Subject: ICRC to send medical aid to rebel enclave in Serbia
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 10:00:16 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP / Dave Clark)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 27 (AFP) - The International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) is to send a doctor and medical aid to help
civilians living in a rebel held enclave of southern Serbia, the
body's chief in Kosovo told AFP Wednesday.
Alain Kolly said a mobile clinic and a truck-load of medical
supplies would be dispatched Thursday to the village of Dobrosin, a
stronghold of an ethnic Albanian separatist group fighting for
independence from Belgrade.
"The medical centre will be there to check the needs of the
civilian population," he said.
Since renewed fighting broke out last month between the
guerrillas and Serb police, ethnic Albanian civilians living in
rebel held enclaves have found it difficult to travel to the towns
in southern Serbia and in Kosovo where they would normally seek
treatment, he said.
The attempts by the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR,
to close off the frontier to prevent supplies reaching the rebels
had also made life for civilians in the zone "a little more
difficult," he said.
The self-styled Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and
Bujanovac (UCPMB) is based in Dobrosin, and is believed to have set
up its own clinic in the town.
Kolly said the ICRC doctors would inspect the clinic and assess
its needs.
"We have told the armed groups that under international
humanitarian law everyone has a right to treatment," he said when
asked if the Red Cross would treat wounded fighters.
Armed Albanian groups fighting under the UCPMB banner control
around 200 square kilometres of territory inside southern Serbia in
a series of enclaves running along the frontier with UN-administered
Kosovo.
At least 12 villages with small civilan populations also fall
under their control. Before a UCPMB offensive last month, civilians
could seek medical help inside Kosovo or in Serbian towns further
from the frontier.
But increased tension has seen the deployment of thousands of
Serb security personnel in areas facing rebel positions, and KFOR
has begun to destroy many of the tracks running up to the border in
a bid to stop arms shipments to the rebels from inside Kosovo.
The ICRC mobile clinic will be the first humanitarian aid to
reach the villages since the offensive.
The rebels resent KFOR's decision to destroy their supply
routes, and claim it has added to the difficulties of the civilians
in the zone as the first snows of winter begin to choke supply
routes.
Last week in rebel-held Muhovac, a guerrilla commander warned an
AFP reporter that in the event of a Serb attack civilians would find
it harder to flee after the routes were destroyed.
Muhamet Xhemaili also claimed that the sound of the explosions
had terrified the populace, caused three pregnant women to suffer
miscarriages and "traumatised" a child. AFP was unable to verify
these claims.
The Yugoslav parliament met Wednesday to discuss the situation
in southern Serbia, and unanimously backed calls from the Belgrade
government and armed forces for international action against the
rebels.
Belgrade has said it wants NATO and the United Nations to
neutralise the threat posed by the estimated 800 to 1,500 rebels, or
to give Yugoslav forces the green light to enter a demilitarised
buffer zone on the border area and deal with the guerrillas itself.