Kosovo gunmen force Serb police to beat retreat
ALBANIAN rebels in the central Kosovo hills of
southwestern Serbia have scored their first
important success against the security apparatus
of President Milosevic of Yugoslavia with
the withdrawal of hundreds of police. In an area
from Titova Mitrovica in the east to Pec,
near the Albanian border, police patrols are
nowhere to be seen and cannot operate in the
countryside because of the threat of attack.
There have been at least
20 deaths in gunfights in the area over the past year between
security forces and Albanian rebels. Driving
from Pristina through the area this week, there
were no police visible during an 80-mile trip.
A year ago it was normal to be stopped every
few miles.
Kosovo is 90 per cent
ethnic Albanian but has been ruled by Serbs under martial law
since 1989. In the past year the pacifist Albanian
leadership of Ibrahim Rugova, elected in
extraordinary ballots last year, has been challenged
by more militant politicians and the
young fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA).
The little towns west
of Titova Mitrovica, such as Klina, Lausa and Rakos, have
become centres of support for the KLA, and over
the past three months there have been
regular armed clashes between Albanians and the
police. The Serb security apparatus is
gradually giving way and only the military can
venture into the hills.
In Lausa, guarded by
a blue armoured car, the family of Halit Geci, a teacher shot dead
by accident in a mêlée several weeks
ago, continues to mourn. His cousin, Istref Geci, is
pessimistic about the future. "I think more violence
will come. There is no political solution
to see now, in Belgrade or Pristina," he said.
Elections for the Government
of the self-styled Kosovo-Albanian Republic are due on
March 22, and Dr Rugova is looking increasingly
irrelevant and beleaguered amid the
deepening crisis.
The uprising in Albania
last year produced a seemingly unlimited supply of weapons
and ammunition for the KLA. Serb control of the
border is breaking down in some places,
particularly west of the key town of Djakovica,
where Serb and Albanian villagers have
been preyed on by paramilitary gangs who seem
to be based in Albania.
The KLA is run from
Western Europe and people in Lausa have little idea who the
leaders are. There is a widespread view, however,
that many are veterans of a conflict at
Trepca lead mine who escaped from Kosovo in 1990.
The Serb military are
well aware of this, and fear sabotage at key Kosovo industrial
installations, such as Trepca and the Glogovac
ferro-nickel complex and power station.
One army officer in Pristina said: "They know
what could hurt Belgrade. Individual
shootings are not a way to win anything here."
The army base in Titova
Mitrovica has tanks and armoured cars at the ready, but it is
far from clear what use they will be against
such a shadowy enemy.
Mr Milosevic's room
for political manoeuvre over Kosovo is limited. The region is central
to the Serbian identity and territorial concessions,
the only way to defuse growing Albanian
nationalism, are not a practical possibility
in Serbian politics.
Local Serbs fear a lengthy
breakdown of law and order but see little help coming from
Belgrade. An obvious danger being aired in the
Serb bars of Pristina is that Arkan, the
paramilitary leader and alleged war criminal
who comes from Kosovo and has extensive
business interests here, may yet enter the fray.