http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,40295,00.html

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23 2000

Serbs raise spectre of renewed Kosovo war

BY RICHARD BEESTON, DIPLOMATIC EDITOR

BELGRADE gave warning yesterday that it could be on the verge of a
"large-scale war" with Kosovo, after suspected ethnic Albanian rebels
carried out a two-pronged attack on Serb targets, leaving half a dozen
people dead.

In the most serious outbreak of fighting since moderates replaced the
Milosevic regime in September, hundreds of ethnic Albanian separatist
guerrillas reportedly crossed the administrative border from Kosovo and
raided police units.

Hours later in Pristina, capital of the province, a building used by the
Yugoslav representative was ripped apart by a huge bomb explosion early in
the morning. Nato's Kfor peacekeeping force said that one man had been
killed in the attack and two injured. Lieutenant General Carlo Cabigiosu,
the Kfor commander, said that more Nato troops would put on street patrol to
deter further actions.

Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations chief administrator in Kosovo, said
that the bombing had been well-prepared and was aimed at blocking attempts
at Serb-Albanian reconciliation. "The extremists are now ready to step up
their targeting of the Serb community," M Kouchner said.

In the earlier incident, four Serb policemen were reportedly killed at the
border village of Konculj, in the Presevo Valley, in a raid by Albanian
fighters that began on Tuesday and continued overnight. Zoran Djindjic, a
moderate in the newly elected Government of President Kostunica, said that
the guerrillas had surrounded scores of policemen. He said the situation was
so serious that the special police - earlier accused of war crimes in
Kosovo - should be brought back to help restore security.

"Those are big clashes," said Mr Djindjic, claiming that the Albanians were
armed with mortars and other heavy weapons. "This could lead to a
large-scale war . . . We are warning the international community that if it
tolerates this, there could be another flashpoint in the Balkans." He said
that the rebels were operating in the three-mile demilitarised zone along
the administrative border, from which Serb troops are barred.

Nato acknowledged that it was trying to seal the rugged border, which runs
along the American eastern sector of Kosovo. However, it insisted that the
actions were taking place outside its area of operations.

The group responsible for the raid is probably the Liberation Army of
Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedjam, a splinter group which surfaced after the
Kosovo Liberation Army was disbanded last year.

There have been fears of an upsurge in Albanian attacks ever since Mr
Kostunica ousted Slobodan Milosevic during presidential elections. The West
has welcomed Mr Kostunica, provided money for Serbia and reopened diplomatic
relations with Belgrade. Kosovo Albanians fear that the rapprochement makes
their chances of winning independence ever more remote.

The former KLA leaders, who have stockpiled weapons despite Kfor's attempts
to disarm them, suffered a second setback last month when the moderate
Albanian nationalist Ibrahim Rugova won municipal elections in Kosovo. The
danger is not only that the region could be plunged back into war, but that
this time Kfor peacekeeping troops could be caught in the middle.