NATO Peacekeepers Urged to Seal Off Kosovo-Serbia Border

Yugoslavia on Sunday demanded NATO peacekeepers seal off the border between Kosovo and Serbia proper after three Serbian police officers were killed earlier in the day by an anti-tank mine in the NATO-imposed buffer zone in southern Serbia.

In a letter sent to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic asked the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping forces (KFOR) to take effective measures to prevent "the escalation of terrorist acts" mounted by ethnic Albanian extremists.

In keeping with the United Nations resolution 1244 which categorically provides for the KFOR's responsibilities, Svilanovic said the KFOR must move effectively to completely blockade Kosovo- Serbia border to hinder Albanian terrorists in the buffer zone from securing reinforcements and arms supplies from Kosovo.

Svilanovic warned that Yugoslavia would have to act in accordance with its constitution if the KFOR failed to take urgent and effective measures against the Albanian terrorists.

The slaying of three Serbian policemen in a mine blast was the latest terrorist act of the Albanian separatists in the buffer zone, who seek to incorporate their villages into the U.N.- controlled Kosovo to establish an independent state.

Just two days ago, 10 Serbs were killed and over 40 others injured in a town in the buffer zone when the separatists attacked a bus packed with Serb residents.

The fresh wave of terrorist attacks rolled through southern Serbia after NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pronounced their support for Belgrade's peace proposals to solve the crisis in southern Serbia.

Kosovo has been administered by a United Nations special mission since NATO troops entered the southwestern province of Serbia on the heels of withdrawing Yugoslav military and police forces in June 1999.

A buffer zone was later set up by NATO in southern Serbia to separate Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, where the presence of Yugoslav troops is prohibited but police with light arms are allowed to patrol.

Serbia, together with Montenegro, forms Yugoslavia.






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