NATO Chief Demands Albanians Stop Attacks in Southern SerbiaNATO Secretary General George Robertson said in Prestinathat ethnic Albanian extremists in Kosovo must cease all their operations in southern Serbia, the official Tanjug news agency reported Thursday, November 30.Robertson also asked all ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo to distance themselves from the extremists. Robertson, together with NATO commander Joseph Ralston and NATO-led Kosovo force KFOR commander Carlo Cabigiosu, paid a one-day visit to Kosovo on Thursday. The three men held talks with Serb and Albanian leaders in the Serbian province. Cabigiosu pledged that the KFOR would do everything possible to stop the extremists' incursions and the smuggling of weapons into southern Serbia. Clashes erupted last Tuesday when ethnic Albanian extremists crossed into a five-kilometer buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia and launched attacks on Serb police. In response, Serbia moved tanks and deployed a large number of troops in the conflict area. The UN and the West have condemned the attacks of the extremists. The Albanian extremists agreed to accept a cease-fire last Saturday. According to latest statistics released by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, over 4,400 ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia have fled to Kosovo because of the unrest. |
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