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Kosovar Albanians risking "new war" after attacks: Belgrade

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 22 (AFP) -

Yugoslav authorities warned Wednesday of the risk of "a new war" in the
Balkans after deadly attacks by ethnic Albanian separatists on Serb targets
in Kosovo and southern Serbia.

The head of Kosovo's UN administration, Bernard Kouchner, echoed the
Yugoslav leader, warning "dark days are coming back" to the region.

Guerrillas ambushed Serbian police near the border with Kosovo, wounding
four and leaving three others missing, presumed dead, after two days of
clashes, Serbian officers told AFP Wednesday.

The Yugoslav government, in a statement released on state television,
demanded an emergency session of the UN security council, to condemn "the
escalation in terrorist acts by Albanian extremists" which risked "provoking
a new war in the region."

Zoran Djindic, leader of President Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic
Opposition of Serbia, claimed at a Belgrade news conference that between 10
and 15 local police officers were pinned down by about 100 ethnic Albanian
fighters.

NATO sources confirmed the fighting continued Wednesday.

Early Wednesday, a powerful bomb ripped through the home of Yugoslavia's top
representative in Kosovo, killing a member of his staff in an attack which
Kouchner denounced as a deliberate blow against peace.

Stanimir Vukicevic, Kostunica's representative in the breakaway province
escaped unscathed, UN officials said.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attack, which international officials
believed was the work of ethnic Albanians opposed to Yugoslav rule.

"The wave of violence is a warning to the UN mission and to the
international community. The extremists are now ready to step up the
targeting of the Serb community," Kouchner said.

"Dark days are coming back ... I am convinced it is part of a strategy,"
Kouchner said, noting that the attack took place two days before the Balkans
Summit in Zagreb, where he is expected to meet Kostunica.

The commander of Kosovo's NATO-led peacekeeping force, Lieutentant General
Carlo Cabigiosu, said: "This is not an isolated action and we need to
determine if the security situation is now degenerating because of an
overall plan."

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority population launched an armed rebellion
against Yugoslav rule in 1998.

Yugoslav forces responded with a brutal campaign of murder and mass eviction
which led to the intervention of NATO, which launched airstrikes and forced
Belgrade's troops to quit the province in June last year.

In the Presevo area of southern Serbia, where a 70,000 strong ethnic
Albanian population forms the majority of the population, an ethnic Albanian
guerrilla group continued the fight, hoping to unite the area with Kosovo.

The latest gunbattle broke out Tuesday when the separatists attacked a
Serbian police patrol near a checkpoint at Konculj near the town of
Bujanovac in Serbia-proper near the Kosovo frontier, police said.

The patrol was hit by mortar, grenade and automatic weapons fire during the
attack around midday (1100 GMT) on Tuesday, 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, according to the police commander Novica Zdravkovic.

An AFP reporter heard mortar fire apparently directed at the nearby village
of Dobrosin, which is in rebel hands.

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) security zone along the border with Kosovo. The
zone is out of bounds for Serb troops and NATO peacekeepers but is patrolled
by armed Serb police.

NATO peacekeepers stopped a group of rebels and a truck-load of arms from
crossing from Kosovo into Serbia-proper on Wednesday, a force spokesman told
AFP.

"At 9:00 am (0800) troops intercepted a group of ten people attempting to
by-pass a checkpoint and go into (the rebel held village of) Dobrosin,"
Flight Lieutenant Mark Whitty said, "They were unarmed but carried radios
and were wearing black uniforms.

Later US troops attached to Kosovo's KFOR force stopped a truck carrying
rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, anti-personnel mines, a heavy
machine gun and 5,000 rounds of ammunition from heading towards the village.

"KFOR will not tolerate Kosovo being used as a base for insurgent activity,"
Whitty said.