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Yugoslavia, Ethic Albanians to Sign Cease-fire Deal Next Week
A cease-fire agreement will be signed next week to end months of violence in southern Serbia, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said Saturday.
Covic, who heads the negotiating team of the Yugoslav government, said 90 percent of ethnic Albanians' plans for resolving the crisis in southern Serbia was in conformity with those of the government.
On Saturday, the Yugoslav negotiating team and one from the ethnic Albanians exchanged views on the issue in the presence of NATO representatives, and the two sides agreed to open negotiations in Serbia next week, Covic said.
The head of the ethnic Albanian team also said they were ready to enter into talks with Yugoslav authorities immediately with international mediation.
Under a 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.
Tension has been mounting in the zone since last November when heavily armed ethnic Albanian extremists moved into the zone and launched a string of attacks on Serbian police.
To prevent the buffer zone from becoming Albanian extremists' military beachheads, Belgrade urged NATO once and again to minimize the breadth of zone from five kilometers to one to two kilometers.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson welcomed Belgrade's peace plan and had sent envoys to southern Serbia to mediate negotiations.
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