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Yugoslav Troops Enter Another Section of Kosovo Security Zone
Yugoslav army troops and police forces moved into another section of the security zone surrounding Kosovo Saturday in an effort to end violence in southern Serbia and neighboring Macedonia following a NATO decision Tuesday.
These military forces started entering into Sector D of the buffer zone at about 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) and completed deployment in the area at about 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT), the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported.
The entire process was monitored by observers from NATO's peacekeeping forces and the European Union.
The buffer zone, five kilometers wide and 400 kilometers long, is divided into five sectors.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Sovic, who is also chairman of Yugoslavia's coordination office in the zone, said the re-entering of the country's armed forces into the sector is significant to the safeguarding of the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Since November last year, large groups of ethnic Albanian guerrillas have used some sections of the so-called Ground Safety Zone as a safe haven from which to attack Serbian security forces and civilians. And since February this year, some ethnic Albanian extremists have entered neighboring Macedonia from the zone to assault Macedonian police and civilians, creating violence in the region.
The Yugoslav forces have now been allowed back into most of the buffer zone along the Serbian side of the boundary.
In a separate development, the ethnic Albanian rebels Saturday released three Serb civilians they abducted on March 4 in the security zone, Tanjug reported.
The three captives were handed over to the KFOR at noon on Saturday. But the rebels still held two Yugoslav servicemen they kidnapped on March 21.
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