Action urged over Serbia violence

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) -- A senior U.N. official in the Balkans has called for urgent action to ease tensions in southern Serbia.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees special envoy, Eric Morris, has held talks with Yugoslav officials on how to resolve problems in Serbia's Presevo Valley which borders Kosovo.

Presevo Valley has seen an upsurge in ethnic Albanian guerrilla activity over the past two weeks, including the killing of four Serb police officers which was blamed on the militants.

Morris said: "We are very concerned about it in a sense that there are a number of (ethnic) Albanian fighters who are very close in some locations to Yugoslav security forces, so the potential for something going really wrong is there."

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He said, after talks with Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic, that it was vital for all concerned to act quickly to prevent the situation in Presevo from escalating.

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Violence last month led to about 5,000 ethnic Albanians fleeing into Kosovo from southern Serbia to escape any renewed clashes between the rebels and the Serb security forces.

Novica Zdravklovic, chief of police in the southern Serbian town of Vranje, said four mortar shells were fired on Sunday at Serb police on regular assignment along the Gornji Vrtogos-Djordjevac road near Usi village.

The guerrillas have said they are protecting local ethnic Albanians from harassment by police. They have also complained of discrimination and political under-representation.

But Belgrade insists the rebels are separatists intent on fusing the Presevo Valley area with ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo, a de facto international protectorate after last year's NATO bombing campaign.

NATO General Secretary George Robertson earlier urged Kosovo leaders to control rebels operating in the area.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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UNHCR
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbian Information Ministry
Kosovo Information Page
NATO
KFOR

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