More Clashes Break Out in Kosovo
May 4, 1998 - 0:0
BAJRAM CURRI, Albania Fighting broke out on Sunday in the province of Kosovo near the Albanian border with the sounds of mortar, machinegun and rifle fire coming from a village. Diplomats were told ethnic Albanians had attacked a police station. From the Albanian side of the border at Qafe Morina, 250 km (156 miles) northeast of Tirana, reporters heard intermittent fire from the village of Ponosevac in Kosovo, seven km east of the border with Albania, for about 20 minutes in the morning.
The sounds of firing echoed through the lush green valley and smoke rose from the center of Ponosevac. Diplomats from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who at the time were close to the border, speaking to Serbian border guards, later said the Serbs told them it was an attack by ethnic Albanians on a police station in the village.
The Serbs said it was an attack on a police station, OSCE Ambassador Daan Everts, a Dutch diplomat, told Reuters. There must have been heavy retaliation. No other details were available. Sunday's reported attack came after three ethnic Albanians were killed and three wounded after fighting flared in the Drenica region of Kosovo on Saturday, witnesses said. Most Albanians in Kosovo, who constitute 90 percent of its population, want independence, which Serbia refuses to consider.
But it said it is willing to discuss some form of autonomy similar to that which Kosovo had from 1974 to 1989. At a meeting of a Contact Group in Rome on Wednesday, the United States and its European allies, except for Russia, decided to freeze Yugoslavia's assets abroad. They also threatened further moves against Belgrade unless there was progress by May 9 on opening a dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo, which many fear will be a new tinderbox of Balkan strife.
The OSCE has now eight international observers monitoring the 160 km (100 miles) mountainous border with Kosovo. Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, fearing that fighting in Kosovo might spread across the border, on Wednesday called for NATO troops to be deployed in the north of his country. (Reuter)
The sounds of firing echoed through the lush green valley and smoke rose from the center of Ponosevac. Diplomats from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who at the time were close to the border, speaking to Serbian border guards, later said the Serbs told them it was an attack by ethnic Albanians on a police station in the village.
The Serbs said it was an attack on a police station, OSCE Ambassador Daan Everts, a Dutch diplomat, told Reuters. There must have been heavy retaliation. No other details were available. Sunday's reported attack came after three ethnic Albanians were killed and three wounded after fighting flared in the Drenica region of Kosovo on Saturday, witnesses said. Most Albanians in Kosovo, who constitute 90 percent of its population, want independence, which Serbia refuses to consider.
But it said it is willing to discuss some form of autonomy similar to that which Kosovo had from 1974 to 1989. At a meeting of a Contact Group in Rome on Wednesday, the United States and its European allies, except for Russia, decided to freeze Yugoslavia's assets abroad. They also threatened further moves against Belgrade unless there was progress by May 9 on opening a dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo, which many fear will be a new tinderbox of Balkan strife.
The OSCE has now eight international observers monitoring the 160 km (100 miles) mountainous border with Kosovo. Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, fearing that fighting in Kosovo might spread across the border, on Wednesday called for NATO troops to be deployed in the north of his country. (Reuter)