http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001124/aponline091009_000.htm

Sporadic Shooting on Kosovo Border

By Aleksandar Vasovic
Associated Press Writer
Friday, Nov. 24, 2000; 9:10 a.m. EST

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- A Serbian official called Friday for closer
cooperation between NATO forces and Serb police to curb ethnic
Albanian attacks in a tense boundary zone.

Police sources and Serb media reported that ethnic Albanian militants -
who pushed Serb police out of much of the demilitarized zone with
Kosovo - opened fire on Serb positions late Thursday. No one was
injured.

In a major assault Tuesday and Wednesday, the rebel group in southern
Serbia's Presevo Valley killed four policemen and injured a dozen others.
They also captured a police checkpoint and the main road leading to
Kosovo.

An estimated 600 people fled the area this week, said Astrid Van
Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency. The ethnic
Albanian refugees that crossed the border into Kosovo reported shooting
and shelling of their villages, she said.

"Some persons have clearly fled quickly from the area, as they have
arrived with few belongings and some without overcoats as they could not
return to their houses," she said.

There are fears that the clashes could escalate if Serb police fight back.
Any Serb intervention in the 3-mile border zone would constitute a
violation of a Kosovo peace deal and lead to tensions with NATO.

The ethnic Albanian extremists are fighting for independence from Serbia.
They want to unite the predominantly Albanian Presevo Valley with
Kosovo.

One of Serbia's three interior ministers, Stevan Nikcevic, said a combined
"police-political" action is needed to solve the current deadlock. Nikcevic
said Serb police and Kosovo's NATO peacekeepers should work
together.

"We have to cooperate with KFOR," he said using an acronym for the
Kosovo peace force. "Our police cannot do it without KFOR support."

British Flight Lt. Mark A. Whitty, a spokesman for the peacekeepers,
confirmed that a mortar round was fired from inside Kosovo toward
central Serbia on Thursday. The incident prompted a KFOR raid.
Mortars, rocket launchers, hand grenades and small arms ammunition
were found. Whitty did not specify whether any new arrests were made.

NATO-led peacekeepers have closed all roads leading to the Presevo
Valley from Kosovo.

NATO deployed in Kosovo last June after the alliance's nearly three
months of bombing of Yugoslavia forced the Serb troops out of the
Yugoslav province. NATO's action was launched to end a crackdown of
former president Slobodan Milosevic's forces against Kosovo's
independence-minded Albanians.

Since Milosevic's ouster last month, the government of President Vojislav
Kostunica has improved ties with the United States and its allies.
Kostunica has demanded that NATO and the U.N. mission in Kosovo
prevent any further ethnic Albanian attacks.