State Departmente Press Conference March 5, 1998

QUESTION: I wondered if you could give us the US policy on whether force is an option for order to be implemented in Kosovo? Does that remain part of US policy, that it's an appropriate tool?

MR. FOLEY: First of all, the United States strongly condemns the violence in Kosovo this weekend, particularly the excessive use of force by Serbian police. This violence results from the failure of Serbian authorities to recognize the legitimate grievances of the Kosovar-Albanian population.

Our firm message to both parties is that the difficulties in Kosovo cannot be solved through the use of force. We have received credible reports of ongoing operations in Kosovo by Serb authorities. Kosovar-Albanian sources have reported the presence of tracked vehicles and artillery fire in the region. We have no recent information on casualties.

We view the situation in Kosovo as very serious, and are investigating these reports. There will be serious negative consequences for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a result of this latest outrage, beginning with the withdrawal of the positive measures Special Representative Gelbard previewed with Mr. Milosevic in Belgrade last week. So we are withdrawing those.

We will explore with the Contact Group Ministers on Monday in London additional coordinated measures in response to these events. We have also proposed that independent outside authorities investigate the deaths of a number of Kosovar Albanians who were killed in violence last weekend. There are credible reports that they were, in fact, executed while in the custody of Serb police.

As to your specific question, there should be no doubt about the seriousness with which we view the situation in Kosovo. We've made clear to Mr. Milosevic that we will respond to actions by FRY forces that inflame the situation. We have a broad range of options available to use. I'm not going to speculate about which ones they might be.

Beyond that, I think you saw the remarks that Special Representative Gelbard had made yesterday, talking about means that we have at our disposal. We are going to be exploring these means and these options with our friends and partners in the Contact Group on Monday. I can't foreshadow what they might be, but the consequences, I said, will be very serious.

QUESTION: Well, some interpreted his reference to appropriate tools as a reaffirmation of force as an option. Is that interpretation wrong?

MR. FOLEY: Well, there was an erroneous report that attributed to Ambassador Gelbard a specific comment in that regard, which he did not make; and the transcript of his remarks makes that clear. On the other hand, as I said, I'm not willing, from this podium, to specify what options we have under consideration.

There will be serious consequences if this situation persists -- if the government in Belgrade, on the one hand, continues to use force to deal with this problem; and if, on the other hand, the government in Belgrade continues to refuse the serious dialogue and the implementation of reforms that can reach out to the Kosovar Albanian community and convince them that they have a stake in an improved situation for themselves in the Kosovo.

QUESTION: I have two questions. So you have made a decision to withdraw those limited concessions that Gelbard had announced earlier?

MR. FOLEY: Yes, we have.

QUESTION: And are you saying that the use of military force is off the table, that that is not one of those options?

MR. FOLEY: I'm not specifically addressing that option in either a positive or negative way. I'm being very careful in choosing my words. As I said, we have a broad range of options. I cannot speculate on which options we might choose. Our choice also will depend on what may happen in the days ahead. We've called now, very publicly and very firmly, on President Milosevic to exercise restraint and to begin the kind of dialogue which we believe is necessary to resolve the differences that exist in Kosovo.

Again, we believe, as I said a minute ago, that the violence results from the failure of the Serb authorities to recognize the legitimate grievances of the Kosovar Albanian population.

QUESTION: What is it - excuse me. I just wanted to clear up one detail. Positive measures, I know about the opening of a consulate in the United States, what are the other ones?

MR. FOLEY: There were, I believe, four steps of a somewhat symbolic nature, but which, nevertheless recognized the fact that, on Belgrade's side, and in particular on the part of President Milosevic, that in the recent weeks we had seen positive contributions to the implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia. President Milosevic had played a useful and positive role in the developments which led to the election of a pro-Dayton, reform-minded prime minister in the Republika Srpska - Prime Minister Dodik -- and had cooperated in other areas involving Dayton implementation as well. But as you know, we have a range of concerns with the government in Belgrade. The outer sanctions remain in place, and their lifting is contingent on FRY positive action in a range of areas, and none more important than in Kosovo.

What we have seen is a tremendous step backward. We responded initially and immediately by withdrawing the four actions, which I'll enumerate for you in a second; and we're considering other serious measures as well. The four measures that we have withdrawn include FRY participation in our Southern Europe Cooperation Initiative, so-called SECI initiative. We had offered to consider allowing an increase in personnel at the FRY observer mission in New York at the UN; allowing them to open a consulate in the United States. And also, the fourth measure involved landing rights for the Yugoslav airline in the United States. Those four --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. FOLEY: SECI participation for Belgrade.

QUESTION: You say SECI - (inaudible) -

(Laughter.)

MR. FOLEY: SECI is an initiative that the United States Government is sponsoring to promote greater dialogue and cooperation among all the countries in the Balkans.

QUESTION: Listen, are you just being diplomatically polite - although you did use some strong words? I mean, your description - outrage is pretty strong. You don't like what the Serbian troops did - I mean, by all accounts this was a kind of atrocity, widespread atrocities. I mean, killing mothers and children and father and son together so I guess it's neater that way. I mean, does the State Department find widespread genocidal behavior or just outrageous actions by Serbian police?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I don't think that I can underestimate the degree of outrage and the degree of concern within the United States Government over the recent events in Kosovo. I believe that outrage and that concern are shared by our European partners, and we're going to be meeting with them. Secretary Albright will be participating in the Contact Group meeting in London on Monday.

So, Barry, you can parse my words, but without wanting to exaggerate, the situation is very grave. Some terrible, repressive acts have occurred. Innocent people have been killed. That's why we're calling for independent outside authorities to investigate those killings. We're considering serious further measures, particularly in the light of what may continue to happen there. We continue to urge calm on all sides. I would remind you that we have and continue to urge restraint by the Kosovar Albanian leadership, and have made clear that we do not support secession or independence of Kosovo. And of course, we condemn all terrorist actions. But we believe that the Kosovar people - Albanian-Kosovars in Kosovo have legitimate political grievances. They have a right to an enhanced status within the FRY, to greater self-administration. These are fundamental political rights and grievances which have not been addressed, and which are the ultimate source of the violence which has occurred in the last days.

QUESTION: Well, I was listening yesterday -- the word Albanian was used - I don't want to get too Talmudic or Jesuitical about this, but you recognize, the State Department, the people there as Albanians. The Kurds in Iraq, you keep referring - the State Department keeps referring to as Iraqi Kurds, but you do - the State Department does recognize Palestinian Arabs and Palestinians, having an ethnic identity. Where do the Albanians fall, sort of with the Palestinians, as an ethnic people, right, having ethnic individual - national rights?

MR. FOLEY: I believe the term that we --

QUESTION: Which you never gave the Kurds.

MR. FOLEY: -- used to apply to them is "Kosovar Albanians." As I said, we do not support the secession or independence for Kosovo, but we believe that they have rights to an autonomous status; we believe they have rights to enhanced self-administration. One of the building blocks or initial blocks of the reforms we think are necessary involve the education agreement -- the implementation of that agreement, which has lagged and lagged, which would give students in Kosovo an opportunity to study in their own language and to study subjects to their liking. That is, if you will, symbolic of what we want to see over the long run, which is the full enjoyment of the rights of the people in Kosovo, which have been long denied and repressed with the consequences we've seen in the last few days.

QUESTION: Can I ask you about this question of terrorism? Is this a terrorist group? The State Department called them a terrorist group, I believe, this week or last week, for the first time perhaps. If these people are attacking Serb police or soldiers, armed people, would that be considered terrorism? Isn't terrorism if you attack civilians and unarmed people?

MR. FOLEY: Let me make clear, we condemn violence of all kinds. I'm not going to give any kind of a blank check to different kinds of violent actions, depending on how you may or may not define them. Violence is not the answer.

There have been terrorist acts committed by this Kosovar Liberation Army, which we condemn. We think it's time for the moderate leadership in Kosovo to stand up and take its responsibilities and lead the way, providing that there is a dialogue partner in Belgrade toward sitting down and discussing, and eventually resolving these issues.

QUESTION: Can I follow up? What are those terrorist attacks? Because it's a relevant question. There is a distinction, isn't there, between attacking the institutions of power and civilians?

MR. FOLEY: I'm not making that distinction.

QUESTION: Well, then, George Washington was a terrorist.

MR. FOLEY: I'm not making that distinction.

QUESTION: I mean --

MR. FOLEY: We think that violence is not the answer. We don't, as I said, support independence or secession of Kosovo.

QUESTION: Does the State Department never support freedom fighters, independence movements? Is that always out of - off the table these days?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I wouldn't want to answer that in a broadly philosophical way. I'm concentrating on the situation in Kosovo, which is potentially explosive at the moment. Violence is not the answer. Those who --

QUESTION: Well, I've been here three years, and I haven't heard one instance where --

MR. FOLEY: Well, you're more an authority on that than I am. You've been here longer than I.

QUESTION: -- where the State Department has supported any kind of independence movement.

QUESTION: You mentioned we're calling for independent outside authorities to investigate.

MR. FOLEY: Yes.

QUESTION: This recent flare-up in Kosovo, you'd like to have an investigation specifically on these riots on the weekend?

MR. FOLEY: Yes, because there have been reports of deaths of innocent civilians in Kosovo that we think need to be investigated.

QUESTION: Who might do that investigation? Any ideas?

MR. FOLEY: I don't think we put forward formally a group, and I don't think we necessarily have a favored group. We believe that some independent outside organization, whether it's the International Committee for the Red Cross or some such group, would be able to go in and make an independent assessment of what has happened.

QUESTION: Could I just get back to the military option issue? Gelbard was asked specifically about the "Christmas warning," and he said US policy has not changed. Can you just - is that the case? I mean, that warning issued in 1992 still stands today?

MR. FOLEY: We've not commented on press reports on that subject, and I'm not going to be able to do that today. As I said, we have a broad range of options. I'm not going to specify either in terms of ruling in or ruling out particular options. And I certainly can't comment on that particular subject.

QUESTION: Robin Cook, who was in Belgrade, I believe yesterday --

MR. FOLEY: Yes - or today.

QUESTION: -- echoed the international fears that bloodshed might become uncontrollable and spread beyond Kosovo, to quote this article. He told reporters it was urgent to redouble diplomatic pressures on Belgrade, to recognize that the international community cannot sand by while they impose repressive police measures. Does the US agree with Mr. Cook's assessment of the danger to Balkan area of this police battle that's going on?

MR. FOLEY: I think it's not secret that we've always believed that Kosovo has implications beyond Kosovo, beyond the FRY region-wide. That's why the situation there is so critical, and that's why we are going to be meeting in the Contact Group on this basis, to deal with this issue. We think, indeed, that violence in Kosovo can have an impact beyond Kosovo, and it is critical that the international community come together, as they will on Monday, and make it crystal clear to Mr. Milosevic that he's got to call the dogs of repression back and must sit down and negotiate with the Kosovar Albanians - the moderate leadership there - on the kinds of reforms that will be necessary to diffuse the situation.

QUESTION: Do you think - is it your - you talk a little bit about operations that were going on there, Serbian operations. What do you see as the nature of those operations? And do you see sort of a systematic effort by Milosevic to destabilize Kosovo?

MR. FOLEY: I would hesitate to try to put myself in his mind, to characterize his actions. He has --

QUESTION: I want to know your interpretation of his actions.

MR. FOLEY: He has shown a record over the last decade as a tactician of some ability, but not usually demonstrated an ability to think long-term, to think about the long-term interests of his people in the region; although we have recognized positive steps on Dayton implementation when he has taken those.

But again, I'm not in a position to read his mind. What the United States is trying to do, and what we will do with our partners in the Contact Group, is signal to him the serious costs of allowing this situation to fester. Whether it involves a conscious long-range design or mere tactical maneuvers, the fact of the matter is that the repression that is taking place is totally unacceptable to the international community and will have the most severe consequences.

QUESTION: I'm not asking you to read his mind. I'm asking what you see, how you analyze the situation. What kinds of operations do you see the Serbians undertaking? We see violence; we see incidents of violence. But what do you see particularly? And do you think - does it add up to the United States as a systematic effort to undermine Kosovar Albanians in a way that Belgrade has not done before this?

MR. FOLEY: I think that we're not in a position to make that determination. Certainly, the actions of the last week and the last days are very worrisome and very troublesome, and perhaps point in that direction. What we are trying to do is to grab Mr. Milosevic's attention right now, while there is time to pull back and consider the very serious consequences to him and his country pursuing in the direction that you described, if such is the intention or the result of the repression that is occurring there.

QUESTION: Can you see a broader - possibility for a broader regional conflict --

MR. FOLEY: Well, I answered that question when Bill asked it. We see potential negative fallout beyond Kosovo in what is happening there. I think that's why you're seeing the international community coming together very quickly in the wake of this violence, to meet and discuss steps to make sure that that sort of development does not occur.

I think, Betsy, you had a question also.

QUESTION: It was the same thing.

MR. FOLEY: Yes, Carole.

QUESTION: On the other issue of the unconditional dialogue that you've called for, in your view should there be a third party at the table? Would the United States or Europe play that role? If there were to be a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina?

MR. FOLEY: Well, you may know, under Vatican auspices, the Sant'Egidio Foundation, I believe, has been promoting reforms and reconciliation, in particular, I believe, in connection with the education agreement. I believe Secretary Albright will be meeting with the foundation leaders in Rome and will be discussing their role.

I think, as far as the United States is concerned, what is important is not so much who is doing the mediating as the fact that the two sides are coming together and sitting down at the table and discussing differences, and discussing the implementation of the real reforms that will address the root cause of the violence and address the just grievances of the Kosovar Albanian people.

QUESTION: Jim, you just used virtually the same language that the UN resolution on Iraq uses, which Albright told the Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday is simply a code word for military force. If this continues, it will have the most serious -- severe consequences - "severe consequences."

MR. FOLEY: Well, I've been very careful, and we've been discussing this --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) - code word for force?

MR. FOLEY: I've been very careful - we've been discussing this for 15 or 20 minutes --

QUESTION: Yes, and you haven't said force yet.

MR. FOLEY: -- not to specify what the options are that are available. I would refer you to Ambassador Gelbard's remarks yesterday as illustrative when he talked about the very sorry state of the Serb economy today, which is heading south and which can be made to head further south if the Belgrade authorities persist in this direction.

QUESTION: As you look back, did the US get too - was the US a little bit early in being nice to Milosevic, with these little carrots?

MR. FOLEY: I don't think so. The fact is that Dayton implementation in Bosnia is critical; it's an American foreign policy objective of the highest order. And if Mr. Milosevic has taken, as he has, positive steps to help in the implementation of Dayton, it is normal that we would seek to encourage further steps in that direction.

What I explained, though, Barry, at the outset is that we have a wider agenda than Bosnia with Mr. Milosevic - especially concerning the outer wall of sanctions. I think there's nothing wrong with responding positively to positive steps. But the Kosovo situation, at the moment, transcends other considerations, I must say.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) -- about Pristina and about Belgrade, but the Albanian Government has also made some statements about it. Do you have any communications about this with the government of Albania?

MR. FOLEY: I'm sure through our embassy in Albania and their embassy here, we've had communications. I'm not aware specifically of recent communications, but I'd be surprised if there were none.

QUESTION: I'm going to draw a rather sharp comparison, in order to get you to talk about timing. The Serbs were allowed to go on shelling Sarajevo for a matter of years before troops were actually sent in to stop them. Is there a greater sense of urgency here now - a greater sense that the West will have to respond very quickly in order to prevent this brushfire from spreading? What's your sense of how long the Serbs have before the West will respond in a way that will prevent this from continuing?

MR. FOLEY: Well, first of all, I think you should wait until the Contact Group meets in London on Monday. I think the international community will be responding at that moment quickly and forcefully.

Second, it's very hard to compare the two situations, because, as you know, the international community was in fact seized of the Bosnian issue - perhaps not in a way that would have satisfied our concerns at the time. There was a UN peacekeeping mission, which - well it's history. I won't review it at this moment. But I think they were entirely different situations. But I can't really understate the importance to the United States Government today of what is happening in Kosovo, and our view that very serious measures are under consideration in response to the very serious situation occurring there.

QUESTION: Would you regard the potential dangers of this situation as even greater, perhaps, than Bosnia, for strategic reasons, because of where Kosovo is and who its neighbors are?

MR. FOLEY: I would not want to speculate about what the possible implications are. I merely stated that it's long been our view that the Kosovo situation can have an impact beyond Kosovo. But to try to spell out different scenarios would be to raise alarm bells that I don't care to raise at this moment from this podium. What we are telling Mr. Milosevic is to stop the violence now.

QUESTION: Can I ask you about another area?

QUESTION: I just one other question. When did you last speak to Milosevic?

MR. FOLEY: I believe that earlier this week Ambassador Gelbard may have spoken with him. I can't confirm that specifically. But we have been in communication with him, if not by telephone, at least indirectly, I believe as late as last evening.

QUESTION: Does the State Department have a position on humanitarian food relief for the Cuban people, as suggested by --

MR. FOLEY: Are we finished with --

QUESTION: I don't - maybe --

MR. FOLEY: I'm not protesting if we are.

QUESTION: No, no. I'm sorry.

QUESTION: I've got a couple quick questions on Kosovo.

MR. FOLEY: Yes.

QUESTION: There are reports today that they've used helicopter gun ships against Albanian -- I think Albanian villagers. Do you have any confirmation of that?

MR. FOLEY: I would have said that, believe me, if that had come to my attention before I came out here. As I said, we've seen other worrisome indications of military movements and deployments as of this morning, but I was not aware of that coming in.

QUESTION: But you've been protesting these deployments and threats of violence and the early violence now for several days, and it doesn't appear to have slowed down the Serbs.

MR. FOLEY: I think it's indisputable that, at least as of now, Mr. Milosevic has not gotten the message.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. FOLEY: And we're going to try to increase the volume and the content of that message in the days to come.

QUESTION: Now, you don't want to talk about military force, but you say that the economy is a place where you could squeeze him some more. There's already a wall of sanctions in place. What more can you possibly do than cut him off from IMF and World Bank funding and from all the sanctions that are already in place?

MR. FOLEY: Well, you're asking in a clever way to draw me out on the kinds of options that I have steadfastly refused to be drawn out on over the last 20 or 25 minutes. I can't do that for you today.

Serb police kill 45 Albanians in crackdown

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (March 6, 1998 06:36 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Heavily armed Serb police resumed their crackdown Friday on ethnic Albanians who want independence for Serbia's tense Kosovo province, where at least 51 people have been killed in the past week.

The siege has left the southern part of Serbia perilously close to civil war.

Backed by armored personnel carriers, police with bullet-proof vests and rifles ordered reporters back Friday from the sealed Drenica area, 20 miles west of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

"The anti-terrorist action is in progress and the area is off-limits," said a police officer manning a roadblock.

Serb police sweeping through Drenica killed 20 Albanians on Thursday. A police statement announcing the deaths and broadcast by state television said two policemen were also killed.

That increased the official death toll to 51 since the violence began last weekend -- 45 Albanians and six Serb police.

But the ethnic Albanian movement Democratic League of Kosovo claimed at least 50 Albanians were feared dead in only one village, Prekaz, after Thursday's siege.

The league's leader, Ibrahim Rugova, said, "Many innocent people, including women and elderly people, were killed."

He implored the United States and European Union to take "urgent preventive steps" to stop the killings.

Ethnic Albanian media quoted witnesses as saying that the Serbs used heavy artillery and helicopter gunships, and Kosovo Albanian politicians spoke of "massacres."

In a statement carried by the state-run news agency Tanjug early Friday, Serbian police said they had discovered a "a well-equipped arsenal of weapons, hand grenades and explosive devices" in Drenica and caught eight "terrorists."

War in Kosovo could spread to neighboring Macedonia, which has a large and restive Albanian minority. And while nearby Albania is reluctant to get involved, it could face no other choice if the conflict escalated.

Serbian authorities contend the crackdown was justified and deny suggestions the army was involved. They say they are responding to provocations supported by the Kosovo Liberation Army, which advocates an armed struggle for independence for Kosovo, a Serbian province where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs 9-to-1.

At least 25 ethnic Albanians were reported killed in Drenica over the weekend after four Serb police officers were gunned down.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos arrived Friday in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, to try to mediate in the conflict. But Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who took away Kosovo's autonomy while still Serbian president in 1989, appeared in no mood to listen.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told Milosevic that he must halt the escalating crisis peacefully. He reiterated the EU's demand that Milosevic restore the province's autonomy.

But Cook left Belgrade disappointed -- Milosevic refused to budge from his position on Kosovo as Yugoslavia's internal matter.

NATO condemned Thursday's violence and urged that authorities in Belgrade and Kosovo start a serious dialogue.

Several thousand ethnic Albanians rallied Thursday in Skopje, capital of neighboring Macedonia, to protest what they termed Serbian terror against their kin.

In Albania, the governing Socialists and their rivals, the Democrats, buried longstanding enmities to announce a joint rally Friday in support of Kosovo Albanians.

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer

Kosova Information Center KOSOVA DAILY REPORT # 1363-c Prishtina, 6 March 1998

Third Edition: 13:45 hrs

Serb Attack on Prekaz Continues Unabated

PRISHTINA, March 6 (KIC) - Serb attacks on several family compounds of the Prekaz village of Skenderaj (in Serbian 'Srbica') have been going on today, an eye-witness from Vushtrri, who was able to approach Prekaz, as well as LDK sources in Llausha of Skenderaj (in Serbian 'Srbica') and in Mitrovica told KIC. Four houses of the Brahovi family compound were said to be in flames after Serb shelling. A house was reported ruined completely. Latest reports indicate that Serb forces have entered the large Lushtaku and Kadrijaj family compounds. Zen& Lushtaku from Prekaz, who had a telephone conversation from Prishtina with her sister living in the near vicinity of Prekaz i Ul&t village, said it is feared Serb forces are terrorizing the people who could not escape the affected area. Zen& Lushtaku told KIC his extended family has 30 members. He said he was afraid police forces would massacre his own family and other Albanian people there, just like they did on 28 February and 1 March, slaughtering 24 Albanians in their own houses and yards. The eye-witness near Prekaz said by phone the above family compounds have been encroached upon by advancing Serb forces, backed up by tanks and armoured vehicles.

Llausha Villages Still Under Serb Siege, Albanian Dies of Wounds Received Thursday

PRISHTINA, March 6 (KIC) - A source from Llausha village told KIC early afternoon today the village was being held under a strong grip of Serb forces, which have been reportedly moving on it. The sources said there was random shooting by Serb forces. The situation within the village itself was described as very grave indeed. Women, old men, and children are in because they could not leave the area, which has for two days been sealed off by Serb forces. KIC has learned that Miftar Rreci, who was shot and wounded near his house in Llausha yesterday, died today.

International Community Should Step in With Preventative Measures in Kosova, President Ibrahim Rugova Says

March 6, 1998

Gun Battles in Serbia Raise Fear of 'Another Bosnia'

By CHRIS HEDGES

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Serbian police and paramilitary units Thursday unleashed helicopter gunships and armored personnel carriers against armed Albanian separatists in Kosovo province, forcing dozens of Serbian families and Albanian women and children to leave and cordoning off scores of villages to keep outsiders away.

Twenty Albanians and two Serbian policemen were killed, the Serbian Interior Ministry said.

A spokesman for Kosovo's Albanian political leader, Ibrahim Rugova, said there were houses burning and "massacres being carried out." It was impossible to confirm such accusations because no access was allowed to areas where fighting was going on.

"Today's attack proves the unprecedented brutality of the Belgrade regime," said the spokesman, Mustafa Xhemaje.

Serbian police officials said they began the attack in the Drenica area, 25 miles west of Pristina, the provincial capital, after Albanian separatists attacked a police station at dawn, wounding two officers.

People attempting to enter the area were turned away by police officers in flak jackets and armored personnel carriers. Helicopter gunships whirred overhead, and there were reports that detonations could be heard in the hillsides around Prekaz.

The villages under siege Thursday were the same ones where at least 24 Albanians were reportedly tortured and executed by Serbian police and paramilitary units last weekend, apparently in retaliation for the deaths of four Serbian police officers.

Many Serbs here say state security forces have been distributing automatic assault rifles to Serb men in the province, and Western diplomats express fear that the attacks could broaden into the kind of rampages that characterized the behavior of the Serbian forces in Bosnia during the war there. The black-uniformed special paramilitary units from the ministry of interior that are now deployed in Kosovo served in Bosnia.

The people, too, say they fear something more ominous, and those who can are fleeing on their own, especially the Serbs. They account for less than 10 percent of the 2 million inhabitants of this once autonomous province, including 25,000 who were resettled here after being expelled from other parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Life seems particularly bleak for the refugee Serbs.

In a dank, stuffy gymnasium, Zdravko Olovic sat peeling four potatoes for his dinner Thursday night. The battles, raging just a few miles from his refugee center and its 400 residents, brought back troubling memories of his life as a Serb in Croatia at the start of the war there in 1991 for independence from Yugoslavia.

"Perhaps, given what has happened in the rest of the former Yugoslavia, it was just a question of time before this occurred in Kosovo," he said.

The Serbs here live in small ghettos and towns where they have little contact with the Albanians. The Albanians, most of them Muslims, boycott all state institutions, often do not speak Serbo-Croatian and view the Serbian police and military as an army of occupation.

The Albanians in Kosovo have their own parallel government, which levies taxes, and shadow institutions, including a school system operated from private homes.

The distance between the two communities is so wide that it is difficult to see how it can be bridged. The Serbian government seems deaf to pleas that it grant the Albanians the political rights it revoked in 1989 when it abolished Kosovo's status as an autonomous province.

Thursday's assault was apparently aimed at wiping out an outlawed guerrilla organization, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which is seeking independence for the province. The attack was viewed as open defiance by Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic to international calls for restraint and dialogue. (Serbia and Montenegro are the last republics left in Yugoslavia.)

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, representing the European Union, met in Belgrade with Milosevic on Thursday and urged him to negotiate with the Albanian separatists. He also warned Milosevic that he faces increased international isolation if he continues to use force to smother the unrest, European diplomats said.

The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy are to meet Monday in London to discuss Kosovo.

"The fear among the Serbs is escalating," said Bosko Drobnjak, the chief of information for the Serbs in Kosovo.

"These terrorists used to target state bodies and their representatives, first of all the police. They then started to murder prominent Serbs and ethnic Albanians who remained loyal to the state. Now they are killing ordinary Serb civilians.

"The state must protect its citizens. It must provide security. If we do not, people will lose confidence."

The Kosovo Liberation Army has promised revenge attacks against Serbian police officers for the recent spate of killings.

Over the past few weeks, gunmen from the Kosovo Liberation Army have opened fire at night on apartments where police officers live and on centers for Serbian refugees. Separatists have killed at least 50 people, including many police officers, in the past year.

Serbs planning to leave the province, especially many of the refugees, said they believed the violence would continue to mount.

"No one wants to go to Serbia," said Tanja Strbac, 24, a Serb who works in the Pristina electric company and who was expelled from Croatia with her family. "We are not given Serbian citizenship as refugees. We are denied employment in state companies. Only in Kosovo can Serbian refugees find work and equal treatment. The pressure, however, has become too much. It is unbearable. I live in an old hotel with 450 refugees and every few days another room is empty."

Ljubisa Radenkovic, 22, is in the police reserve and works as a waiter in a small restaurant where only Serbs dine. His brother is a police commander who, he says, has been in four armed confrontations with the separatists.

"There are stories that 500 terrorists have infiltrated from Albania to fight," he said. "My family is from here, but 90 percent of my cousins have left. We have only three or four close relatives still in Kosovo, and most of them want to get out."

Vera Raden, 36, a Serb, said, "We have seen enough of violence and terror." Ms. Raden, who was resettled against her will in Kosovo after she fled her home in Croatia two years ago, added: "I know the warning signs. I saw them before. It is time to leave."

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

Friday March 6 11:10 AM EST

Serbs, Albanians Battle in Central Kosovo

By Jovan Kovacic

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Serbian police battling heavily armed Albanians nationalists in their mountain strongholds of central Kosovo Friday met fierce resistance and casualties were high, Serb sources said.

Fighting was concentrated around the villages of Prekaz and Lausha, where Albanian sources said 50 nationalists were killed Thursday, more than double the official toll given by police.

Unofficial Serbian sources said the number of dead was probably even higher as suspected guerrillas of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) defended their homes with machineguns and hand-held rocket launchers.

They said police opened a corridor from the villages at the start of the operation to allow women and children to leave. "Anyone who stayed behind is considered a terrorist," one Serb source said.

The Albanian information center in Pristina reported that a large number of women and children had remained in Prekaz and that men had moved out of the village under cover of dark after Serbian police withdrew for the night.

The KLA is seeking independence for Kosovo, Serbia's southern province where Albanians outnumber Serbs nine to one.

The area round the villages, 15 miles west of the Kosovo capital of Pristina, was sealed off but the sound of firing and loud detonations could be heard in the nearby town of Srbica.

The violence erupted a week ago, sparking Western fears for Balkan stability and U.S. threats of renewed sanctions against Yusoslavia and military intervention.

Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the biggest Kosovo Albanian political party, accused Serbia of unleashing police attacks to "ethnically cleanse" central Kosovo of its Albanian population.

Large numbers of women and children are reported to have fled the Drenica area, leaving their men-folk behind to fight.

Rugova told reporters in Pristina that women and children were also killed during the police raids.

"Attacks in Drenica are part of Serb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo," he said, alluding to accusations that Serbs killed tens of thousands of Muslims and displaced hundreds of thousands during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

"We denounce the attacks in the strongest terms and call on the international community to take immediate, concrete steps to save the people of Kosovo."

The bloodshed, and the risk that it might spill outside Kosovo, has alarmed Serbia's neighbors including Albania proper.

The Albanian government said it had put its army on high alert along its northern border with Kosovo Friday.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has brushed aside the U.S. threats and warned the West he intends to wipe out KLA "terrorism" in Kosovo.

Serbia's ruling Socialist party said "threats of sanctions and a military intervention are nonsense."

Belgrade newspapers quoted Ivica Dacic, the party spokesman, as saying, "If states were to have sanctions imposed upon them for unsolved internal problems, most of the world would be under sanctions because many countries have problems similar to that of Kosovo."

Diplomats believe Milosevic's ruthless show of force in Kosovo, where his police have pursued the KLA with armored vehicles and Russian-built Hind attack helicopters, is an attempt to force the West into a trade-off.

The high death toll was intended to press the West, and the United States in particular, into the immediate lifting of the so-called "outer wall" of sanctions against Yugoslavia in return for giving some autonomy back to Kosovo.

The "outer wall," a hangover from the U.N. sanctions imposed on Milosevic during the Bosnian war, denies Yugoslavia the international finance it needs to rebuild its crippled economy.

Milosevic told British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, on a European Union mediation mission to Belgrade Thursday, that independence demands by the Albanians were the cause of the problem.

Cook said Milosevic had maintained "a robust position" that insisted Kosovo's future was in internal issue for Serbia to settle.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, who visited Belgrade Friday for talks with the government, expressed support for Milosevic's view.

Serbian police found underground bunkers containing makeshift surgical theaters and an arms cache during Thursday's raids.

They uncovered four bunkers when they captured the village of Prekaz, including one hiding eight KLA men. One bunker concealed weapons and two others contained hospital equipment including beds, operating tables and medical supplies.

Kosova Information Center KOSOVA DAILY REPORT # 1363-d Prishtina, 6 March 1998

Fourth Edition: 20:00 hrs

Two Villages in Drenica Still Under Random Serb Fire

PRISHTINA, March 6 (KIC) - A source from Llausha village (Skenderaj) told Kosova Information Center (KIC) at around 18:00 today that the village was still sealed off by Serb forces. There were random shootings from sniper and automatic rifles, the source said. The neighboring Prekaz village was under random shelling and shooting today, the source said. Shooting from automatic rifles was still heard in Prekaz village in the late afternoon hours. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old Albanian, Riad Jashari, native of Prekaz, who has been able to leave the village has described the way the Serb forces have clamped down on the houses of Albanians. Mr. Jashari, who has found shelter at Oshlan village of Vushtrri (in Serbian 'Vucitern') has told a foreign reporter that masked Serbs raided his house furiously on Thursday. There were 30 people in the house, he said. The women and children were forced to leave the house one by one, while the three males were executed by the Serbs. Two died, while the third was only wounded but let inside the house, he said Riad Jashari said he could leave the house as he had been disguised in women's clothes. When realizing later that he was not a female, Serbs opened fire. He was wounded, but he made a narrow escape. Huge Serb police and military forces launched Thursday early in the morning an attack against several villages in Drenica region, central Kosova. According to Serb Ministry of police, 20 Albanians were killed. Yet unconfirmed sources says that the number of fatalities has reached 50.

President Rugova Receives Diplomats of Contact Group Countries

PRISHTINA, March 6 (KIC) - The President of the Republic of Kosova Dr Ibrahim Rugova met for talks this afternoon with a delegation of the Belgrade-based diplomats of the countries making the Contact Group: Ambassador Richard Miles, Charge Affairs of U.S. Mission, German ambassador Wilfried Gruber, Italian ambassador Riccardo Sessa, UK ambassador Brian Donnelly, Mr. G rard Fauveau, First Counsellor in the French Embassy, and Mr. Oleg Levitin, First Secretary in the Russian Embassy. Participating in the meeting were also Mr. Robert Norman and Mrs Rossella Franchini, political counsellors in the U.S. and Italian embassies, respectively. The diplomats representing the Contact Group conveyed the position of their government, expressing deep concerns and strong condemnation of actions of Serb forces in the Drenica region. The diplomats expressed their own sympathies for the suffering of the people in Drenica amidst these violent developments. President Ibrahim Rugova said the situation in Kosova has deteriorated dangerously in the wake of the attacks Serb police and military forces have launched against the local Albanian population in Drenica. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova urged for international pressure to make Belgrade bring an end to Serb police/military crackdown. He urged in addition for the international community to establish a presence of all possible forms in Kosova so as to create the conditions necessary to pursue a political resolution of the Kosova issue. The people of Kosova have been committed all along for a political and negotiated settlement to the Kosova crisis, President Rugova underlined, pressing for steppe-up international efforts to secure that a talks process between Kosova and Serbia, under an effective intermediation, is established in pursuit of a peaceful settlement. "Of the highest urgency now, however, is to get the Serbs bring an end to the outrageous operations in Drenica and allow medical and humanitarian relief in", President Rugova emphasized. The diplomats of the Contact Group countries were in Prishtina today in the run-up to a ministerial level meeting of the Group in London on Monday to discuss the situation in Kosova.

06-MAR-98 18:23 NNN KOSOVOP: YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL ADMITS CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

(ANSA) - Pristina, March 6 - The Yugoslav official in charge in Kosovo's capital of Pristina Milos Odulevic admitted for the first time today that civilians have died after security forces were moved into the ethnic Albanian region to snuff out the local independence movement. But, meeting the Italian ambassador in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, Riccardo Sessa, today, he denied reports that Yugoslav army units have been used in the operations, but said there have been civilian casualties. Reports reaching the international media have suggested a death-toll ranging from scores to hundreds. Kosovo, whose population is 90% Albanian, is part of Serbia which, with Montenegro, forms what is left of the Yugoslav federation. In their meeting, the Italian diplomat urged Odulevic and the Serbian government information office to let international reporters into the area. ''''Very approximate reports are circulating, and they only increase tensions,'' said Sessa. ''This is why the zone must be opened to the international press.'' But, as Odulevic voiced the Serbian authorities' determination to ''cut short terrorism'' in Kosovo, the diplomat urged the need to avoid any further escalation in the crisis: (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 19:21 NNN KOSOVOP: YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL ADMITS CIVILIAN CASUALTIES (2)

''I invited Odulevic to reflect on the risks an escalation could provoke throughout the region, and I expressed the need for a political initiative in Belgrade and Pristina.'' Reports here earlier said that artillery and automatic fire resumed near Drenica in central Kosovo where about fifty deaths were reported yesterday. A local human rights organiser, Adam Meta, reported by telephone that some Kosovians are fleeing to Macedonia. He also reported about 500 police agents around the town of Srbica and the continual movement of military vehicles. The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo Ibrahim Rugova, which is the non-violent spearhead of the independence movement, issued an appeal this morning for international intervention to stop the ''massacre of the Albanians''. ''International protection is necessary and urgent,'' he said in a direct appeal to the West's leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. (In Tirana, a crowd of at least 20,000 rallied in support of the Kosovo Albanians, bringing government and opposition parties out on the same side of the barricades in some time.) (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 19:21 NNN KOSOVOP: YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL ADMITS CIVILIAN CASUALTIES (3)

(Albanian President Rexhep Meidani and other political leadeds found unity in nationalism with appeals to the US, the EU and the international community to halt the violence in Kosovo.) (Slogans supporting the banned Kosovo Liberation Army were heard and many in the crowd chanted, Give us arms!.) (Also in Tirana, the Albanian defence ministry reported Serbian military forces near Kosovo's frontier with Albania and reported that special army units are flanking the police, ''using all types of arms'' against the local people.) (The ministry also announced military exercises the next few hours in the parts of northeastern Albania bordering on Kosovo. ''The Albanian army is ready to carry out its duties in defence of national interests,'' said the ministry.) (END).06-MAR-98 19:23 NNN KOSOVO: 'SPECTRE OF WAR' AS INTERNATIONAL MOVES DEVELOP

(ANSA) - Rome, March 6 - The Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, saw the ''spectre of war'' hovering over the Balkans again and Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana voiced ''deep concern'' as the international community today debated how it should move over the crisis in Kosovo. Yugoslav security forces were moved into Kosovo earlier this week to crush the local independence movement in a region in which 90% of the population are ethnic Albanians. Reports reaching the international media claimed a death toll ranging from scores to hundreds. Meeting the Italian ambassador in Belgrade, Riccardo Sessa, today, the Yugoslav official in charge in Kosovo, Milos Odulevic admitted civilian casualties for the first time and was urged to open the area up to the media to halt the ''very approximate'' reports now circulating. But, at the same meeting, the threat of escalation in the Balkans was the main issue, as it was in capitals throughout the world. Solana told a Spanish radio interviewer in Prague this morning that the Kosovo crisis could spill over into a ''much larger conflict''. (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 20:31 NNN KOSOVO: 'SPECTRE OF WAR' AS INTERNATIONAL MOVES DEVELOP (2)

Arriving for a short visit to Bratislava later, he laid the ''main'' blame for the crisis at the door of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and said Kosovo's autonomy must be returned to its previous status, a nod at the deep-running roots for the present crisis, reaching back to the 1980s. Bilateral moves continue, for example, a visit to Belgrade by Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and an offer of good offices from Greece. In Ankara, Turkish officials urged the dispatch of an international peace force to Kosovo, and the Anadolu news agency reported that Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz phoned Milosevic to tell him that Turkey cannot ''remain indifferent'' to what happens in the region. After meetings in Belgrade, Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos said Greece condemns ''separatism and terrorism'' in Kosovo and is against any attempt to change Balkan frontiers. He suggested that a good start could be made by holding talks to apply the educational agreement signed by Serbs and Albanians in 1996. ''This may be a way of creating a climate of mutual trust,'' he said. (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 20:31 NNN KOSOVO: 'SPECTRE OF WAR' AS INTERNATIONAL MOVES DEVELOP (3)

The agreement was brokered by the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic charity organisation used for semi- official diplomacy in international crisis spots, which currently has a delegation in Pristina for talks with Ibrahim Rugova, president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. But the next key international meeting on the crisis is expected to be the session of the Contact Group for ex- Yugoslavia convened in London on Monday. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who returned from Belgrade yesterday without getting a ''satisfactory reply'' from Milosevic, said today that the group's emergency meeting should bring pressures to bear on Milosevic to ''end the repression immediately''. In alarmed tones, he said the six nations - Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and the United States - should make a clear condemnation of terrorism and examine the crisis's implications for the Balkans as a whole, ''particularly Albania and the ex-Yugoslav republic of Macedonia''. But Russia signalled unwillingness to go along unquestioningly with the coalition formed during the Bosnian crisis by saying it would send only a deputy foreign minister, rather than the full foreign ministers to be sent by the other participants. (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 20:32 NNN KOSOVO: 'SPECTRE OF WAR' AS INTERNATIONAL MOVES DEVELOP (4)

In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official was quoted as describing appeals from some Western countries for ''direct interference'' in the crisis and an ''accentuation'' of the embargo against Yugoslavia as ''unacceptable''. According to statements from this and other Russian officials, the nub of the Russian position is a condemnation of terrorism by the ''so-called'' Kosovo Liberation Army, and Belgrade's renunciation of the use of force in the crisis in favour of a political approach that maintains Yugoslav territorial integrity. Disagreeing with arguments against international intervention, the Osservatore claimed that, in an ''increasingly interdependent world'', nothing can be considered as an individual state's domestic problem when issues involving the ''dignity, liberty and life of persons, and even entire peoples'' are at stake. The Vatican newspaper also warned that, in a re-run of the tragedy that devastated so much of the Balkans earlier in the 1990s, ''the voice of arms seems ready to suffocate the voices of dialogue and peace'' in Kosovo: (MORE).

BJ 06-MAR-98 20:32 NNN KOSOVO: 'SPECTRE OF WAR' AS INTERNATIONAL MOVES DEVELOP (5)

''European diplomacy is seeking febrilely to prevent further and probably unstoppable explosions of violence, but once more seems forced to suffer events without knowing how to prevent them... ''The international community is therefore called on to move before it is too late and finally make use of what it learned from the tragic lesson of this decade of blood in the Balkans.'' Meanwhile, Albanians demonstrated in front of UN offices in New York and Geneva urging international moves for Kosovo and recognition of the region's autonomy. At the same time, the International Red Cross Committee said in Geneva that it has begin supplying medical aid to Pristina, but reported that it has denied access to those arrested during the recent clashes. Also in Geneva, the UN High Commission for Refugees voiced 'extreme concern'' over the explosion of violence in Kosovo. ''Our experience of seven years of war in the Balkans has taught us that sporadic incidents can degenerate and turn into a major conflict,'' said UNHCR spokesman, Kris Janoski. The UNHCR also called on all parties to abstain from force, warning that an escalation of the violence could ''destabilise the whole region and cause a new wave of refugees''. (END).

Police say Kosovo separatist core destroyed, leader killed

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service

PRISTINA, Serbia (March 6, 1998 5:18 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Serbian police said Friday they had "destroyed the core" of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army in central Kosovo, killing guerrilla leader Adem Jasari and capturing 30 of his fighters.

Jasari was killed during a two-day assault on KLA bastions in mountains west of the Kosovo capital of Pristina that started Thursday morning, a police statement said.

Serbian television showed pictures of the Jasari family compound, littered with corpses and shell hole punches in the walls of badly damaged houses and barns.

The official account did not add to the death toll of 20 Albanians and two Serb policemen announced Thursday, although Albanian informants reported at least 50 dead on the first day and fighting Friday was reported to be fierce.

Unofficial Serb sources told Reuters that Albanians, armed with machine-guns and hand-held rocket launchers, put up strong resistance.

Thirty KLA men were reported to have surrendered under guarantees of their personal safety, police said.

Jasari was described as a KLA leader trained across the border in Albania and sentenced to 20 years in absentia for "terrorist attacks" in Kosovo in which police and civilians were wounded.

Villagers fled their homes across the Drenica region of central Kosovo to escape the two days of fighting, which was concentrated on the Jasari family village of Prekaz 15 miles west of Pristina.

Serb informants said police opened a corridor from Prekaz and neighboring Luasha at the start of the operation to allow women and children to leave. "Anyone who stayed behind is considered a terrorist," one Serb source said.

The Albanian information center in Pristina said a large number of women and children had remained in Prekaz while men moved out of the village under cover of dark after Serbian police withdrew for the night.

The area around the villages was sealed off, but the sound of shooting and loud detonations could be heard in the nearby town of Srbica.

The violence erupted a week ago, sparking Western fears for Balkan stability and U.S. threats of military intervention or renewed sanctions against Belgrade.

Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the biggest Kosovo Albanian political party, accused Serbia of unleashing police attacks to "ethnically cleanse" central Kosovo of its Albanian population.

He told reporters in Pristina that women and children were also killed during the police raids.

"Attacks in Drenica are part of Serb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo," he said. "We denounce the attacks in the strongest terms and call on the international community to take immediate, concrete steps to save the people of Kosovo."

The bloodshed, and the risk that it might spill outside Serbia's southernmost province, has alarmed Serbia's neighbors, including Albania.

The Albanian government said it had put its army on high alert along its northern border with Kosovo.

Some 20,000 ethnic Albanians demonstrated in Skopje, capital of neighboring Macedonia, to demand Western intervention and a U.N. war crimes trial for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Milosevic brushed aside the U.S. threats and warned the West that he intended to wipe out KLA "terrorism" in Kosovo, whose population is 90 percent Albanian.

Serbia's ruling Socialist party said "threats of sanctions and a military intervention are nonsense."

Belgrade newspapers quoted Ivica Dacic, the party spokesman, as saying: "If states were to have sanctions imposed upon them for unsolved internal problems, most of the world would be under sanctions because many countries have problems similar to that of Kosovo."

Diplomats believe Milosevic's show of force in Kosovo, where his police pursued the KLA with armored vehicles and Russian-built Hind attack helicopters, was an attempt to force the West into a trade off.

The casualties were intended to pressure the West, and the United States in particular, into lifting the so-called "outer wall" of sanctions against Yugoslavia in return for giving some autonomy back to Kosovo, they said.

The "outer wall," a hangover from the U.N. sanctions imposed on Milosevic during the Bosnian war, denies Yugoslavia the international finance it needs to rebuild its crippled economy.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos visited Belgrade for talks with the government and expressed support for Milosevic's view.

By JOVAN KOVACIC

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - With amazing speed, Kosovo has replaced Iraq as the focus of Western concern as rising bloodshed in Serbia's southern province threatens to undermine hard-won, and still fragile, peace in the Balkans. In advance of an urgent meeting of major power foreign ministers in London on Monday, the debate is hauntingly reminiscent of the one that preceded meaningful Western action on Bosnia several years ago. Did the United States and its allies turn a blind eye to signs that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was preparing a bloody crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population? If the world community acted sooner, could it have persuaded Milosevic not to unleash Serbian police and prevented the deaths of at least 50 ethnic Albanians in the last week? Did the United States unwittingly give Milosevic a ``green light'' or at least ``political cover'' for the violence, as some claim, by branding the Kosovo Liberation Army as terrorists? Will divisions among the United States and its partners in the Balkans -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia -- thwart meaningful pressure on Milosevic at the London meeting that could keep Kosovo from erupting into a full-scale civil war that could engulf the rest of the Balkans? The United States, mediator of the 1995 Dayton accord that ended the Bosnia War, has been warning Milosevic since 1992 against cracking down on Kosovo, whose 90 percent Albanian population was stripped of autonomy in 1989. But as a concern, Kosovo always played a subsidiary role to Bosnia, where the major powers have devoted thousands of NATO-led troops and millions of dollars to a peace settlement. This has been despite the fact Kosovo is widely viewed as the powder keg that could ignite broader regional conflict because it is revered by Serbs and is a nexus of interest for Greece, Albania and Turkey among other countries. ``People have been worried about Kosovo for a long time but our policy seemed aimed just at containment, not addressing the problems of Kosovo,'' said Kurt Bassuener of the Balkan Institute, which has often faulted U.S. policy in the region. ``I think the United States has been fumbling this horribly ... This is the worst violence in Kosovo since 1989,'' he said. U.S. Bosnia envoy Robert Gelbard has made a point of discussing Kosovo, which Washington says should have greater autonomy but not independence, in his contacts with Milosevic. On Feb. 22, he visited the restive province and said there was an urgent need for dialogue between ethnic Albanians and Belgrade. The major powers jointly made a similar call. However, although Milosevic showed scant sign of moving in this direction -- and some U.S. sources say Washington already had ``ample warning'' he was moving arms into Kosovo -- Gelbard the next day granted Belgrade a concession by announcing that some minor economic sanctions would be lifted. The concessions, including U.S. landing rights for Yugoslav national airline charter flights, were an apparent reward for Milosevic backing new more moderate leaders in the Serb Republic of Bosnia, which helped bolster peace efforts there. The history of peacemaking in Bosnia has always involved trade-offs, not all of them wise or effective. Bassuener said recent experiences shows Milosevic wielded ''his cooperation on Bosnian Serbs in a way to prevent any effective pressure on him on any other issues, like Kosovo.'' Since the bloodshed escalated last weekend amid reports Serbian police may have massacred ethnic Albanians, the United States revoked its concessions and escalated its rhetoric. Gelbard talked toughest, warning of possible new sanctions on Belgrade and hinting at future military action if needed. ``We continue to be prepared to deal with this problem (of Kosovo), with Milosevic, with his military and with his police, using every appropriate tool we have at our command,'' he said. U.S. officials said his comments helped persuade allies Washington was serious about dealing with Milosevic forcefully at the London foreign ministers' meeting. But after frantic messages of concern from Europe, Washington apparently got cold feet about seeming too ready to use military threats -- in public -- against Milosevic. Even former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who was severely faulted in 1993-95 for U.S. inaction on Bosnia, warned publicly in February 1993: ``We remain prepared to respond against the Serbians in the event of a conflict in Kosovo caused by Serbian action.'' European analysts said talk of military action was a nonstarter. U.S. officials said while the current focus is diplomatic pressure, military action must remain as an option. But Bassuener, echoing other critics, said ``the only way you're ever going to get Milosevic to think twice about what he's doing in Kosovo is to have the threat of force, including air strikes ...You need to respond to this immediately.''

Bonn urges security council session on Kosovo Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service

BONN (March 6, 1998 10:24 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on Friday called on the United Nations Security Council to conduct an urgent meeting to prevent the conflict in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo spreading across the region.

Kinkel stopped short of calling for a re-imposition of sanctions against Yugoslavia, which the United States and Britain favor, while distancing himself from militant Kosovo Albanians that Belgrade has branded "terrorists."

The minister said he had written to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging the Security Council to deal with the matter immediately.

"The situation in Kosovo is highly explosive. We are in the eleventh hour. The fuse of the power keg of ethnic clashes between Kosovo Albanians and Belgrade is still glowing," Kinkel said in a three-page ministry statement.

"Day after day reports reach us of bloody clashes, not least yesterday with at least 20 victims," he said, referring to the killing of 20 Albanians by Serb police in an operation against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, are seeking independence from Belgrade which removed the southern Serbian province's autonomy within the former Yugoslavia in 1989.

Kinkel said he would have detailed talks with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Bonn on Sunday about the situation in Kosovo and that he would also visit Belgrade with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine on March 19.

A Bonn foreign ministry spokesman said during the visit they would meet Yugoslav government officials and it was possible they would also meet Albanian Nationalist leader Ibrahim Rugova.

A day before that, Kinkel and Vedrine will meet Croatian government officials have expressed grave concern the violence in Kosovo could lead to a wider regional crisis.

Kinkel said foreign ministers from the whole region should try to defuse the conflict in talks with International Contact Group foreign ministers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy.

The group hold an urgent meeting in London on Monday to discuss the situation.

"Militant Kosovo Albanians should know terrorism, provocations and violence do not help their cause," Kinkel said. "Belgrade should also know its return ticket into Europe is dependent on how it behaves over the Kosovo question."

Kinkel said he had also asked the U.N. to extend the mandate of its peacekeeping forces in neighboring Macedonia, as their presence helped regional stability.

Economic sanctions were imposed on Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro, during the 1992-95 Bosnian war by the U.N. to pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into meeting the terms of the Bosnian peace process.

Nationalists battle Serb police in heavy Kosovo fighting

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service PRISTINA, Serbia (March 6, 1998 10:24 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Serbian police battling heavily armed Albanians nationalists in their mountain strongholds of central Kosovo on Friday met fierce resistance and casualties were high, Serb sources said.

Fighting was concentrated around the villages of Prekaz and Lausha where Albanian informants claimed 50 nationalists were killed on Thursday, more than double the official toll given by police.

Unofficial Serbian sources said the number of dead was probably even higher as suspected guerrillas of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) defended their homes with machineguns and hand-held rocket launchers.

They said police opened a corridor from the villages at the start of the operation to allow women and children to leave. "Anyone who stayed behind is considered a terrorist," one Serb source said.

The Albanian information centre in Pristina reported that a large number of women and children had remained in Prekaz and that men had moved out of the village under cover of dark after Serbian police withdrew for the night.

The area round the villages, 25 km (15 miles) west of the Kosovo capital of Pristina, was sealed off but the sound of firing and loud detonations could be heard in the nearby town of Srbica.

The violence erupted a week ago, sparking Western fears for Balkan stability and U.S. threats of renewed sanctions against Belgrade and military intervention.

Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the biggest Kosovo Albanian political party, accused Serbia of unleashing police attacks to "ethnically cleanse" central Kosovo of its Albanian population.

Large numbers of women and children are reported to have fled the Drenica area leaving their menfolk behind to fight.

Rugova told reporters in Pristina that women and children were also killed during the police raids.

"Attacks in Drenica are part of Serb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo," he said. "We denounce the attacks in the strongest terms and call on the international community to take immediate, concrete steps to save the people of Kosovo."

The bloodshed, and the risk that it might spill outside Serbia's southernmost province has alarmed Serbia's neighbours including Albania proper.

The Albanian government said it had put its army on high alert along its northern border with Kosovo on Friday.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has brushed aside the U.S. threats and warned the West he intends to wipe out KLA "terrorism" in Kosovo whose population is 90 percent Albanian.

Serbia's ruling Socialist party said "threats of sanctions and a military intervention are nonsense."

Belgrade newspapers quoted Ivica Dacic, the party spokesman, as saying: "If states were to have sanctions imposed upon them for unsolved internal problems, most of the world would be under sanctions because many countries have problems similar to that of Kosovo."

Diplomats believe Milosevic's ruthless show of force in Kosovo, where his police have pursued the KLA with armoured vehicles and Russian-built Hind attack helicopters, is an attempt to force the West into a trade off.

The high death toll was intended to pressure the West, and the United States into particular, into the immediate lifting of the so-called "outer wall" of sanctions against Yugoslavia in return for giving some autonomy back to Kosovo.

The "outer wall" a hangover from the U.N. sanctions imposed on Milosevic during the Bosnian war, denies Yugoslavia the international finance it needs to rebuild its crippled economy.

Milosevic told British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, on a European Union mediation mission to Belgrade on Thursday, that independence demands by the Albanians were the cause of the problem.

Cook said Milosevic defied the West's threats and maintained "a robust position" that insisted Kosovo's future was in internal issue for Serbia to settle.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, who visited Belgrade on Friday for talks with the government, expressed support for Milosevic's view.

Serbian police found underground bunkers containing makeshift surgical theatres and an arms cache during Thursday's raids.

They uncovered four bunkers when they captured the village of Prekaz including one hiding eight KLA men. One concealed weapons and two others contained hospital equipment including beds, operating tables and medical supplies.

By JOVAN KOVACIC, Reuters.

Kosova Information Center KOSOVA DAILY REPORT # 1364-A Prishtina, 7 March 1998

First Edition: 13:30 hrs

Redeployment of Serb Forces Underway in Drenica

PRISHTINA, March 7 (KIC) 12:00 hrs - The situation in Drenica, especially in the Prekaz i Ul&t and Llausha villages of Skenderaj (in Serbian 'Srbica'), continues to be extremely grave in the wake of Serb armed/police operations launched there two days ago. Heavy armament, tanks, and helicopter gunships were involved in the attacks which amounted to a combined police/paramilitary/military operation of Serb forces in the past two days, targeting first and foremost the Prekaz village. Scores of Albanians are feared dead, and many other wounded, although it is impossible to establish the death toll and the number of wounded. Today (Saturday) morning, reports indicated that the area is still sealed off. Surces from a village close to Prekaz, as well as sources from Llausha, told the Kosova Information Center (KIC) this morning that there was a cessation of Serb armed attacks since last evening. Nobody is allowed in, neither political and humanitarian activists, nor journalists. It remains to be seen what will ensue, an end or resumption of further activities on the part of Serb military/police forces against the local population. Meanwhile, the residents who have found themselves in the Serb siege are running out of food supplies, the wounded are without any medical help, the killed are inside the houses, in yards, but also on the streets and the fields. The Serb regime continues its outrageous behavior. Even after two days of heavy shelling by Serb forces in the Albanian villages, it does not allow any kind of assistance for the wounded, old men, women and children. A local source told KIC last night, the medical personnel in the Skenderaj hospital have found themselves caught in and unable to got out for several days now. In the meantime, Serb forces have engaged in all activities to see that the local people in Drenica flee their homes. Some 5000 Albanians - mostly old men, women and children - have moved out the area, and moved in villages of Mitrovica and Vushtrri (in Serbian 'Vucitern'). Reports indicated that during the night and in the course of today there was increased movement of Serb forces, presumably to redeploy and/or bring in reinforcements. At 7:30 this morning, local sources from Mitrovica said 7 cars (six jeeps and a Niva car) with license plates of Kraljevo and Kragujevac (Serbia) left Mitrovica heading for Skenderaj. Scores of bearded and long-haired Serbs were said to be on board the cars. Meanwhile, at 9:30 hrs three busloads of Serb policemen left Skenderaj for Mitrovica. This gives weight to reports about Serb intentions to bring in fresh troops and redeploy the others. Statements by Serb regime authorities Friday evening that they had wrapped up the armed operation in Prekaz seem to be aimed at misleading the world. It is hoped here that the international community will have had enough of the Serb propaganda mendacity and the ploys of the President of the "FRY" Slobodan Milosevic. The Serbian police is keeping under a strict grip a large territory in Kosova surrounding Drenica. A foreign TV crew was barred today in Vushtrri from proceeding towards Drenica.

Situation in Llausha, a Village under Serb Siege

PRISHTINA, March 7 (KIC) 13:15 hrs - A local LDK source told the KIC from Llausha village by phone at 12:30 hrs the following people have been killed at this village: Miftar Rrecaj, Sadik Ka^kini (46) and a woman with her two children, a boy, Gazmend Gashi (15), and a girl, Shukrije Gashi (13). Miftar Rrecaj was buried last night after the dusk had set. During the funeral procession a Serb sniper opened fire on the crowd of people paying the last honor to their fellow villager. This source, said at least six people in the village have been targeted by Serb snipers. A report from Skenderaj said that 18 members of the extended Jasharaj family, who had been rounded up and were being held in detention in the yard of the Skenderaj Game Ammunition Factory, have been released today (Saturday). The age of those family members ranged from 2 months to 76 years. They have found shelter in the small town of Skenderaj. In Skenderaj, there is fear the number of the Albanians killed in Prekaz and Skenderaj exceeds 50. This figure was given by LDK sources in Skenderaj yesterday. The number of those wounded could be even higher. The situation in Skenderaj is described as grave and dangerous. The sound of shooting in Prekaz could be heard in Llausha today morning. A loud detonation was heard in the A^areva and Vojnika villages at 8:30 hrs. Movement of people in the small town of Skenderaj has all but ceased, with the exclusion of course of Serb policemen. The LDK branch in Skenderaj and other local organizations at Llasusha sent a dramatic appeal to the international community to act so that this Serbian terrorist expedition is effectively brought to an end. The final goal of such Serba actions is to ethnically cleanse Kosova. The way the Serb attacks have been carried out, the methods used by them, are tactics by now familiar to the world: they were employed in the Bosnian war, and the perpetrators of such dreadful atrocities are being tried in the Hague, LDK branch activists in Skenderaj underlines. They called for medical staff and international humanitarian organizations to enter the Drenica area and offer the necessary assistance to the wounded and ensure that the dead are buried.

Stories about Atrocities of Serb Forces in Drenica

PRISHTINA, March 7 (KIC) - Covering the ongoing attack of the Serb forces in Drenica, the two Prishtina-based Albanian-language daily newspapers Bujku and Koha ditore have carried today shocking stories and testimonies of survivors. Bujku has interviewed a resident of Prekaz, Zen& Jashari, who was able to leave the village. Zen& Jashari (43) said his wife and his son Abdullah were killed by Serbs, whereas two other kids of his, Bajram and Dula, were captured by Serb forces. He was not able to learn a thing about their fate ever since. Zen& Jashari said that he had also seen the police killing his neighbours Halit (Jashari) and his wife, Zymer (Jashari), with his two children, as well as other neighbours of his. The house of Shaban Jashari was shelled and burned to the ground, and two Serb armoured vehicles moved on in its ruins subsequently, he said. If the family members of Shaban Jashari were inside as it was said, then there is no doubt none of them is alive, Zen& Jashari told Bujku correspondent in Skenderaj. Sources have said that Shaban Jashari and at least three other Albanians of Prekaz and Llausha have refused to vacate their houses in advance of and during the attack of Serb forces. Bujku has quoted an Albanian from Skenderaj, Shaban Gashi, as saying that he had seen himself a woman and her teen-age son and daughter being killed near a Serb check-point just outside the small town of Skenderaj. They were killed by the Serb police while in an attempt to move out of the area, he said. Koha ditore has quoted evacuees from Prekaz village as saying that they had made a narrow escape and that they had witnessed dreadful atrocities. "In Prekaz village the Serbs cut the throat of a 12- year-old boy in front of his mother", evacuees said. They told this to the Koha reporter in condition of anonymity, fearing further Serb reprisals later, the newspaper said.

Kosova Information Center KOSOVA DAILY REPORT # 1364-B Prishtina, 7 March 1998

Second Edition: 15:00 hrs

President Rugova's Aides Arrested in Mitrovica

PRISHTINA, March 7 (KIC) - Three close aides of President Ibrahim Rugova of Kosova were arrested by Serb police in Mitrovica early afternoon today (Saturday), reportedly around 12:00 hrs. Dr. Alush Gashi, Presidential adviser for health and humanitarian issues, and two members of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) Presidency, Dr. Rexhep Gjergji and Mr. Basri Musmurati, were arrested today together with their driver, Mr. Lulzim Makolli. Presidential adviser Gashi and LDK leaders were on their way to Mitrovica and Skenderaj (in Serbian 'Srbica') to get first-hand information about the most recent situation in this part of Kosova. Villages in the Skenderaj municipality, in the region of Drenica, have been under continued attack by Serb forces, equipped with military equipment. Scores of civilian Albanians, including women and children, have been reported killed in Drenica during Serb police/military crackdown. Thousands of Albanians - mostly old men, women and children - have fled their homes from the area surrounding the Drenica region.

At Least 25 Albanians Killed in Prekaz and Llausha Identified

PRISHTINA, March 7 (KIC) - The KIC sources in Vushtrri ('Vucitrn' in Serbian), Skenderaj ('Srbica'), Llausha and Mitrovica, as well as the Bujku daily newspaper, have been able to obtain the names of some of the persons killed during the Serb forces's attack in Drenica. Among them are: Nazmi Jashari, age 27; Qazim Jashari, teacher, together with his son (name and age could not be obtained); Zuk& Jashari, age 67; Sherif Jashari, age 46; Shaban Jashari, age 76; Habib Jashari; Faik Jashari; Ali Jashari, and another person originally from Luboveci, but residing in Prekaz village, his name unknown; Zen& Jasharit, his wife age 43 (her name could not be obtained), and his son Abdullahu Jashari, age unknown; two members of Jashari family, cousins of Zen& Jashari; Halit Jashari together with his wife; two sons of Zymber Jasharit, and some of his neighbours; Hamide Jashari (f), age 70. All of them are natives of Prekaz village. In Llausha the Serbian forces killed Miftar Rrecaj; Sadik Ka^kini age 46; an Albanian woman together with her two children, Gazmend Gashi, age 15, and Shukrije Gashin (f) age 13.

Serb forces battle nationalists in continued Kosovo fighting

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (March 7, 1998 08:36 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Despite international condemnation, Serb forces stepped up attacks to crush an independence movement by the province's ethnic Albanian majority.

Serb authorities cut off phone lines and erected roadblocks Friday to bar outsiders from the Drenica region of Kosovo -- but reporters heard explosions booming beyond the checkpoints.

Local Albanian officials also spoke of massacres, saying Serbs had set houses afire, were shooting at random, and had sent hundreds of villagers fleeing before Serb tanks.

For the second straight day, Serb police swept through towns and hamlets in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs 9-to-1 and are increasingly demanding autonomy. The police claimed Friday they had destroyed a "terrorist base" in the province.

Ethnic Albanian officials said Serb police were busing in heavy reinforcements for the attacks, apparently focused on Donji Prekaz and the neighboring village of Llausha.

Fearing a possible civil war, nervous residents of Pristina, 20 miles from the Drenica region, crowded shops and gas stations to stockpile staples.

Increased fighting in Kosovo would have grave consequences for all of southeastern Europe, warned Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the largest ethnic Albanian political party in Kosovo.

"Kosovo needs international protection in all possible forms," Rugova said.

Elsewhere, there were increasing fears of what might be unfolding in the province.

"This is ultimately a very, very scary scenario. We are alarmed because we have seen it all before. We have seen it in Bosnia," said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva.

Since last week, the crackdown has claimed at least 51 lives by Serb count -- 45 Albanians and six Serb police. There was no firm word on any casualties Friday or any independent verification of the Serbs' death count of 20 ethnic Albanians and two Serbs on Thursday.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel urged an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. But diplomats indicated that Russia's stand -- backing Serbia's right to defend its territorial integrity -- could limit any U.N. effort to stem the violence.

In neighboring countries, tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians demonstrated in the capitals of Macedonia and Albania, urging world leaders to step in. Smaller rallies were held in Vienna, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich.

Albania put its army on high alert along the border with Kosovo, citing an increase in Serbian troops on the opposite side.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who took away Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, has refused to budge from his position that Kosovo is solely the concern of Yugoslavia, a two-part federation of Serbia and Montenegro.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, back from a failed diplomatic trip to Belgrade, said leading world powers would meet Monday to decide "how to bring home to President Milosevic the need for an immediate end to repressive action."

The Albanian Kosovo information center, which claimed there were 50 deaths Thursday, said there were attacks Friday on family compounds, with houses set ablaze.

Serb police, who declined to be identified, said the offensive would be wrapped up by Sunday.

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer

Albright: US Won't Tolerate Kosovo Violence

ROME (Reuters) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Saturday the United States would not tolerate a return to bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia and believed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was responsible for the Kosovo problem.

Albright said armed intervention by Western states in the Yugoslav province was not discussed in her talks with Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini but she did not exclude any sort of response.

Dozens of people from Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian community have been reported killed in recent clashes with Serbian security forces.

"We did not discuss armed intervention...we do not rule out anything out," Albright told a joint news conference with Dini ahead of an audience with Pope John Paul and meeting with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi later Saturday.

"We are not going to tolerate any return to the politics of divide and rule in any part of former Yugoslavia," she added.

Albright's meeting with Dini preceded a meeting of the Big Power "Contact Group," which co-ordinates policies on the region of former Yugoslavia, in London Monday focusing on promoting compromise between the two sides rather than pursuing sanctions against Belgrade.

"We condemn the violence. We believe President Milosevic bears responsibility for this," Albright said. "We believe there should be a peaceful pursuit of the legitimate political rights of the people of Kosovo."

Violence between security police and separatist Albanians erupted a week ago in Kosovo, a province in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, sparking Western fears of a renewed explosion of bloodshed in the Balkans.

The Democratic League of Kosovo, the province's biggest Albanian political party, has accused Serbia of unleashing police attacks to "ethnically cleanse" central Kosovo of its Albanian population.

Serbian police have claimed victory in two days of fighting with ethnic Albanian separatists, saying they had "destroyed the core" of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and killed its guerrilla leader.

Diplomats say Milosevic apparently took an earlier U.S. decision to brand the KLA as a terrorist organization as a green light to crack down on Kosovo's Albanian militants.

Serb forces defy calls for peace in Kosovo

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

U.N. human rights chief urges action on Kosovo Bonn urges security council session on Kosovo Major events in Kosovo conflict since 1989

DONJI PREKAZ, Yugoslavia (March 7, 1998 11:24 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Serb police said Saturday they were pushing ahead with a crackdown on "terrorists" in Kosovo province, where ethnic Albanians are seeking independence and dozens of people have been killed in recent violence.

The extent of the casualties could not be confirmed, but reporters who were allowed into some villages found destroyed houses and terrified villagers who had fled ahead of Serb tanks and other heavy armor.

The Serb action has defied increasing international calls to settle the crisis peacefully in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians comprise 90 percent of the population but Serbs maintain control through a large military and police presence. Serb police say they are trying to eliminate the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army and restore order.

Ethnic Albanian leaders have warned that increased fighting in Kosovo would have grave consequences for all of southeastern Europe.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Saturday condemned the Serb police action and said the United States would not stand idly by.

"We are not going to tolerate any return to the politics of 'divide and rule' anywhere in the former Yugoslavia," Albright said after talks with Italian officials in Rome. "We are not going to stand by and watch the Serbian authorities do in Kosovo what they can no longer get away with doing in Bosnia."

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who took away Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, has refused to budge from his position that Kosovo is solely the concern of Yugoslavia, a two-part federation of Serbia and Montenegro.

Police in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, said the crackdown was continuing.

"The terrorist base in the village of Donji Prekaz has been destroyed, but the action is continuing," police Col. Ljubinko Cvetic told a news conference.

Contrary to an earlier claim by a local government official in Pristina, roads in the area were not open.

But reporters managed to get to the edge of Donji Prekaz, overlooking it and two other villages from a nearby hill. All men from the three villages had escaped into the mountains.

Policemen were seen in groups around a local ammunition factory and a brick factory. Several armored vehicles with guns mounted on top were parked there.

Reporters reaching the Cicevica Mountains in the Drenica area found 93 crying women and children crowded into a small house with no food or running water. They had fled from the three villages, apparently the focus of the police operation.

The group included 25 babies, one of whom was born earlier in the day, and 40 other children.

In Pristina, the police colonel said 26 "terrorists" and two policemen had been killed in the three-day police action in the three villages -- a slight increase from the "more than 20" figure cited by Serb police the previous day.

Overall casualty figures since violence erupted a week ago were unclear. The Serbs say 51 people have been killed -- 45 Albanians and six Serb police. Local Albanian officials say the death toll is much higher and that Serbs had set houses afire, were shooting at random, and had sent hundreds of villagers fleeing.

Serb police had said the crackdown would end by Sunday.

-- By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer