Subject: Four Serbian police wounded, three missing, after gunbattle
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 6:00:12 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.balkans,clari.world.europe,biz.clarinet.sample
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample


BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 22 (AFP) - Four Serbian police were
wounded and three others are missing presumed dead after a gunbattle
with Albanian separatists near Kosovo, police told AFP Wednesday.
The gunbattle broke out Monday when the separatists attacked a
Serbian police patrol near a checkpoint at Konculj near the border
between the UN-administered Yugoslav province and Serbia, the police
said.
The patrol was hit with mortar, grenade and automatic weapons
fire during the attack around midday (1100 GMT) on Monday, the
police said.
The police returned fire. Three men went missing during the
firefight and are presumed dead. The wounded were treated in
hospital in nearby Vranje and were discharged early Tuesday, the
police said.
The Serbian authorities have attributed the attack, and several
others in recent months, to ethnic Albanian separatists of the
Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).
Separate attacks on Serbian forces have killed three Serbian
police and injured nine since October 13.
All the attacks have taken place within the so-called Ground
Safety Zone, a five-kilometre (three-mile) Belgrade-controlled
security zone along the border with Kosovo. The zone, out of bounds
for Serbian troops and the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in
Kosovo, is patrolled by lightly-armed Serbian police.
The area has an Albanian population of some 70,000, and the
UCPMB is campaigning for it to be included in Kosovo's claims for
independence from Belgrade.