Yugoslav General Claims Incursions

By Aleksandar Vasovic
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000; 7:30 p.m. EST

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- A top Yugoslav army commander
claimed Tuesday that Kosovo Albanian militants launched more incursions
into Serbia, but said the military would not intervene unless provoked.

Yugoslavia's new president Vojislav Kostunica has demanded that NATO
live up to its commitment to stop ethnic Albanian attacks in southern
Serbia that have killed at least five people.

"There are conditions for this (crisis) to be solved by peaceful means,"
said Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, a Yugoslav army commander who visited
his troops on the edge of a contested buffer zone between Kosovo and
the rest of Serbia.

Pavkovic alleged that an additional 200 "terrorists" infiltrated into the
buffer zone - where Serb police are allowed to patrol with only light arms
- from Kosovo in the last few days.

"We won't allow any provocations against the army, and the army has the
right to respond to any attack or provocation against it," Pavkovic said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed
concern about the incursions and said the NATO-led Kosovo force has
been discussing the issue with Albanian and Yugoslav leaders in hopes of
easing tensions.

He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright raised the issue with a
number of European foreign ministers, including Yugoslavia's, during her
visit to Austria that ended on Monday.

"Everybody is concerned about it (the violence) and wants to do
everything possible to stop it," he said.

Boucher said the NATO-led Kosovo Force has closed one crossing point
in the area and conducted extensive border searches of vehicles and
individuals at crossing sites away from the confrontation areas.

"They have detained suspected Albanian militants, and they have
increased patrols and the overall surveillance of the ground security zone,"
he said.

NATO-led peacekeepers moved into Kosovo after the alliance bombed
Yugoslavia to force former President Slobodan Milosevic to stop a
crackdown on ethnic Albanians. The peace deal that ended the war
created the three-mile-wide buffer zone between the Kosovo boundary
and Serbia proper.

The area on the Serb side of the frontier has a large ethnic Albanian
population and militants demanding to join Kosovo - who Belgrade says
work out of the province - have been attacking Serb forces.

Last week, violence escalated as ethnic Albanians militants launched
attacks into the buffer zone, capturing several strategic points in Serbia
proper.

The alliance said it had helped negotiations between the militants and the
Serb police. Flight Lt. Mark A. Whitty, a spokesman for NATO-led
peacekeepers in Kosovo said Tuesday that "both parties have agreed to
an indefinite cease-fire."

"We facilitated the discussion between the two groups," he said.

A key official in Yugoslavia's new leadership, however, denied that the
government negotiated a cease-fire with either NATO or the militants.
"There have been no such talks," said Nebojsa Covic, a deputy prime
minister in Serbia's government. "Such information is not true."

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

Meanwhile, NATO took measures to prevent ethnic Albanians from
crossing into the buffer zone, searching every person and car traveling in
the area.

The incidents on Kosovo's border cast doubt on NATO's ability to
control Kosovo and also present a major crisis to Kostunica. He must
defend the area without provoking the same international condemnation
that accompanied Milosevic's crackdown.

"It is not going to come to a war because we are fighting for peace,"
Kostunica said Monday as he toured the contested region. "We respect
all international documents on Kosovo."

But he said it was imperative that NATO block all ethnic Albanian
extremists from penetrating the buffer zone. And the government
continued bringing in reinforcements, including special anti-terrorist units,
in case diplomacy fails.

More than 2,500 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have trickled out of the
troubled region since the crisis started.

Early Monday, a tractor carrying an Albanian family trying to flee the zone
toward Kosovo hit an anti-tank mine. One 10-year-old boy was killed,
while his 3-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother were seriously injured,
police said.

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press