conflict only two years ago, in planning the
deployment in an effort to reassure local ethnic Albanian
civilians there would be no repeat of Milosevic-era
repression.
Under an agreement between NATO and Belgrade, the Yugoslav
forces are allowed only into a 25 square km (9.7 square miles)
area at the bottom of the zone, which was established around
the outside of the Kosovo boundary when NATO moved into the
province in June 1999.
The Serb-dominated forces also have strict conditions on
what sort of weaponry they can use in the zone. Tanks,
multiple rocket launchers and anti-tank guns are banned and
the troops are also forbidden from basing themselves in
villages.
Barrons said around 900 soldiers were involved in the
operation to re-enter the zone.
The deployment followed a NATO-brokered ceasefire between
Serbian security forces and the Presevo Valley guerrillas
agreed on Monday. More than 30 people have been killed in
sporadic but sometimes fierce clashes between the two sides.
The guerrillas say they are protecting local ethnic
Albanians from Serb police persecution and say the region
should have the right to join ethnic Albanian-dominated
Kosovo.
Belgrade, with increasing support from the West, has
branded the rebels "terrorists". The new reformist leaders in
Serbia have said they are committed to treating ethnic
minorities fairly and have drawn up a peace plan for the area.
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serb forces are facing each
other in Trnovac, a village just over the Kosovo boundary
inside Serbia.
The guerrillas, armed with light weapons observe a
Yugoslav Army tank dug in some 400 metres away.
One of the senior commanders of the ethnic Albanian
guerrillas on Wednesday demanded the presence of an
international peace keeping force in the area.
Commander Leshi said that Serbs and Albanians could
eventually co-exist peacefully. But he said that would be very
hard to achieve without the presence and mediation of the
international community.
Leshi said he opposed the permission given the Serbian
army to enter a 25-square kilometre area of the Ground Safety
Zone at the junction of the borders of Kosovo, Serbia and
Macedonia.
And in a clear warning to Serbian troops he said that he
would not guarantee their safety.
He said the situation could escalate and fighting could
start.
So far, the truce between the ethnic Albanian Liberation
Army for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) and the
Serbian forces has held with only very small violations, Leski
said.
The deployment of Serb forces in the buffer zone is part
of a drive to cut any links between ethnic Albanian armed
rebels who have been operating in Serbia's Presevo Valley for
more than a year and a similar group which has emerged in
Macedonia in the past few weeks.
Commander Leshi denied that the entry of the Serbian
troops into the so-called Zone C would affect his lines of
communication or operations.
Gunfire broke out near an ethnic Albanian village in
Macedonia close to the Kosovo-Macedonian border on Wednesday.
Ethnic Albanians holding a demonstration in the ethnic
Albanian village of Tetovo scattered as heavy machine gun fire
rattled off in the distance.
Macedonian police and army soldiers are continuing an
operation to flush out villages around the border that were
believed to be ethnic Albanian guerrilla strongholds.
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