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Thursday, November 23 11:30 PM SGT

NATO troops close Kosovo-Serbia frontier post

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Nov 23 (AFP) -

NATO troops closed a border crossing between Kosovo and a rebel-held village
in southern Serbia Thursday, following unprovoked rebel attacks on Serb
police, KFOR spokesmen said.

"For everyone's safety, the Dobrosin checkpoint in Kosovo as has been
closed," a statement released by US forces said.

US peacekeepers at Outpost Sapper on the road leading from the UN-run
province towards Dobrosin closed their check point to all traffic across the
administrative boundary, KFOR spokesman Flight Lieutenant Mark Whitty said.

Security has also been tightened at the border posts leading out of the
US-controlled eastern sector of Kosovo into southern Serbia, and all
vehicles are being searched for weapons, he added.

Dobrosin lies around 200 metres inside Serbia-proper and is the base of the
rebel Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac (UPCMB), which Serb
officials say killed three police officers in clashes Tuesday and Wednesday.

Troops at Outpost Sapper, which overlooks the village, routinely search all
cars and individuals crossing the boundary, but the frontier has no
international status and unarmed travellers could until Thursday pass
freely.

On Wednesday, US troops based in the area arrested ten uniformed men
carrying radios and ammunition but no arms, and who had tried to by-pass the
checkpoint in three vehicles via the wooded hills around and re-enter Kosovo
from Dobrosin, Whitty said.

The same day, a truck carrying rocket-propelled grenades, a heavy machine
gun, landmines and ammunition presumed to be destined for the rebels was
seized inside Kosovo, he added.

"The search and detention followed soon after the UCPMB fired mortar rounds
over the village of Lucane in an unprovoked attack attack on Serbian
security forces," a statement from the US forces said.

"These clearly offensive operations in the Ground Safety Zone by Kosovo
Albanian illegal militia were not provoked by Serbian security forces," it
added.

The Ground Safety Zone is a three-mile (five-kilometre) wide strip of Serb
territory running along Kosovo's frontier with Serbia-proper which was
demilitarised under an agreement between NATO and Yugoslavia in June last
year.

The closure came on the same day as NATO warned Yugoslavia not to allow
themselves to be provoked into offensive actions of their own, and not to
send troops into the demilitarised zone running along the Kosovo frontier.

The commander of the US-led brigade, Brigadier General Dennis E Hardy, said
"Serbs must exercise restraint or risk playing into the UPCMB's hands."