Dozens of Albanian rebels surrender

An ethnic Albanian girl in the buffer zone separating Serbia from Kosovo

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- At least 80 ethnic-Albanian guerrillas have crossed from southern Serbia into Kosovo to surrender to U.S. KFOR troops.

Fifteen more were arrested by Serbian police when they moved into the former rebel stronghold, said Yugoslav independent news agency BETA.

Hundreds of other Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB) members, presented as refugees, entered Kosovo from the Presevo valley and were being checked for weapons after Yugoslav security forces reclaimed rebel positions.

NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in eastern Kosovo detained males between the ages of 15 and 60 years old if they were armed, eyewitnesses confirmed.

The UCPMB has been urged to lay down their weapons before Yugoslav troops return to the final section of the three-mile (five-kilometre)-wide buffer zone along Serbia's boundary with Kosovo on May 24.

Rebel commander Gezim Ostreni said three UCPMB soldiers were killed in clashes on Tuesday when they withdrew from Oraovica after Yugoslav troops launched a swift offensive. Rebels captured the village on Saturday.

More guerrilla forces continue to remain in the densely populated villages closer to the border with Kosovo.

The buffer zone was established in 1999 when NATO bombing forced the Serb-led troops out of Kosovo to stop former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

It was supposed to keep Serbs at a distance from Kosovo, but it soon turned into a fighting area itself, with ethnic Albanian militants launching attacks to control the territory.

The UCPBM appeared in early 2000 to claim rights for some 100,000 Albanians remaining in southern Serbia, and for a possible union with Kosovo.

It numbered between 1,500 and 2,000, some of whom were Kosovo Albanians who had previously fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Much of the buffer zone has been returned to the Yugoslav Army to control, but return of the final sector south of Presevo was only agreed by NATO countries on Monday in Brussels.