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Tuesday, December 19 12:48 AM SGT

Kostunica aide warns of new Balkans war

NOVI SAD, Yugoslavia, Dec 18 (AFP) -

A top aide to President Vojislav Kostunica warned Monday that sporadic violence
along Kosovo's
boundary with Serbia could lead to a new Balkans war, possibly involving
Macedonia.

"The events in southern Serbia have the potential to lead to a new Balkans war,"
said Zoran Djindjic,
who has been tipped by Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia to head the
future
government of Serbia.

Djindjic said ethnic Albanian "terrorists want to take control of the road"
linking Belgrade with the
Middle East, via Macedonia, one of the main transportation thoroughfares in the
region.

The action by the rebels will "lead to further conflicts in the Balkans" if the
crisis "is not settled by
next spring," said Djindjic.

"If Serbia loses control of this international transportation link, Macedonia
will immediately be placed
on the agenda," Djindjic said.

He said that Belgrade was holding contacts with Greece and Macedonia to ask them
to take "more
radical measures" to control the route.

Belgrade wants the United Nations to step in to help solve the crisis in
southern Serbia, where ethnic
Albanian separatists have clashed violently with police over the last few weeks,
killing three
policemen and taking control of several villages in a buffer zone near Kosovo.

At an emergency meeting this weekend, top Yugoslav officials called on the UN
Security Council "to
take measures as soon as possible for the urgent withdrawal of Albanian
terrorists."

"Failing this, Yugoslavia will exert its legal and legitimate rights to resolve
the problem by using
methods internationally authorised in the fight against terrorism, which is its
duty," a statement
released after the meeting said.

But Djindjic admitted that a crackdown in the region could lead to deaths among
civilians and spark
another outflow of refugees which would give the new Belgrade administration a
"terribly bad
image."

"These conflicts represent the biggest challenge to Serbia so far," he said.

The self-proclaimed Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB),
which
claims the three towns of that name, has set up bases in the buffer zone on the
Serbian side of the
administrative boundary with Kosovo.

They want the region, with its large Albanian population, grafted on to
breakaway Kosovo, which is
currently under UN administration.