KOSOVO: Deja vue!
>Is history going to repeat itself? This is how it started in Kosovo,
>with KLA attacks against Serbian Security police forces. When Serbs responded
>to the provocations, they were condemned by the West, yet the US government
>wouldn't tolerate police being attacked in this country.
>
>Why should the Serbs?
>
>As the KLA see "independence" slipping through their fingers, it's not
>just the Serbs who are going to be the targets. Where once they thought of
>KFOR as their liberators, they will look upon them as their oppressors.
>
>Stella
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>AP International
>
> New Yugoslav Leadership Tested
>
> by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
> Associated Press Writer
>
> LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Lying on
> his belly in the brush, the Serbian police
> officer gazed through his binoculars and
> pointed at the ethnic Albanian militant on
> the opposite hill. He knew the position
> well -- it used to be his.
>
> Just days after ethnic Albanians seized
> Serb police positions in the border region
> on the edge of Kosovo, the combatants
> have dug in to wait for the situation to be
> resolved. Yugoslavia's new leadership
> gave NATO peacekeepers a 72-hour
> deadline Friday to end an ethnic Albanian
> offensive in the buffer zone between the
> province and the rest of Serbia.
>
> If NATO doesn't act, the Serbs say they
> will move in on their own.
>
> ''Look at them! Look at them!'' said the
> officer who would only give his first
> name, Milan, as he watched the insurgents
> facing him. ''Now they are around the
> outpost. They are walking freely.''
>
> So close that they can watch each other's
> every move, this fragile front line offers a
> test to new President Vojislav Kostunica
> and to NATO peacekeepers on the other
> side of the boundary line.
>
> Under pressure at home to act against the
> insurgents, Kostunica is unlikely to
> simply stand by while they seize any
> ground in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant
> republic.
>
> If he acts too aggressively, however, he'll
> risk being compared to ousted President
> Slobodan Milosevic, whose belligerent
> policies forced Yugoslavia into wars and
> a pariah status it has only in recent weeks
> begun to shed.
>
> A Serb interior minister, Bozo Prelevic,
> said that in case NATO fails to prevent
> the ethnic Albanian incursions and force
> the militants back into Kosovo, Serb
> police ''will return to the territory of the
> republic of Serbia (in the buffer zone)
> with the means that are available.''
>
> Prelevic said the countdown starts Friday
> at 7.00 p.m. local time, meaning the
> deadline would expire Monday.
>
> ''We will not fool around,'' Prelevic said.
> ''They (NATO) are either incapable or
> they will show us the contrary.''
>
> The ethnic Albanians, however, have
> apparently decided that the moment to act
> is now in their goal to win independence
> from Serbia. They want to unite the
> predominantly ethnic Albanian Presevo
> Valley with Kosovo.
>
> Still, many Kosovo Albanians have mixed
> feelings about the events occurring just
> outside their administrative boundaries.
>
> Though their political parties sympathize
> with the demands by ethnic Albanians
> there for greater freedoms, they have been
> very careful of the issue of unification.
> The political leaders are fearful they
> might jeopardize their own dreams of
> independence.
>
> Even so, the Albanian community has
> long discussed the idea of uniting all the
> lands where Albanians live, and the
> spilling of blood may re-ignite the
> nationalistic sentiments.
>
> In the middle of all the tensions are tiny
> villages like Lucane, 220 miles from
> Belgrade.
>
> An ethnic Albanian village of about 1,000
> people tucked into a little valley,
> everyone in Lucane but the elderly have
> fled to neighboring villages. Fearing
> sniper fire, the elderly are holed up in
> their houses, which already bear the
> marks of gunfire.
>
> ''I remained here to guard the house,'' said
> Xavit Bislimi, 77, a local resident. ''The
> police didn't harm me or my livestock, but
> I am afraid of those armed people on the
> hills because they are shooting on the
> village every night, during last few days.''
>
> Evidence of gunfire is apparent near the
> police checkpoints. In the cellar of a
> house near the road being used by the
> officers, spent casings littered the ground.
> The police said that was from that the last
> day alone, stemming from attacks
> Thursday night and before dawn Friday.
>
> No one was injured Friday, but four
> police officers have died in the last week
> in attacks that gave the rebels control of a
> police checkpoint and the main road
> leading to Kosovo.
>
> Sporadic sniper fire continues, but for the
> moment the police have orders not to
> respond unless directly attacked.
>
> ''We are waiting for political approval
> from our state leadership and the
> international community,'' said Milan, the
> police officer, ''to take care of insurgents
> within Serbian territory.''
>
26/11/2000
>Is history going to repeat itself? This is how it started in Kosovo,
>with KLA attacks against Serbian Security police forces. When Serbs responded
>to the provocations, they were condemned by the West, yet the US government
>wouldn't tolerate police being attacked in this country.
>
>Why should the Serbs?
>
>As the KLA see "independence" slipping through their fingers, it's not
>just the Serbs who are going to be the targets. Where once they thought of
>KFOR as their liberators, they will look upon them as their oppressors.
>
>Stella
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>AP International
>
> New Yugoslav Leadership Tested
>
> by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
> Associated Press Writer
>
> LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Lying on
> his belly in the brush, the Serbian police
> officer gazed through his binoculars and
> pointed at the ethnic Albanian militant on
> the opposite hill. He knew the position
> well -- it used to be his.
>
> Just days after ethnic Albanians seized
> Serb police positions in the border region
> on the edge of Kosovo, the combatants
> have dug in to wait for the situation to be
> resolved. Yugoslavia's new leadership
> gave NATO peacekeepers a 72-hour
> deadline Friday to end an ethnic Albanian
> offensive in the buffer zone between the
> province and the rest of Serbia.
>
> If NATO doesn't act, the Serbs say they
> will move in on their own.
>
> ''Look at them! Look at them!'' said the
> officer who would only give his first
> name, Milan, as he watched the insurgents
> facing him. ''Now they are around the
> outpost. They are walking freely.''
>
> So close that they can watch each other's
> every move, this fragile front line offers a
> test to new President Vojislav Kostunica
> and to NATO peacekeepers on the other
> side of the boundary line.
>
> Under pressure at home to act against the
> insurgents, Kostunica is unlikely to
> simply stand by while they seize any
> ground in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant
> republic.
>
> If he acts too aggressively, however, he'll
> risk being compared to ousted President
> Slobodan Milosevic, whose belligerent
> policies forced Yugoslavia into wars and
> a pariah status it has only in recent weeks
> begun to shed.
>
> A Serb interior minister, Bozo Prelevic,
> said that in case NATO fails to prevent
> the ethnic Albanian incursions and force
> the militants back into Kosovo, Serb
> police ''will return to the territory of the
> republic of Serbia (in the buffer zone)
> with the means that are available.''
>
> Prelevic said the countdown starts Friday
> at 7.00 p.m. local time, meaning the
> deadline would expire Monday.
>
> ''We will not fool around,'' Prelevic said.
> ''They (NATO) are either incapable or
> they will show us the contrary.''
>
> The ethnic Albanians, however, have
> apparently decided that the moment to act
> is now in their goal to win independence
> from Serbia. They want to unite the
> predominantly ethnic Albanian Presevo
> Valley with Kosovo.
>
> Still, many Kosovo Albanians have mixed
> feelings about the events occurring just
> outside their administrative boundaries.
>
> Though their political parties sympathize
> with the demands by ethnic Albanians
> there for greater freedoms, they have been
> very careful of the issue of unification.
> The political leaders are fearful they
> might jeopardize their own dreams of
> independence.
>
> Even so, the Albanian community has
> long discussed the idea of uniting all the
> lands where Albanians live, and the
> spilling of blood may re-ignite the
> nationalistic sentiments.
>
> In the middle of all the tensions are tiny
> villages like Lucane, 220 miles from
> Belgrade.
>
> An ethnic Albanian village of about 1,000
> people tucked into a little valley,
> everyone in Lucane but the elderly have
> fled to neighboring villages. Fearing
> sniper fire, the elderly are holed up in
> their houses, which already bear the
> marks of gunfire.
>
> ''I remained here to guard the house,'' said
> Xavit Bislimi, 77, a local resident. ''The
> police didn't harm me or my livestock, but
> I am afraid of those armed people on the
> hills because they are shooting on the
> village every night, during last few days.''
>
> Evidence of gunfire is apparent near the
> police checkpoints. In the cellar of a
> house near the road being used by the
> officers, spent casings littered the ground.
> The police said that was from that the last
> day alone, stemming from attacks
> Thursday night and before dawn Friday.
>
> No one was injured Friday, but four
> police officers have died in the last week
> in attacks that gave the rebels control of a
> police checkpoint and the main road
> leading to Kosovo.
>
> Sporadic sniper fire continues, but for the
> moment the police have orders not to
> respond unless directly attacked.
>
> ''We are waiting for political approval
> from our state leadership and the
> international community,'' said Milan, the
> police officer, ''to take care of insurgents
> within Serbian territory.''
>
26/11/2000