World

Fighting Anew In Balkans

March 13, 2001 / 8:36 AM EST / CBS/AP

Macedonian soldiers battled ethnic Albanian insurgents in fierce fighting near the Kosovo border on Tuesday, though a cease-fire agreed to by the rebels in neighboring southern Serbia appeared to hold.

The new outbreak of violence in northern Macedonia set back hopes for a quick end to unrest around Kosovo after NATO succeeded Monday in winning important new agreements with the conflict's players aimed at defusing the threat of a wider Balkans war.

Macedonian police said clashes began in the morning at Malinovo Malo and Brest, two villages near the Kosovo border. Government forces were trying to "isolate" the guerrillas and "force them to retreat from the area," said Interior Ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski, suggesting that the Macedonian army had initiated the fighting.

Army officials had reported fighting the night before in the border village of Tanusevci, near the scene of Tuesday's clashes.

Ethnic Albanian rebels agreed Monday to a cease-fire in the Presevo Valley, a region of southern Serbia located in a buffer zone adjoining Kosovo. That cease-fire, however, did not apply to the nearby area of northern Macedonia where guerrillas have been fighting troops in recent weeks.

The cease-fire came into effect at midnight Monday, and southern Serbia was calm Tuesday morning.

Parallel to the cease-fire, NATO reached a deal Monday with its former enemy, Yugoslavia, to allow more heavily armed Yugoslav troops into the Presevo Valley, from which they have been barred since the end of the 1999 war in Kosovo.

The Yugoslav troops will patrol the area, relieving some of the pressure on NATO peacekeepers - particularly American soldiers - who have been trying to stop the flow of guerrillas and equipment to both fronts of the conflict, Macedonia and southern Serbia.

Belgrade also promised to adhere to the ceasefire with guerrillas, who have overrun parts of the Presevo Valley. "There will be no violation of the cease-fire, because we won't fire first," said Nebojsa Covic, deputy prime minister of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic.

The valley lies at the southern tip of a buffer zone set up outside Kosovo in June 1999 to keep the Yugoslav army apart from NATO-led peacekeepers who took control of Kosovo.

CBS
NATO peacekeepers have
been trying to stop the
movement of fighters and
supplies into Macedonia,
where rebel attacks have
raised fears of a wider
Balkan conflict.

Because only lightly armed Serbian police were allowed in the zone, ethnic Albanian insurgents were able to establish control in the strip of Serbia.

In recent weeks, rebels began attacking soldiers in Mcedonia - raising fears the unrest could destabilize the government of that country, which has a large ethnic Albanian minority, and lead to a wider Balkan war.

The ultimate aim of fighting in both regions appears to be to link them to an independent Kosovo run by the ethnic Albanian majority, despite international opposition to sovereignty for the Serbian province.

The commander of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, Italian Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu, said the accord meant that "in the very near future" Yugoslav forces would be able to move into the buffer zone.

Cabigiosu gave no timeframe for the Yugoslav deployment and few details about the size and weapons of the Yugoslav and Serb forces, but that "there will not be tanks in the buffer zone."

Covic said that the deployment would be subject to monitoring by U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers as well as ethnic Albanian observers.

It was unclear what prompted the rebels to sign on to a truce. But the quick agreement between NATO and Belgrade might have left them off guard.

Over the weekend, rebel commander Shefket Musliu had threatened to "fight to the last man" to keep Yugoslav troops out of the zone. But hours after the deal was signed between NATO and Belgrade, he said he had agreed to a 20-day cease-fire mediated by NATO.

Still, he said, the rebels remained opposed to Yugoslav army and strong Serb police forces entering the buffer zone. "If someone shoots at the Serbs, we will not take responsibility," he said.

Covic said the return of Yugoslav troops into the area was "a first step toward the reintegration" of the zone into Yugoslavia. "The entire action will be performed cautiously and in accordance with the international rules."

Yugoslav troops pulled out of Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia, following the NATO air campaign, which was launched to force then-President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.