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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (82)	12/24/1998 9:00:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 178

Serbs Hit Albanian Stronghold Thursday, 24 December 1998 P O D U J E V O , Y U G O S L A V I A (AP) BRUSHING ASIDE NATO warnings, Serb tanks and troops struck an ethnic Albanian rebel stronghold Thursday in Kosovo, dealing a blow to U.S.-led efforts to bring peace to the troubled Serb province. NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told BBC-Television that the Serb offensive was a "clear violation" of a cease-fire agreed on by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in October to end eight months of fighting and avoid NATO airstrikes. At least one person was killed, and ethnic Albanians said several others were injured in what they said was an assault by Serb police and troops backed with tanks on six villages outside the town of Podujevo. Serb police, quoted by the government's Tanjug news agency, said they encountered "fierce fire" but "liquidated" several guerrillas in the rebel stronghold Lapastica. The operation was continuing Thursday night, they said. Serbian officials reportedly told international observers the action was a "limited operation" to find the killers of a Serb policeman slain on Monday. "Our police must continue to clamp down against the terrorists," said ultra-nationalist Serbian Vice Premier Vojislav Seselj, referring to the Kosovo Liberation Army. The KLA is fighting for independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians form 90 percent of the province's 2 million people. The province is in southern Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic. In a statement issued in the provincial capital Pristina, the KLA stopped short of ending its unilaterally declared cease-fire, but said the rebels would "not sit idly by" and instead would "attack with all means available." In neighboring Albania, the foreign ministry called for NATO to intervene to "end the Kosovo drama" and bring peace to the province. In October it took the threat of NATO airstrikes to push Milosevic to accept the cease-fire. The deal ended the worst of the fighting after a seven-month crackdown by Serb troops on separatists that left 1,000 dead and drove 300,000 from their homes. Thursday's action by Serb police and military struck six villages near Podujevo, 20 miles north of Pristina, according to the Kosovo Information Center, which is close to the ethnic Albanian leadership. An Associated Press Television News crew saw the body of one man killed by a shell in one of the villages, Glavnik. Ethnic Albanians said three others were injured in the blast and many more were injured in other villages under attack. Serb tanks entered Lapastica and several houses were set ablaze, the Kosovo Information Center said. Serb snipers were also firing at fleeing civilians, it said. Hundreds of ethnic Albanians fled the region on foot and in vehicles on snow-covered roads and hills around Podujevo. "I just had time to pick up my children and flee," said Shukrije Bashota, 28, from Lapastica. "I have nothing else with me." An elderly woman from Glavnik, who identified herself only as Cefzere, said Serb attackers "opened grenade fire at us even before our children were awake. We are in the mountains without bread. I don't know what we are going to do." Jorgen Grunnet, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Serb authorities had told the OSCE that the sweep was a "limited search operation." But Grunnet said the operation seemed more than "a normal police operation." He said convoys of Yugoslav army vehicles, including several Russian-built T-55 tanks, were seen leaving bases in Pristina and Podujevo early Thursday. They converged just west of Podujevo to launch the attack. The chief ethnic Albanian peace negotiator, Fehmi Agani, called the Serb operation a "very serious provocation" and a "a bold challenge to NATO," which had threatened airstrikes in October to halt the fighting. On Wednesday, State Department spokesman James Rubin warned against increasing violence, saying it could "spark a cycle of violence that would seriously undermine the cease-fire agreement." The American head of the OSCE verification force, William Walker, expressed frustration at the apparent lack of will for a peaceful settlement, saying "both sides have been looking for trouble and found it." Walker said the unarmed international verification force was ready to help "but we cannot go out there with arms to stop them if they want to kill each other."