A rchive Date
[ 27-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Yugoslavia ]
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[Serb forces shell northern Albanian town
By MERITA DHIMGJOKA - Associated Press Writer
TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Serb forces shelled a northern Albanian border town crowded with refugees late Saturday, sending relief workers and residents fleeing into cellars, international officials said. Eight shells exploded in Kruma, nine miles north of Kukes and about five miles west of the Yugoslav border, according to officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
OSCE spokesman Andrea Angeli said there was no word on casualties and damage because the organization's personnel were stuck in cellars for their own safety. Angeli also said three shells hit the nearby village of Nikoliq, injuring three young women.
Yugoslavia's acceptance of the international peace plan for Kosovo has not brought an end to shelling in the border areas, where rebels from the Kosovo Liberation Army are trying to move fighters and supplies into the province to continue their fight for independence.
Late Friday, Angeli said, Serb-led Yugoslav forces shelled several Albanian border villages, injuring two people in Perollaj and mortally wounding an 18-year-old woman in the village of Golaj.
The KLA's press service, Kosova Press, also reported Serb attacks around the town of Malisevo, a former rebel stronghold 21 miles southwest of the provincial capital, Pristina. Kosova Press said Yugoslav forces attacked villages around Malisevo with tanks and mortars.
"While Europe celebrates the possible end to NATO airstrikes, it seems the champagne has been opened prematurely," Kosova Press said.
Kosova Press also reported Yugoslav forces fired nine rockets at refugees hiding in a gorge in the Berisha mountains of southern Kosovo, injuring 15 civilians.
The reports could not be confirmed because no international monitors are in the province and journalists are restricted in their movements.
Continued fighting underscores the difficulties that international peacekeepers will face in trying to restore order in the turbulent province after Yugoslav troops, police and paramilitary forces withdraw as demanded by NATO.
The NATO-backed peace plan agreed to by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday calls for the KLA to disarm. But rebel leaders have said they will not lay down their arms until all Serb-led forces have left Kosovo and an international peacekeeping force is in place.
In a statement Friday, the Albanian government said Belgrade's acceptance of the peace plan "does not mean that the resolution of the (Kosovo) problem has begun." The statement noted continued shelling along the border.
"Immediately after voting upon this plan by the Serb parliament, Serb artillery intensified its bombing of Albanian villages on the border between Kosovo and Albania," the statement said.
The Albanian government said only the speedy entry of NATO troops into Kosovo "can guarantee security in the region."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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