http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=233570&section=Kosovo

NATO Says Moves Against Kosovo Guerrillas Effective

SARAJEVO, Dec 21, 2000 -- (Reuters) NATO Secretary-General George
Robertson said on Thursday the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo was
taking effective action to stop ethnic Albanian guerrillas using a buffer zone
in
Serbia as a safe haven for what he described as extremist violence.

He also said the guerrillas faced growing political isolation.

"...very effective patrolling of that area is now making sure that it is very
difficult
for these extremists to continue with the job that they have been doing in the
area," he told reporters in Sarajevo.

"Of course the Serb government is frustrated. That is why we are taking active
measures politically and militarily to stop the violence going on," he said.

As an example, he said KFOR troops on Wednesday night had stopped vehicles
carrying explosives and ammunition into the five km (three mile) buffer zone
inside
Serbia proper next to Kosovo.

KFOR has stepped up monitoring of the boundary since four Serbian police were
killed in an upsurge of guerrilla activity in the buffer zone in November.

The peacekeepers have detained several guerrilla suspects and seized weapons in
the last few weeks.

In contrast to estimates by Serbian officials of the rebels numbering more than
1,000 fighters, Robertson said it was a problem of a small number of
"extremists"
in the area.

"The restraint being shown on the Serbian side and the active measures that have
been taken on the Kosovo side of the boundary I believe will address this
issue,"
Robertson said.

"And the growing political isolation of the extremists who use the ground safety
zone to launch violence and to try to provoke violence is now starting to
produce
results," he said.

On Wednesday, KFOR commander Liutenant-General Carlo Cabigiosu met
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic for the first time to discuss ways
to deal with the guerrillas operating outside Kosovo.

Under the ceasefire agreement which ended the 1999 NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia is not permitted to station any security forces in the
zone
apart from local police.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said earlier this week that the buffer
zone
should be narrowed to allow Belgrade to "cleanse" the area of ethnic Albanian
rebels.

The guerrillas say they are trying to protect the large ethnic Albanian
community in
the Presevo valley of southern Serbia from Serb police harassment. Belgrade says
the guerrillas are separatists bent on appending the valley to majority ethnic
Albanian Kosovo.