Serb troops move into more of Kosovo buffer zone

Serb troops move into more of Kosovo buffer zone
REUTERS

RACA, Yugoslavia, March 25: Yugoslav Army andSerbian police troops moved in to a large section of a buffer zone around Kosovo on Sunday in a NATO-approved operation meant to send a warning signal to ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

Troops started filing inside the five km (three mile) widebelt outside Kosovo's borders with the rest of Yugoslavia at 0600 GMT, Reuters reporters on the scene said.

Colonel Ljubisa Ivic, deputy commander of the Army's 15thbrigade which will deploy in a large part of the buffer area -- known as the ground safety zone -- told reporters he planned to link up with NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers around 1100 GMT.

"We will not be passing through villages and will avoidevery contact with civilians," Ivic said.

Troops are scheduled to enter the zone from both Yugoslavrepublics -- Montenegro in the West and Serbia in the North. Sunday's deployment does not, however, involve areas where the rebels are thought to be active.

The zone was created at NATO's insistence when itspeacekeepers entered the province in June 1999, as a no-go area for Yugoslav Army soldiers and Serbian special police officers then under the control of Slobodan Milosevic. But since Milosevic was toppled as Yugoslav President last October, NATO has been eager to bolster the reformers who took his place and handing the zone is a sign of confidence in them.

"The permission to enter the buffer zone proves NATO istreating us as a partner and an ally in a joint action aiming to keep the order, peace and existing borders in the Balkans", Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac said on Saturday.

Serb forces first moved into a small section of the zonelast week, deploying in its southernmost tip, where it touches on the border with Macedonia.

The move is intended to show ethnic Albanian guerrillas whotook advantage of the security vacuum in the zone that their days of relative safety are numbered.

It is part of a drive to cut any links between guerillas whohave been operating in Serbia's Presevo valley for more than a year and a similar ethnic Albanian group which has emerged in Maceodonia in the past few weeks.

Serb forces and the guerillas agreed to a NATO-brokeredceasefire last week. Rebel leaders said a Serb sniper shot an ethnic Albanian guerilla on Saturday morning, while Serbs said the guerrillas had attacked a police checkpoint and an Army post in the area.