Subject: Belgrade wants "to expel terrorists" from southern Serbia: PM
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 11:40:14 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 30 (AFP) - Belgrade wants "to expel
Albanian terrorists" from the buffer zone between southern Serbia
and Kosovo "as soon as possible," acting Serbian Prime Minister
Milomir Minic said Thursday.
Minic, an ally of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic, also
condemned NATO-led peacekeepers for failing to disarm ethnic
Albanian separatists operated in the buffer zone.
Speaking during a visit to the troubled region, he said: "Our
goal is to expel Albanian terrorists from the ground security zone
as soon as possible and to be able to ensure peace and security
again for all the citizens."
Separatists from the ethnic Albanian Liberation army of Presevo,
Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) -- named after towns in southern
Serbia with a strong ethnic Albanian population -- aim to "transfer
the crisis from Kosovo" to this region, Minic warned.
He condemned NATO-led multinational forces in Kosovo (KFOR),
which "have failed to accomplish their mandate and disarm the
terrorist gangs in Kosovo."
"What is positive is the reaction of the international community
which also notes these as terrorist acts," said Minic, who since
October has headed the interim Serbian government put into place
until elections are held next month.
But he stressed that Belgrade "is awaiting concrete action" by
the international community against Albanian separatists.
Meanwhile, Yugoslav Minister for Minorities Rasim Ljajic, who is
an ally of reformist President Vojislav Kostunica and who also
visited the area, called on KFOR to "halt" the infiltration of UCPMB
guerillas into the buffer zone.
Trouble erupted in the area last week when three Serbian
policemen were killed after ethnic Albanian guerillas launched a
surprise offensive in the narrow zone on Serbia's side of the
border.
Under an accord with NATO last year, only lightly armed Serbian
police are allowed into the zone, which is also closed to NATO-led
Kosovo peacekeepers.
The five-kilometer wide (three-mile) strip was set up as a
buffer between Serbia proper and the Albanian-populated province of
Kosovo, currently administered by the UN.
Ljajic also urged local residents, mostly ethnic Albanians, who
have fled their homes in recent weeks, to return to the area.
"Serbian state institutions must guarantee security both for the
Serbs and the Albanians, and to integrate local Albanians into
political and social life in Serbia as soon as possible," Ljajic
said.
More than 4,000 ethnic Albanians in the area have fled to Kosovo
in fear of renewed fighting between Kosovo separatist rebels and
Serbian forces, the UN refugee agency said Thursday.