Subject: Hopes and fears squeezed into tense Serbian border zone
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 7:20:04 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP / James Hider)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.balkans,clari.world.europe,biz.clarinet.sample
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample


KONCULJ, Yugoslavia, Dec 23 (AFP) - When NATO set up a narrow
buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia last year, it
hoped to divide ethnic Albanians from the Yugoslav forces who had
driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Instead it created a security vacuum where the fears and hopes
of a people brutalised by years of ethnic unrest were concentrated
into an explosive zone beyond the control of regular authorities.
There is a night-time curfew in Konculj, an ethnic Albanian
village in the middle of the five kilometre (three mile) wide
demilitarised strip that runs along Serbia's southern boundary with
secessionist, UN-run Kosovo.
Villagers may flit in the dark between neighbours' houses and a
sparse shop in the centre, but to go any further they must seek
permission from their fellow ethnic Albanians in the self-proclaimed
Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).
"It's for their own safety. If they go out they could be shot in
the dark by the Serbs or accidentally by our own people," said one
man, interpreting for two armed and uniformed rebels.
Last month the UCPMB chased local Serb police -- the only
security forces allowed in the zone -- out of the village, killing
three.
Any car approaching after dark is welcomed by a winking light in
the black woods, an apparent signal to rebels watching in trees.
Just a couple of kilometres in either direction, across wooded
hills criss-crossed by ravines, the rebels' way out is blocked.
To the west, NATO-led troops deployed in Kosovo since Belgrade's
forces were bombed out of the province last year try to prevent
arms, men and supplies beong shipped in by the rebels' supporters.
NATO's patience with the rebels has ebbed since the democratic
transition in Belgrade in October, seeing them now -- in the words
of Secretary General George Robertson -- as "a handul of
terrorists".
Rebel sympathy with the Kosovo Force (KFOR) also waned during
the lock-down on their territory. A UCPMB leader told AFP Thursday
"we would resist (NATO) as we resist the Serbs" if they try to flush
them out.
"If a single shot is fired at us, Camp Montieth is just 10
minutes from here," warned one US soldier on the Kosovo boundary,
referring to a nearby US army base. "There wouldn't be a thing left
standing."
Five kilometres (three miles) to the east, the Serbian security
forces are out in force. Special police units man checkpoints and
trenches snake away to the treeline.
"The shooting you hear at night is the rebels. They want to
terrify their own people so they can keep them in line," said one
policeman.
In Bujanovac, Serbian troops and police are much in evidence,
stopping cars, patrolling the streets and trundling around in
armoured personnel carriers.
Local ethnic Albanians, the largest group in the region, say
they are too scared to go out after eight in the evening.
Behlul Nasufi, a councillor for the ethnic Albanian Party for
Democratic Action (PDA) in neighbouring Presevo, said that despite
talks with the country's new reformist heads, little has changed for
the Albanians here.
Nasufi, who maintains contact with members of the UCPMB's
political wing, said both he and the rebels want autonomy for the
area and recognition of the ethnic make-up of the southern Presevo
Valley, which is mainly Albanian but with a large Serbian minority.
They want all Serbian troops and non-local police to pull out of
the area, with more ethnic Albanian police officers, magistrates and
councillors.
International observers would monitor the region and a
referendum on autonomy would allow the region to express its
aspirations.
Albanian schooling is also high on the agenda. "Of 139 songs in
the school hymn books, only three are Albanian," Nasufi said.
If the conditions are met confidence will slowly be restored, he
said, adding that the rebels -- who have called for the area to be
joined to an independent Kosovo -- would scale down their demands
and agree for the area to stay in Yugoslavia.
In the meantime, tension is rising to breaking point in the
zone. Even President Vojislav Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, has
called for the area to be "cleansed" of "terrorists".