KLA threatens new wave of killing
By Philip Smucker in Skopje and Tim Butcher
Returning Kosovars risk border chaos
KOSOVO Liberation Army guerrillas are poised to sweep forward the
moment Serb forces begin the withdrawal agreed in Belgrade yesterday,
threatening more killing in Kosovo as Nato prepares to deploy in the
province.
The KLA yesterday reacted sceptically to the peace deal accepted by
Belgrade, which calls for the withdrawal of Serbian forces and for the
guerrillas to disarm. "We are not prepared to even discuss the future status of
our army until all the Serb forces have left Kosovo," said Ilir Rama, a KLA
official in the Albanian capital, Tirana. "And we won't be discussing
disarmament anyway."
Nato planners anxious for an orderly
withdrawal of Serb army, paramilitaries
and special police concede that the
presence of large numbers of KLA
members seeking vengeance against the
Serbs raises difficulties. The KLA's
command structure is weak and disunited,
meaning that assurances of restraint from
the senior commanders would be unlikely
to hold force on the ground.
It is likely that Nato troops advancing into
Kosovo will encounter pockets of fierce fighting between the KLA and Serb
troops who either refuse or are unable to withdraw. There might be Nato
casualties if they try to intervene and delays to the withdrawal if they do not. It
is possible that Serb commanders on the ground could argue they will not give
up their positions to meet their side of the deal until the KLA is forced to lay
down its arms.
Western defence sources said such problems threatened to slow the
withdrawal of Serb forces, which in any event is likely to take weeks rather
than days. The Serb field army is known to be desperately low on fuel after
Nato jets made great efforts to destroy Yugoslav fuel stocks and refining
facilities throughout Operation Allied Force.
Roads and, more important, bridges have also been attacked, raising
difficulties for the orderly withdrawal of what remains a substantial force
despite Nato's efforts to destroy it from the air. Nato estimates that there are
about 40,000 Serb security forces in Kosovo - 20,000 troops from the
Yugoslav army and a similar number of special police units and paramilitaries.
They are spread all over the province and as a result of the Nato air campaign
have adopted dispersed and concealed positions.
KLA activity is mainly on the western fringe of the province where it borders
Albania from where the KLA receives reinforcements, ammunition and
support. Around the town of Junik, the Yugoslav army is known to have
deployed a motorised brigade, a parachute brigade and elements of an
artillery brigade. Elements of each of these brigades have fought with KLA
guerrillas trying to establish a supply corridor into central Kosovo and are
dispersed under camouflage netting in well dug-in positions across the nearby
hills.
The warren of positions, bunkers and decoys built by the Serbs over the past
10 weeks would take some time to clear and it is here that problems can be
expected from the KLA. Thousands of newly trained guerrilla recruits have
been ready for weeks in Albania but have been kept back by heavy Serb
artillery.
If the Serbs move, this tide of KLA manpower will flow over the border, past
the villages of Batusha, Padesh and Kosare, where they have suffered
casualties in recent weeks, and down on to the plain near Junik. They would
try to link up with other forces who remain in the mountains in Kosovo.Nato
peacekeepers, still on the perimeter of the province, will be hard-pressed to
prevent the KLA forces from moving in.
Despite a will to fight on, there is a growing fear within KLA ranks that, under
a Nato-imposed peace, the rebels will lose their image as the vanguard of the
independence struggle. The KLA has given warning that Nato should not
ignore it. "If Nato enters Kosovo it will be impossible to be there without our
co-operation," said Jashar Salihu, the chief of the KLA's "Homeland Calling"
financial arm.
telegraph.co.
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