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NATO to Return Part of Sector B Buffer Zone to Yugoslavia
NATO decided on Monday to return the most sensitive part of the sector B buffer zone to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, despite a flash-up of conflict in the nearby region.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said in a statement that NATO had decided to authorize NATO-led peacekeeping troops in Kosovo to allow a controlled return of sector B, a five-kilometer- wide buffer zone established after the 1999 NATO air strike against the Balkan nation.
The part of the sector B buffer zone has been a stronghold of ethnic Albanian rebels who have attacked Yugoslav government troops and police, and threatened to cause bloodshed if NATO allows Yugoslav government troops back into the sector.
On Sunday, ethnic Albanian rebels and Yugoslav government troops clashed inside the buffer zone and ethnic Albanian rebels warned of a new war against the government troops.
Yugoslav sources said that the rebels had attacked government positions on the edge of the buffer zone around Kosovo.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic blamed the ethnic Albanian rebels for the new violence.
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