Fresh fighting breaks out between Serbs and Albanians
Fresh fighting breaks out between Serbs and Albanians
PRISTINA, Serbia (AP): Serb forces backed by tanks battled ethnic Albanian rebels northwest of here Monday, while U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pushed belligerents to accept a settlement to keep the Kosovo peace talks in France from collapsing.
International peace verifiers also reported that Serb police were separating men from women and children in two ethnic Albanian villages near the fighting in what spokesman Sandy Blyth called "obviously a bad sign."
Television crews reported police were blocking access to the area.
Fighting erupted at approximately 9.45 a.m. (3.45 p.m. Jakarta time) when about 10 Serb military vehicles came under fire near the town of Vucitrn about 25 kilometers northwest of Pristina, according to Walter Ebenberger, spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Ebenberger said Serb forces called in reinforcements, including two tanks and an armored personnel carrier, which returned fire.
He said the fighting ebbed about two hours later, and there was no word on casualties. The ethnic Albanian-run Kosovo Information Center said the fighting started when government troops attacked three villages in the Vucitrn area.
The latest fighting added urgency to diplomatic efforts to save the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet, France, which appeared near the brink of collapse. Albright returned to the conference site Monday to push the belligerents hard to make a deal, with just one day left before the latest deadline of 3 p.m. (9 p.m. Jakarta time) on Tuesday.
The ethnic Albanian center also said the body of one 50-year- old ethnic Albanian man and his son were found on Monday near Kacane, about 50 kilometers south of Pristina near the Macedonian border.
In another sign of rising tensions, two unarmed peace monitors, from Lithuania and Luxembourg, were assaulted by two angry Serbian policemen in Kosovo but were not seriously hurt, the OSCE said Monday.
OSCE spokesman Jorgen Grunnet said the verifiers were on a routine patrol late Sunday about 30 kilometers north of Pristina when they were confronted by two policemen. After a brief argument, the observers were "roughed up," Grunnet said.
The OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission considers this "aggressive behavior on the part of the police ... a serious case of indiscipline" and a strong protest was sent to the authorities, he added.
Grunnet said OSCE verifiers had noted an increase in movement by Yugoslav army troops over the last days, apparently "a general show of alertness." The army has been under threat of NATO strikes if the Serbs are deemed responsible for any breakdown in the talks.
Grunnet said the police also harassed an unspecified number of other OSCE personnel, when they were entering the country from neighboring Macedonia on Sunday.
The Yugoslav border authorities insisted on searching their vehicles which, Grunnet said, was against an international convention on treatment of the peace officials.
Early Monday, the police checked the identities of a number of locally hired OSCE employees, apparently ethnic Albanians, who were aboard an OSCE bus taking them to work in the mission's headquarters in Pristina. Grunnet said this was also against the rules.
Deceptions -- Page 4
Russia -- Page 12