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Yugoslavia Requests UN Backing for Revising Buffer Zone Deal
The Yugoslav State Defense Council on Monday called on the UN Security Council to support its demand for changing certain articles of a military technical agreement on a NATO-designated buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo, Tanjug news agency reported.
The Yugoslav State Defense Council, which is made up of the presidents of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro, held a meeting on Monday to discuss the tense situation in southern Serbia caused by ethnic Albanian separatists who make use of the buffer zone to jeopardize security in and outside the area, Tanjug said.
The meeting, which was presided over by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, also praised Serbian police and the Yugoslav army for preventing further intrusions by the Albanian separatists.
Under the military technical agreement signed in mid-June 1999 between the Yugoslav army and NATO, a five-kilometer wide area in Serbia bordering Kosovo is designated as a demilitarized buffer zone, and Serbian police can only carry small arms when entering the zone.
On November 21, a large number of Albanian separatists entered the southern part of Serbia and killed three Serbian police officers in an ambuscade. Since then, more and more Albanian separatists have arrived in the zone and controlled most of the zone.
While deploying troops and police around the buffer zone, Yugoslavia urged the United Nations mission in Kosovo and NATO-led peacekeepers to adopt necessary measures to drive the Albanian separatists out of the zone.
At a recent press conference, President Kostunica called for changes to the military technical agreement, reducing the extent of the buffer zone from five km to one or two km.
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