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Yugoslav Forces Enter Security Zone
Yugoslav forces monitored by the European Union observers started deploying in two areas of a "security zone" between Serbia and Kosovo of Yugoslavia on Sunday to curb a mass infiltration of ethnic Albanian extremists into southern Serbia and neighboring Macedonia.
The Yugoslav forces entered the area around Merdare, at the administrative border with Kosovo, and another area between Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported.
In Dobri Do, near Merdare, General Ninoslav Krstic, in charge of Yugoslav forces in the area, met with Major Gary Brown of the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR), informing him that the units began moving into the zone at 8:00 am (0600 GMT).
The operation is going on as scheduled, but the soldiers are moving slowly and cautiously on the shabby roads with mines, Krstic said.
According to an agreement signed between NATO and Yugoslavia in June 1999, neither the Yugoslav army nor KFOR can enter the buffer zone which is five kilometers wide and 402 kilometers long between Serbia and Kosovo, and Serb police can only operate there under restrictive conditions and with light arms.
However, the situation has turned tenser and tenser since last November when a large number of ethnic Albanian extremists entered the security zone, ambushing local police and civilians. Recently, the extremists sneaked into Macedonia from the security zone and fought fiercely with Macedonian army and police.
Under such circumstances, NATO gave the green light on March 8 for a gradual return of Yugoslav troops to the security zone for the first time since the end of the Kosovo war almost two years ago.
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