http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,42574,00.html

THE LONDON (UK) TIMES
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2000

Nato plans to patrol Kosovo with former foe

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

NATO and the Yugoslav Army (VJ), which were at war 17 months ago, may begin
joint patrols in the buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia to stop anti-Serb
attacks by heavily armed ethnic Albanian “guerrillas”.

The idea of joint Kfor/VJ patrols inside the five-kilometre (three-mile)
demilitarised zone around Kosovo is expected to be among a number of drastic
measures to be studied by Nato ambassadors. They hope to prevent a breakdown
in the June 1999 agreement with Belgrade, which ended the alliance’s bombing
campaign and led to Kfor’s entry into the province as a peacekeeping force.

Any move towards a joint patrolling arrangement would underline Nato’s
growing anxiety about the attacks launched from within the security zone
across the border into southern Serbia. In addition, they would reflect the
alliance’s determination to meet the concerns expressed by Yugoslavia’s
President Kostunica.

Yesterday Mr Kostunica sent a second letter in a week to Lord Robertson of
Port Ellen, the Nato SecretaryGeneral, complaining that Kfor troops were
failing to prevent Albanian “gunmen” from launching attacks into Serbia in
the Presevo Valley. He also wrote to Kofi Annan, the United Nations
Secretary-General.

On a visit to Vienna, which he cut short to return home, Mr Kostunica gave
warning of the risk of the whole region being “set ablaze”.

Addressing foreign ministers of the 55-member Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Mr Kostunica said that Kosovo was Europe’s
most critical issue. Later he said it was “crystal clear” that Nato and the
UN, which is administering Kosovo, had “failed to do their job properly”.

Ethnic Albanian gunmen of the so-called Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja
and Bujanovac agreed yesterday to extend a ceasefire until Friday, after
pressure from American Kfor commanders responsible for the southeast of the
province. However, the recent attacks in the Presevo Valley have cast doubt
on Nato’s ability to control the area and have presented Mr Kostunica with
his gravest problem since coming to power.

Serb police in the region said yesterday that they would use all available
means, including heavy weapons, to regain territory seized by the militant
group, which is fighting to annexe the Presevo Valley as part of Kosovo
because it has a large ethnic Albanian population. The valley was not
included in the Kosovo security agreement signed between Nato and the VJ.

British diplomatic sources said yesterday that Nato’s military committee had
been asked to produce a range of options for tackling the crisis. It is felt
that tough measures may be required to put an end to the attacks and to show
Mr Kostunica that the alliance is prepared to act decisively to keep the
region stable.

Geoff Hoon, the British Defence Secretary, said yesterday on a two-day visit
to the Balkans that he sympathised with President Kostunica’s concern for
the security of Serbs in the disputed zone. “I recognise that he has
legitimate concerns about the Serbian population on both sides of that
border,” he told reporters. “It is very important that we don’t allow anyone
to disturb either the border or the sense of security that people feel on
either side of it.”

The problem for Nato is that the 1999 “military technical agreement” signed
with the VJ in June last year was drawn up to prohibit Yugoslav Army and
armed Ministry of Interior police (MUP) from entering the buffer zone. Only
lightly armed Serb police are allowed to patrol the zone. No one foresaw
that Albanian separatists would exploit the security zone to their own ends.

Although the notion of joint Kfor/VJ patrols is expected to be given serious
consideration, British sources said that there were other options that might
be more practical. They could include even tougher border patrols by Kfor
troops.

Under the military technical agreement, Kfor troops are allowed to enter the
security zone only for specific purposes. However, the grave risks to
stability in the region posed by the ethnic Albanian militant element may
now force Nato to move troops east into the zone, if only to deter the VJ
and MUP from taking unilateral action.

With reports of Serbian tanks hovering in the region, the sources also said
it was vital that Mr Kostunica was kept informed of what was going on. “I
would guess that Mr Kostunica is not getting the best advice from the VJ,”
one source said.

However, Nato sources said it was encouraging that Mr Kostunica had not
issued any form of ultimatum in his letter to Lord Robertson, or threatened
unilateral action, but had merely urged Kfor to do more to stop the attacks.

A ten-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was killed and his sister and brother
were seriously wounded yesterday when a tractor carrying civilians hit a
landmine in southern Serbia in the security zone. The Serbs said the mine
had been placed by Albanian “terrorists”.

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