http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1040000/1040220.stm

BBC WORLD NEWS EUROPE
Saturday, 25 November, 2000, 12:43 GMT

Ceasefire agreed in southern Serbia

Serbian police have come under attack in the border
zone

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas are reported to have
agreed to a ceasefire with Serbian police in a
demilitarised border zone in southern Serbia.

There were no immediate details of the deal,
which follows an ultimatum by Serbia that it
would send its forces back into the border
zone unless attacks by ethnic Albanian
guerrillas were halted.

Nato's peace-keeping force in Kosovo "was
involved in the discussions and process
of working out the details of the
ceasefire," K-For spokesman
Flight-Lieutenant Mark Whitty told Reuters
news agency.

Bozo Prelevic, one of Serbia's three interior
ministers, said on Friday that if the Monday
deadline were not met, Serbian police would
return to the zone "with all available means".

Separatists blamed

A five-kilometre wide security zone on the
Serbian side of the border was demilitarised
under an accord signed between Nato and
Yugoslavia last year.

Currently, only lightly armed Serbian police are
allowed to patrol there.

But police there say they have come under
attack in recent days from Albanian
separatists.

Four policemen were reported killed and several
others injured in the attacks on Tuesday and
Wednesday.

K-For stepped up monitoring and
boundary patrols after the attacks, which it
blamed on the Albanian guerrillas.

But it also warned Belgrade not to send
troops or special police into the border zone.

A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees said the three days of fighting
had forced about 600 ethnic Albanians living
in the border zone to flee into Kosovo.

"After several months of no new arrivals of
internally displaced persons, the security
situation has deteriorated rapidly,"
Astrid van Genderen told journalists on
Friday.

Around 70,000 ethnic Albanians live in the
Presevo valley, still administered by Belgrade.

Guerrillas involved in the current fighting are
believed to come from the Liberation Army of
Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), an
offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

They are seeking to secede from Belgrade and
include the region in an independent Kosovo.