Serbs say Presevo truce broken

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- Serbian officials have accused ethnic Albanians of violating a ceasefire agreement in a tense area on the Kosovo border, the Presevo Valley.

They claim the guerrillas attacked police positions -- but the rebels blamed the Serbian side for the clashes and said one of their commanders was killed.

The two sides agreed to a NATO-brokered ceasefire earlier this month and held a first round of peace talks last week.

But a task force of Serbian and federal Yugoslav officials said on Tuesday the rebels were violating the ceasefire deal, using mortars, grenades and other weapons to attack police positions in several locations.

The officials said security forces had responded to two of the attacks because the lives of personnel were in danger.

Supporters of the guerrillas said one of their leaders Nijazi Azemi -- nicknamed Commander Mjekrra -- was killed in the fighting around Cerevajka, near the town of Presevo.

Clashes between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanians in the remote region of southern Serbia have left dozens of people dead over the past year.

The rebels say they are fighting state-backed Serb persecution of ethnic Albanians.

Belgrade calls them "terrorists", claiming their only goal is to link the area into ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.

The guerrillas have taken advantage of a NATO-ordained buffer zone around Kosovo which has been off-limits to Yugoslav army soldiers and Serbian special police units.

But the alliance has this month allowed Yugoslav forces back into the zone to try to put the squeeze on the rebels and stop them linking up with a similar group in Macedonia.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Presevo peace talks
March 23, 2001
Serb police hurt on Kosovo border
March 17, 2001
Yugoslav army enter buffer zone
March 14, 2001
Rebels say Kosovo ceasefire agreed
March 12, 2001

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
NATO
U.N. in Kosovo

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