Serbs moving towards new war against Kosovars

By Helena Bestakova in Prague, Czech Republic

A new genocidal war against ethnic Albanians is brewing in southeast Serbia with the collusion of the West. A top aide of Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostinica announced on December 3 that his government was seeking NATO’s approval for a plan to push Albanian fighters from a 200-square-kilometre sliver of land in southeast Serbia after parliamentary elections in Serbia to be held on December 23. The aide, Zoran Djindjic, who is expected to become Serbia’s new prime minister, said that the area, known as the Presevo Valley, is a "top priority" for Serbia which "has the right and the strength to defend its territory. We should react as soon as possible -- one day after the elections." He added that Yugoslavia will seek NATO’s consent "to use all legitimate means against the terrorists and certainly not against civilians."

But his assurance that there will be no violence against civilians has failed to mollify fears that the new Yugoslav government is preparing the stage for another Milosevic-style campaign of ethnic cleansing, especially given the fact that Djindjic made the threat while on a tour of Serbian police checkpoints on the edge of the Presevo Valley. The Serbian police forces, particularly the MUP (the paramilitary interior ministry units) were the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing in Kosova during the war. Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, an indicted war-criminal, used to cloak the atrocities of his forces in the terminology of law and order, claiming that they targeted only those involved in so-called "criminal activities."

The Presevo Valley was the scene of armed confrontations in late November and early December between ethnic Albanian fighters belonging to the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja (known by its Albanian acronym UCPMB, standing for Ushtria Clirimatre e Presheve, Medvegje e Bujanovac) and Serbian forces. This was the second upsurge in guerrilla activity in the area this year. An earlier upsurge in UCPMB military operations was halted last spring by western pressures on the guerrilla group to renounce military action (see Crescent International, April 16-30, 2000). UCPMB fighters are believed to have launched some 50 operations against Serbian police positions and checkpoints in the area in the past year.

The UCPMB is fighting to end Serbia’s control over the three predominantly Albanian border districts of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. Some 80,000 ethnic Albanians are believed to live in these districts, parts of which fall within the 5-kilometre-wide demilitarized buffer zone between Kosova and Serbia, known as the Ground Safety Zone (GSZ), set up as part of the Kosova settlement. The Military Technical Agreement signed by Belgrade and NATO last June prohibits both the Yugoslav army and the Kosova Protection Force (KFOR) from operating in the area.

The three districts are sandwiched between Macedonia to the south and Kosova to the Northwest. Presevo’s population is estimated to be 92 percent Albanian, Bujanovac’s 65 percent, and Medvedja’s 35 percent. The area is known to the Albanians as Kosova Londre (Eastern Kosova), and was incorporated into Serbia at the end of the second world war. Local residents voted overwhelmingly for "cultural, political and territorial autonomy," "the right to self-determination" and possible "union with Kosova" in a plebiscite held in March 1992.

The UCPMB, which models itself not only in name but also in uniforms and tactics after the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), is made up of a few hundred well-armed fighters. Local residents have been driven to take up arms by accumulated grievances against the heavy-handed Serbian police. The constant pattern of police brutality and harassment includes arbitrary arrests, beatings, confiscations, burning homes and murders. Members of the now-disbanded UCK, which led the fight against Serb forces in Kosova in 1998 and 1999, have also been flocking to the UCPMB.

Recent UCPMB operations included a siege of three police stations and attacks that left four policemen dead and several wounded. An uneasy calm reigned for a few days after NATO brought pressure to bear on the UCPMB to accept an unofficial ceasefire. At the time NATO disclosed a six-point plan to put an end to the UCPMB’s activities. NATO’s plan consisted of a public information campaign to highlight the "criminal aspects" and "politically damaging" effects of extremist activity in the Presevo Valley; the mobilization of Kosovar politicians to lay a moderating hand on the guerrillas; encouraging contacts between Presevo Albanians and Serb authorities; closer KFOR contacts with local Serb police; increased surveillance operations on the border and closer monitoring of any violence in the demilitarized zone; and the deterrence and disruption of so-called "illegal and terrorist related activity" inside Kosova near the Presevo border.

NATO secretary-general Robertson, who made a one-day visit to Kosova on November 29, met with political leaders in the province, including several former commanders of the UCK, and urged them to use their influence to rein in the UCPMB. Speaking to reporters, Robertson said: "The leadership here in Kosova, as I have just told them, also has a role to play in restraining extremists in the area, because the activities of these extremists damage everybody’s interests in Kosovo."

But on December 3 the UCPMB resumed its military operations with two attacks against Yugoslav army units in the buffer zone. The attacks exposed the presence of Yugoslav army troops in the no-man’s-land in violation of the Military Technical Agreement. Reports from the area also said that the Serbs have recently increased their military presence in the area. The town of Bujanovac is reportedly teeming with soldiers and policemen. The deployment of Yugoslav army and police units in the area has instilled fear in the hearts of local residents, prompting many of them to leave their homes. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, about 4,400 people crossed from the Presevo Valley into Kosova during the last week of November.

Yet, rather than acting to end Yugoslavia’s violation of the agreement, the NATO-led KFOR moved to crack down on the UCPMB. On December 4, KFOR said it arrested eight Kosovars suspected of belonging to the UCPMB, on their way to southern Serbia. It also seized a shipment of light weapons and uniforms destined for the UCPMB. A week earlier, KFOR announced that it was holding 10 suspected UCPMB members at a detention facility at Camp Bonsfield, the main American base in Kosova. A US Army spokesman claimed that the detainees, who were wearing uniforms but not armed at the time of their arrest, had tried to evade a checkpoint and return to Kosova from the GSZ. On November 29, KFOR seized a truck carrying grenades, mortar shells, landmines and other weapons in the Drenica Valley in central Kosova. KFOR described the truck as "a rolling arms cache."

Moreover, the US contingents of KFOR, which are designated to patrol the eastern borders of Kosova and northern Macedonia, have recently increased their presence and surveillance in the region. The United Nations Security Council condemned the recent UCPMB operations, describing them as "criminal attacks." For its part, the United States characterized the operations as a threat to "stability" in the southern Balkans.

In an attempt to force KFOR forces to further tighten the noose on the UCPMB, Yugoslav and Serbian officials have repeatedly accused the international community of failing to guarantee security in Kosova and the Presevo Valley. Djindjic has called on the US-led force to ensure that Albanian guerrillas do not cross the border.

Throughout the past year western powers have repeatedly tried to stifle the aspirations of Albanians in southern Serbia for freedom, independence and statehood. The recent attacks occurred against a background of increasing frustration among many Albanians over their hopes for independence for Kosova. The frustration was heightened recently by emerging signs of Yugoslavia’s impending reintegration into the international community after the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic and the election of Vojislav Kostunica.